Barnaby, Vol. 3: 1946-1947

Barnaby #3

by Crockett Johnson

The long-lost comic strip masterpiece by legendary children’s book author Crockett Johnson (Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Carrot Seed), collected in full and designed by graphic novelist and Barnaby superfan Daniel Clowes (Ghost World). Volume Three collects the postwar years of 1946–1947, continuing five-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his Fairy Godfather J.J. O’Malley’s misadventures. Bumbling but endearing, Mr. O’Malley rarely gets his magic to work—even when he consults his Fairy Godfather’s Handy Pocket Guide. The true magic of Barnaby resides in its canny mix of fantasy and satire, amplified by the understated elegance of Crockett Johnson’s clean, spare art. In its combination of Johnson’s sly wit and O’Malley’s amiable windbaggery, a child’s feeling of wonder and an adult’s wariness, highly literate jokes and a keen eye for the ridiculous, Barnaby expanded our sense of what comics can do. This volume also features essays by comics historians Charles Hatfield and Coulton Waugh, as well as Johnson biographer Philip Nel. Black and white with over 50 pages of color.

Genres: Humor, Comics

376 pages, Hardcover

First published April 20, 2015

About the author

Crockett Johnson was the pen name of the American cartoonist and children's book illustrator David Johnson Leisk. He is best known for the comic strip Barnaby (1942–1952) and the Harold series of books beginning with Harold and the Purple Crayon. [From Wikipedia.]

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the first time I ever encountered Barnaby was in The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Blackbeard and Williams. I couldn't have been more than about ten or so, but I was struck by the spare beauty of Johnson’s artwork, and fell in love with the characters. I dreamed of someday being able to read the entire run of the strip. I was elated when, during the 80's, Del Rey began releasing Barnaby paperbacks. Alas, the series died at volume 6, due to poor sales. But now the fine folk at Fantagraphics are having a go at it, giving the series a proper hardcover treatment, and, with this most recent volume, they’ve passed the point where the Del Rey books left off. Looks as though my childhood dreams are finally coming true (Note To All Publishers: Between this series and IDW’s Dick Tracy hardcovers, my finances are stretched a bit thin keeping up, so, please, no more of my childhood dream series until one or both of these are complete, okay? Thanks!)

In this volume, the strip gets handed over to Ted Ferro and Jack Morley for about a year, ostensibly under Johnson’s supervision. Philip Nel’s Afterword, “Escape Artist?” reveals that Johnson was busy with other work--developing a Barnaby musical, for one thing. The transition between the teams is so smooth that I didn't even notice at first. It wasn't until Ferro and Morley began signing their full names instead of their initials that I picked up on it. Johnson eventually took back the writing reins in September of ‘47, but Morley continued to draw it until the strip ended in 1952--still a volume or three in this reprint series’ future.

One teaser I’ll throw out there: If any readers have ever wondered what the invisible leprechaun, McSnoyd, actually looks like, well, you’ll definitely want to check out this volume. Barnaby is one of my all-time favorite comic strips. Highly recommended!

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

With this volume, Crockett Johnson steps back from the daily grind of the comic strip for a while, bringing on writer Ted Ferro and artist Jack Morley to take over the strip. The reduction in quality is fairly slight as Barnaby and O'Malley keep on keeping on. Many of the topics touched on in the post-World War II era of the strip are still relevant today, with storylines about housing shortages, school board activists, nuclear brinkmanship, and border disputes. But there are also some lighter bits with baseball, a dog show, and a romantic courtship à la Cyrano de Bergerac.

I'm looking forward to the next volume where Johnson gets more involved with the strip again.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barnaby is one of my favorite comic strips. I wasn't around when the strip first appeared in newspapers in the 1940's but I did read some of it in the 1960's when it was reprinted in the Boston Globe.

I didn't find this third volume of the collected Barnaby comic strips quite as good as the first two but I'm not sure why. It might have something to do with the issues that come up in this one; for one example, it's hard to make nuclear warfare really funny (unless you're Stanley Kubrick). Other sequences seem a little tired: the Cyrano at the beach one in particular. Also, it's seems like Jane Shultz (one of my favorite Barnaby characters) has a very small part in this book.

One large factor that definitely effected Barnaby is that in 1946, Crockett Johnson, who had been doing both the writing and the drawing of Barnaby, turned the strip over to Ted Ferro and Jack Morley. Morley took over the artwork and Ferro did the writing. In September, 1947, Johnson resumed the writing while Morley continued doing the drawing.

Some sequences in this book are very good. The dog show sequence is especially funny (and I like it partly because Gorgon, the talking dog, is another of my favorite members of the Barnaby cast).

As always, many of the sequences make reference to what were then topical subjects. Radio quiz show broadcasts, post-war shortages in housing and certain products, atomic energy, the United Nations, and the possibility of the United States soon entering another war are all included.

Once again, the notes by Philip Nel in the back of the book explain some references that might be obscure. (One that seems to have eluded the editor is "Wynngold Films." The notes say " 'Wynngold' would be pronounced 'win gold,' suggesting that profit is the company's raison d'être." That's correct, but he seems to miss the fact that "Wynngold" is a variation of "Goldwyn," one of the most important film studios of that time.)

Philip Nel also has a long essay as an afterword, "Escape Artist?" This is a wide-ranging discussion of, among other things, Crockett Johnson, the development of this comic strip, and a failed attempt to turn Barnaby into a play. This is informative and very interesting. (I don't understand Nel's writing that Barnaby's "graphic style" of "flat, concrete minimalism" "strips everything down to the esssentials" and then listing George McManus [creator of Bringing Up Father] as a similar artist. McManus certainly didn't have a style of "concrete minimalism.")

Also in the back of the book is a flat-out rave about Barnaby by Coulton Waugh, excerpted from Waugh's 1947 book The Comics.

One last thought: Waugh's praise includes a quote from one of the most important Barnaby characters, Gus the ghost: "And one is expected to keep a clean, white appearance, mind you." Pretty much sine qua non for ghosts, I would say. So why in the picture on the cover of this book is Gus colored blue?

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A riot of imagination in this volume of the old Barnaby strips. I believe these are far better than those in volume 4. I know at one point Crockett turned the series over to to others so he could concentrate on movies, and art.

[Mike Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went to Fantagraphics books in Seattle and got some funny books. This is a comic strip from the 1940s about a boy and his cigar smoking, Irish fairy godfather. very clever. By the author of Harold and the Purple Crayon.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's no comic-strip quite like Barnaby - it's precise, mid-century modern visual style or its tightrope-walking blend of literary panache, progressive satire and childlike fantasy.

[Todd Glaeser · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it becomes obvious when Johnson isn’t writing ( O’Malley isn’t as verbose,) it’s not awful.