#Little lulu full

Their constantly shifting roles is one of the many great pleasures of the comic, as Stanley gradually builds them both up into enormously complex characters with rich inner lives and often conflicting desires.Īt this early point in the Stanley’s tenure on the comic, there are relatively few characters. An only child, Lulu’s constant companion was Tubby, her overweight neighbor who is, in a way, her everything: Classmate, best friend, confidant, rival, partner, victim, oppressor and love interest. Lulu Moppet is a typical little girl, although she appeared somewhat atypical when she first appeared, by virtue of being a girl (Young puts her in the proper context of a line of 20th century mischievous child protagonists, and Atwood referred to Lulu and friends as “bratty kids,” which were, of course, universally appealing to other bratty kids). That is, it’s a truly great work of comics-making genius, bearing a timeless, all-ages appeal that is only ever punctured by a minor detail here or there.

Aside from the occasional outdated reference-a coal chute on the side of the house, castor oil-there’s not much that actually dates the stories, and, in that respect, Stanley’s Little Lulu is not unlike Carl Barks’ Disney comics or Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. What will resonate with young readers-with all readers, really-are the comics themselves, which remain as fun, funny and vital today as they must have been when I was a kid in the 1980s, or when Atwood was reading them and trading them with her brother and friends in the 1940s. There’s also a thorough 14-page article by the volume’s co-editor Frank Young, in which he provides the history of the one-time silent cartoon character and her original creator Marjorie Henderson Buell, some biography of cartoonist John Stanley and how he inherited the character and made her his own in the pages of Dell comic books, and some rather thorough analysis of the stories that appear in this volume, much of which will likely, rightly fly over the heads of younger readers.

#Little lulu full

The 7.5-by-10-inch hardcover makes for a big book in fact, it’s a full inch thick! It includes a two-page introduction by author Margaret Atwood, who is probably best known for The Handmaid’s Tale and whose name is currently on a lot of lips because of its new sequel, The Testaments, but who was once an avid reader of Little Lulu, back when the comics were first being released and she herself was still in the target audience. Perhaps it would be more helpful to discuss the format. Stanley’s Little Lulu comics are undoubtedly perfect comics for kids, and they were originally created for kids…although this particular collection of them is rather obviously geared toward adults…although kids will still like it too, even if they don’t bother with all the prose content that comes before and after the 270-pages or so worth of comics. This new collection of John Stanley’s Little Lulu comics from the 1940s and 1950s is one of those relatively rare works that presents something of a challenge to one in the business or habit of recommending comics to kids.