Frank O. King (1883–1969)

Offhand, I can't think of a comic strip that made better use of the larger Sunday space than "Gasoline Alley", especially in the older days when select comics were given an entire page to themselves. "Pogo" came close, but it never had the whole page to work with as King did. "Little Nemo in Slumberland" was visually gorgeous, but often a chore to read. "Krazy Kat" and "Polly and her Pals" came pretty close, but the pleasure of seeing Skeezix grow over the years, and the love and devotion show more that Walt shows for him, put "Gasoline Alley" at the top of the Sunday strips for me. This book ranges from 1923 to 1925, when Skeezix was two to four years old. Here we see the autumn trips to the countryside, the long vacations out west in the early days of motoring, the hijinks of Skeezix as Walt is distracted by automotive chores, and the growing bond between the two that will last nearly a century now. Phyllis Blossom makes her first Sunday appearances here too. Great artwork, light and warm humor, occasional slapstick, and the best depiction of fatherly love I've seen in the comics. And thank goodness, Dark Horse is giving these reproductions the space they deserve, with a hefty 16 1/2 inch tall book. Not quite newspaper size, but close enough these days. show less

When one of my favorite strips ever got the "complete" re-publication treatment a few years ago, I noted with some disappointment that as ecstatic as I was, Drawn and Quarterly chose to start the strip run with 1921, the year that transformed the strip with Walt Wallet discovering the infant Skeezix in a basket on his front doorstep. Overlooked were the actual first two years of the strip, late 1918 through 1920. There must have been a groundswelling of similar reactions from readers, show more because the publishers have now rectified that omission.

"Gasoline Alley" began as a one-panel strip about the denizens of the Alley, where the men would house their beloved automobiles in garages and give them the daily loving care that was required in those early motoring days. It took a few months, but the Gasoline Alley gang eventually settled down to the familiar characters of the later strips in which Skeezix appeared. Nearly all the strips here centered around two passions of the day: cars and golf. Even here, though, Frank King showed glimpses of the genius he would display later as the creator of one of the longest and most moving, gently humorous family strips ever done. At this point, "Gasoline Alley" is a very well-done strip about cars, golf, and the men and their families who make up the immediate neighborhood. Even if Skeezix had never appeared, this would still have been a very well-received and critiqued strip. But that event, of course, changed the face of "Gasoline Alley" and, to an extent, of American comic strips in general. show less

Finally, somebody has started publishing the complete Sunday pages of one of my all-time favorite strips, "Gasoline Alley". This begins in 1920, with Walt and the Gasoline Alley gang working on their cars and taking their wives out on country drives (except for the confirmed bachelor Walt), and living in quiet domestic bliss for a couple of months, until a newborn baby is left on Walt's doorstep on Valentine's Day. From then on, the focus was on Walt and Skeezix, as he grew from a babe in show more swaddling clothes to a busy and mischievous toddler.

I'm ecstatic that Dark Horse has been generous with the size of this book (over 16" tall, nearly the size of a Sunday page). Frank King was the best at taking advantage of the extra real estate, and his Sunday pages eventually became gorgeous examples of the Sunday comic strip at its finest. The volume concludes at the end of 1922, a touching piece with a nostalgic Walt reminiscing with Skeezix how the last nearly two years has changed his life. show less

The saga continues into 1925 and 1926, with Skeezix turning 4 and 5. But the main drama here is the blossoming and maturation of the romance between Walt Wallet and Phyllis Blossom, finally culminating in their marriage. King is masterful in his pacing, mixing the suspense of Walt's courtship with the wonderful mundane charm of life in the Alley. It's also amazing to see the subtleness of Skeezix's growth from age 4 to 5 throughout the book, and I feel certain Lynn Johnston tok some artistic show more pointers from King's work for "For Better or For Worse", the only other strip I know of to so successfully and consistently age the characters at a natural rate. It's really too bad the the current executors of the strip have taken this concept to such an outlandish end, as the current "Gasoline Alley" strip has a relatively sharp and spry Walt Wallet who must be about 108 now, and Skeezix perhaps in his mid-80's. King's artwork is really coming along nicely here. His Sunday strips are justifiably raved about (by me, anyway), but his subtle artistic charm and competence shine through in these daily panels too. Particularly interesting are the several nightime courtship scenes between Walt and Phyllis, in which King is really able to stretch himself with his sunsets and moonlit nights. There is also a sumptuous preliminary article about Gasoline Alley collectibles, several of which I have been lucky enough to acquire and are pictured here. show less