Ripley's Believe It or Not!: The Original Classic Cartoons, Volume 1

by Ripley Entertainment Inc.

Odditoriums are among the most popular attractions worldwide, yet most people don't know that it all started with a daily cartoon drawn by one man - Robert Ripley. Originally a sports cartoonist, Ripley developed Believe It or Not! in the 1920s. By the end of the decade, the series had become a phenomenal hit. In an era when few people traveled outside their own home town, let alone out of the country, Ripley became a globetrotter, seeking stories of bizarre and unusual proportion to put in his internationally-known feature. The cartoons were adapted into radio and television programs, and helped make Ripley the highest paid cartoonist in the world. This series begins a chronological reprinting of Ripley's famous daily cartoons in hardcover collections, reminding us that first and foremost Robert Ripley - explorer, radio, movie, and television personality, entrepreneur and museum impresario - was an astounding artist-cartoonist. The first volume reprises cartoons from 1929 and 1930, when Ripley's fame raised him from relative obscurity to international celebrity, and includes bonus and background material from Ripley's impressive archives.

Genres: Comics

328 pages, Hardcover

First published July 29, 2014

About the author

The Official Goodreads page of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!—where seeing is believing and it’s rude not to stare!

Reviews

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully bound long-wise "hamburger orientation" style; shows two one-panel cartoons on each page, all clear and readable so you can still discover tidbits like "St. Patrick was not an Irishman and his name was not Patrick!" and "The word 'noise' in Japanese is written with three characters representing women!" I am a fan of the exclamation point and it is everywhere here. Yes!

The cartoons are Ripley's dailies from 1929 (the year he started) to 1930. This is apparently Vol. 1 out of I don't know how many; I'm stoked for more to come out.

[MKF · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have always loved reading about weird stuff so my childhood library included vintage Ripley's. As a kid these comics are fascinating but as you grow and learn more they're not that great. I eventually traded my Ripley's for Charles Fort who is definitely a better writer on all things that are strange and wonderful.
These comics are supposed to be bizarre or amazing instead the majority are boring and mundane. Some are just basic facts found in any fact book and thrown in to fill up space on the page. Then there are facts that are just so obvious that I'm surprised people wouldn't know them. The comics haven't aged well since a lot of the facts are a bit dated and many of them have now been proven wrong. Even the facts with record breaking things have long since been broken inmore recent years.
The art for the facts aren't bad but after a while you'll realize that there are a few times when an image has been reused. Sometimes the reused image is slightly altered and makes you feel like you've seen it before.
Flaws in the book is that on a few of the reprinted pages the text is small and difficult to read.
If you like facts especially lesser known ones that are a bit weird then you may like this book.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing, my memory of Ripley's cartoons was they were much better than what was here, but I blame this on the fact that I found the cartoons were dated and some of the facts have since been disproved/beaten.
It is sad when the things you recall from your childhood are not as good as you remember.