Alley Oop: The Sawalla Chronicles

by V.T. Hamlin, Herb Galewitz (Introduction)

Book by V.T. Hamlin

80 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1983

Reviews

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I read is the new reprint by Acoustic Learning (ISBN 9781936412174) which came out in 2022, not the above book. The ISBN of the new book is not coming up in goodreads' database and I'm unable to create a new book thanks to goodreads' recent "upgrade" which, spoiler alert, does not make for a better user experience. Anyway this is really more mindless 1930's era comic-strip fun, laugh-out-loud funny at times but mostly, too me, just relaxing, lazy reading. I read this 112 page book over the course of a month or two, 3-4 pages at a time, almost all of it in bed before turning off the light and hopefully going to sleep.

It puts your mind at ease, pal.

Great stuff. Although w/the Sawalla story line we now have 3 obstreperous and muddle-headed kings to keep track of: King Guzzle of Moo, King Wur of Sawalla and back for a return engagement, King Tunk of Lem! Gets a little confusing at times, especially when one is half-asleep anyway.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A serviceable little collection from the 3rd year of the classic strip, when Hamlin first started telling longer stories. This collection begins with Oop losing his pet Dinny, and ends with a journey to the kingdom of Sawalla, whose king has designs on Oop and Oola. The tales are charming, and Hamlin's line-work is brilliant--especially his detailed depictions of the various dinosaurs and other flora and fauna. The only problems with the book are that the reproduction is not great, and that the strips are inexplicably broken up from their tiers and laid out as if the book were a comic and not a strip collection, which is very distracting. But early ALLEY OOP is not easy to find, and this slim volume belongs in any serious strip collection.

[Jack Avery]

You really can't go wrong with reprints of V.T. Hamlin. This is the early caveman era, so no time travel adventures.

[Trey Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun little read with art that is detailed and simple at the same time. Imagine Popeye as a caveman and you have this book