This week’s stack is a little shorter — just three comic books that aren’t related except that some of them were originally published about the time that the events in another were taking place.
Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books for review purposes. Affiliate links to Bookshop.org help support my writing and independent booksellers!
Little Lulu: Working Girl and Little Lulu: The Fuzzythingus Poopi by John Stanley
These two anthologies, each around 300 pages, collect the Little Lulu comics, originally published in the 1940s and 1950s. The character of Lulu was originated by Margaret Henderson Buell (thus the “Marge’s Little Lulu” headers) and was assigned to John Stanley about a decade later. Lulu is not afraid to speak her mind, and often gets into various kinds of trouble with her frenemy Tubby, a boy who just never seems to know when he’s wrong. She also babysits the horrible Alvin on occasion, and the only thing that seems to keep him peacefully occupied is telling him a story, so we get long, involved stories that Lulu makes up about herself. These aren’t comic strips, but were actually comic books — so we get longer stories, single-page gags, and some “Lulus Diry” pages written and illustrated by Lulu.
My daughter and I read through both volumes this past week, and they’re a lot of fun. There are certainly some stories that feel a little dated, either because of the language or the situations, but a lot of them have that same timeless quality as Peanuts of just kids being kids, in a time when they could just run about the neighborhood on their own. These two were published a few years ago, and there’s a third volume as well.
Bomb Graphic Novel written by Steven Sheinkin, illustrated by Nick Bertozzi
This graphic novel is adapted from Sheinkin’s non-fiction book for kids of the same title; the full title is Bomb: The Race to Build — and Steal — the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. With Oppenheimer in theaters now, the building of the atomic bomb is getting a lot of attention right now (along with, you know, Barbie). Sheinkin’s retelling covers some ground that I’m familiar with — the idea of nuclear fission, gathering scientists at Los Alamos, the Trinity test site, and the eventual bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — but also tells the story of how the Soviets managed to steal the plans for the bomb. He uses the FBI interrogation of Harry Gold as a framing story — as they question him about his involvement, we get flashbacks to the design and building of the bomb, and then eventually Gold’s own involvement in sneaking information to his Russian contact. Another notable story that’s included is about the Norwegians who sabotaged Hitler’s heavy water production, which delayed Germany’s plans to develop their own atomic bomb. It’s a lot of information in a small package, and Sheinkin and Bertozzi do a good job of introducing a lot of the important figures and showing the roles they played in these world-changing events.
My Current Stack
I’ve been continuing to read Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, which is very good but is also quite brutal. More on that when I finish!
