Brian Walker (1) (1952–)

A sumptuous look at the world of "Doonesbury" by Brian Walker, who is a lot better comic historian than a cartoonist. There are segments on the creation of the strip, its early history, public reaction, the reclusive author, merchandising, the hiatus, contributions by the inker, letterer and colorist, the animated special and the Broadway play, and interviews with Trudeau. Much of this I was already aware of (been an avid fan for over 40 years), but I was not aware of most of the show more merchandising portrayed herein, which set my avarice gland pumping. I have got to find some of the posters with the Doonesbury denizens, done in the style of the old jazz and travel posters of bygone days. A very fun book for the fan; a bit too much for anyone else. show less

A sumptuous combination of Brian Walker's two comic strip references, "the comics before 1945" and "the comics after 1945". Walker is a better comic historian than comic strip creator; this is one of the better illustrated and annotated comic strip references I've seen. The preponderance here is toward the examples of comic strip art. The text is less comprehensive than you'd expect for a book this size (668 pages and about 13" high), but that's fine. It's nicely organized, and I've plenty show more of other references that are heavy on the text. A nice basic reference for the budding comic strip historian. show less

Living in my part of the world makes finding the cartoon Hi and Lois a little difficult to find at times. However, I had to jump at the opportunity of reading this wonderfully put together collection of the Sunday Best featuring the whole Hi and Lois gang.

This book is softcover measuring 11 inches X 8.5 approx. There are a total of 128 pages and almost each page (with the exception of the first few pages which consists more of an intro to the strip) features the beautifully color drawn show more strips that we found at one time or another in the Sunday papers. Each page is numbered and while it is true that the individual creation/publication dates are not indicated, you can easily see the evolution of the drawings which made it fun for me as I like to see the development of the artist as he grows with his medium.

Also, this strip is such fun to read. It is innocent and brings me back to earlier in my life when I was a child and things always seemed so much simpler. Trixie and her love of the sunbeam - so sweet and beautiful. I also love the "thoughts" that run through her little head - always wondering, always discovering - it is heartwarming. Of course, I also love Dawg....

This strip has an innocence that touches me deeply and this collection is beautiful show less

What a wonderful book. I learned so much about the history of early comics. It's a keeper.