Alley Oop, Vol. 3: First Trip to the Moon

Alley Oop (Kitchen Sink Reprint) #3

by V.T. Hamlin

This book collects the 1948-1949 dailies which involve a trip to the Moon, battles with the Saucer People, a Shaman, war on prehistoric earth, singing dinosaurs, and modern-day Florida pirates. Kitchen Sink lays this out in an oblong format that allows the strips to be really rather large -- only two days per page. The context for this run of the strip, complete with quotes from creator Hamlin, is provided in 17 introductory pages of prose and graphics. 221 pp; 1.75 pounds.

244 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially a four star book with a one star editorial decision so dick-headed that it baffles credulity and makes the book less than it should be. First, let’s make clear that the comic strips reprinted herein are a delight all the way through. The stories are imaginative, fun, and very easy to like. This too-short reprint series from Kitchen Sink Press deserved more support. The entire run of the strip by V. T. Hamlin should be available.

The problem is that the Oop Sunday pages were not usually in continuity with the daily strips, except when they occasionally were. Kitchen Sink did not reprint the Sunday adventures and it did not matter in the first two volumes. This is the third volume when it does matter briefly. Kitchen Sink could do one of four things. The Sundays that continue the daily continuity could have been, and I here give the possibilities in order of best to worst idea, printed in sequence after the Saturday dailies that proceed them. The Sunday pages could have been put in the back of the book with a note below the Saturday strips to turn to the correct page to view the Sunday strip. An introduction might have preceded the first strip explaining the Sunday pages and informing readers that after reading page X they should turn to page Y for the next page of continuity, then turn back to page Z for the daily that follows. They could just print the strips in the back of the book, but not informed readers that they did so until after the readers read the last daily. This forces readers to read the Sunday pages out of continuity and this is what Kitchen Sink did. The worst choice would have been not to print the Sunday at all, so we might be grateful for small favors, but it is a small favor indeed to give us the worst other option.

Buy the book. Read it. Enjoy it, but enjoy it much more by figuring out when and where to read the Sunday pages, then turn the pages back and forth to see in all in the correct order.

This really was badly done, Dennis.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was somewhat disappointing, for content and for editorial reasons. First off, content-wise, these aren't the best Oop continuities. Ooola's flirtation with and use of Pokababa (prince of Lem, and weirdly hippie-looking for 1948) against Oop hasn't exactly dated well (well, a lot of Hamlin's sexual politics haven't), and it just seems weakly-plotted. For instance, at one point Hamlin pretty clearly seemed to be developing some sort of plot involving a plot between King Wur and his daughter Zee, but that disappears without a trace. The stuff with the dinosaur that has swallowed a radio is kind of amusing, as long as you don't think too hard about how a radio in ancient Moo is receiving a radio signal. The Moon trip plot, also seems flabbily-plotted (there's a whole rival rocketeer sequence that doesn't really go anywhere; and the aliens just disappear for no reason--maybe that storyline continues eventually, but here it feels abandoned) and isn't particularly exciting--surprisingly. The real irritant, though, is the bizarre editorial decision involving the Sunday stripe.For the Moon sequence, Hamlin uncharacteristically integrated the dailies and the Sundays--which this book does not tell us has happened. It would have been easy to mention it in the introduction, or when we get to the part of the book where the integration begins, to direct readers to the relevant back pages to find the appropriate missing Sunday strip. Neither of these things is done. The worst, though, is that the book does not even reprint ALL of the Sunday strips in question, an incomprehensible decision. Hamlin remains one of the great underrated cartoonists, and there is a lot of nice, dynamic work here, but it does not succeed as a book, or as an example of Hamlin's prime.