Superb insight into the history of comics. ( )

This was a Christmas gift from my friend of fine vintage, Bob Rudolph, and a fine selection it was. This is a collection of essays and artwork about the amazing collection from the Comic Art collection of the Library of Congress. Much of it was from the donated collection of Arthur Wood, who has moved high up on my list of most-envied personages. Art Wood, as a youth, used to haunt the hangouts of the comic artists of his day and the syndicates, at first rescuing original art that, in those days, the syndicates used to throw away to make new storage space, and then obtaining free original artwork by hanging out with the artists and writing them for drawings. In this way he built up an immense collection of the likes of Ham Fisher, Charles Dana Gibson, Harrison Cady, James Montgomery Flagg, Alex Raymond, George Herriman, and a host of others. The book is arranged by topics, such as the history of cartooning, women in cartooning, cartooning and race, cartoons of 9/11, and many chapters devoted to particular cartooning greats. Each chapter is written by a different guest author, many of whom are known to me, and all are well-written and interesting. I would have made the book a bit less of a catch-all, joining together as it does newspaper comic strips, political cartoons, animation, and comic books. But the book is sumptuous enough to not leave the reader feeling shortchanged, and above all is the lovely draw of the original artwork, much of it by my favorite comic strip and carttoning creators. Thanks, Bob. ( )