MR. TWEE DEEDLE: RAGGEDY ANN'S SPRIGHTLY COUSIN- THE FORGOTTEN FANTASY MASTERPIECES OF JOHNNY GRUELLE (Fantagraphics, 2012; Hardcover)
Collects
Mr.
Twee Deedle
newspaper strips from 1911-1918
Writer
and Artist:
Johnny Gruelle
Long
has this book haunted my dreams, from the time that it was announced
back in 2010 to the time that it was released. Then I saw the price
tag...a MSRP of $75 for a 128 page book? Egads, surely they must
be insane, I thought. Then I saw a copy in a store and saw that
this book was frickin' huge, measuring 14 inches by 18 inches
(That's 35.56 centimeters by 45.72 centimeters for readers in the
non-English measuring unit world outside of the United States,
Liberia, and Myanmar...and, mostly, England). Still, there was no way
that I could justify spending 75 bucks on this book, so I passed on
it...but it still haunted my dreams. Lo, the many sleepless nights,
fitfully tossing and turning and counting the ceiling fan blade
rotations with visions of Mr. Twee Deedle dancing through my head.
Praised be Fantagraphics for their Memorial Day sale. I was one of the
lucky ones who was home when the email first went out and got their
order in at the nanosecond that the sale started for 75 percent off
of cover price! Woo hoo! Twee Deedle would be mine!
I
finally got around to reading it, and I tore through it fairly
quickly. There is a lengthy introduction which does a superb job of
putting this strip, as well as all of the work of Johnny Gruelle, in
proper historical context. It's mindblowing to think of people
sitting around reading this a hundred years ago. Comics are still a
relatively young artform, but 100 years seems like a long time to me.
I
have always been a sucker for Americana. When I was a child I always
used to check out Beatrix Potter books from from the library. I have
always loved oil based paintings found in old children's books, and
Mr. Twee Deedle is rooted in that same pastoral Victorian
English artistic sensibility. The sense of awe and wonderment of
those Beatrix Potter books is present in every strip. Mr. Twee Deedle
is a magical sprite-like creature, who uses his powers to shrink
himself and the children, Dickie and Dolly, to go on adventures as
well as gently teach adults lessons.
This
strip bleeds charm. It is quaint and old-fashioned. It reads okay in
its own right but is more enjoyable when you think of just how old
and obscure this stuff is. I read some of it to my four year old
daughter and she liked it for three strips. Then she got up and
walked away. Children, with their home computers and surround sound
television, no longer have a need for Mr. Twee Deedle.
(Special No-prize offer to the first reader who can tell me where
I stole that last line from. Use the comments section below, and NO
GOOGLING!! Limit one No-prize per household. No purchase
necessary. Offer void where No-prizes are taxed or otherwise
restricted. Many will enter, few will win.)
The
pre-Mr. Twee Deedle strips collected, such as Bud Smith
from 1908, are virtually unreadable. The gags are completely unfunny
and the strips completely uninteresting except for historical
interest.
This is as much a Johnny Gruelle artbook as it is a collected edition. Here's a breakdown of what this book contains: A 21 page illustration heavy introduction which features full page reproductions of the Raggedy Ann patent office filing, the January 29, 1911 New York Herald page which announced Mr. Twee Deedle with illustrations and John B. Gruelle's written introduction to the character and his world, and the April 20, 1911 New York Herald page featuring the public's reaction to the character. Could this be the very first “letters page” dedicated to a character? Serious comic historians could answer this more ably than I. Also featured during the course of this lengthy introduction is the full page July 12, 1914 strip, presented in it's original size without any restoration, like the other two featured in this introduction. Yellowed, flaked, and creased, it makes me appreciate the work that the restoration team did on the rest of the book.
There
is an Early Years Art Portfolio, showing caricatures,
political cartoons, and Gruelle's famous “bird's-eye view” of
rural dystopia pages. (4 pages) World Color Printing Company
Sunday Pages, with multiple pre-Mr. Twee Deedle strips
like Handy Andy and Bud Smith The Boy Who Does Stunts.
(10 pages) Early Book Illustration: 1911-1921, collecting work
done for Brother Grimm storybooks. These were all brilliant. (8
pages)
Mr. Twee Deedle Part One- These are brilliantly illustrated and charming to read. Easily my favorite period. My OCD flared up like a pack of hemorrhoids upon the realization that there were no original publication dates provided for each strip, only the original copyright date as stamped upon the printed product. Worse still, they are printed out of original publication order, an OCD blasphemy if ever there were one! The breakdown for this section is as follows: Two strips from 1910, 34 from 1911, and two from 1912. All are full page strips.
Nine
more pages of Gruelle's “bird's-eye view” drawings/strips.
Mr.
Twee Deedle Part Two- The format morphed from comic strip with
word balloons to picture story form, with text found below each
picture. This was not uncommon in strips as varied as Prince
Valiant and Flash Gordon, among others. Most of these were
black and white, although some of the later strips were also
two-color (as opposed to four-color printing found in the earlier
strips). Things were more whimsical and fantastical in the later
strips. I found the introduction of the Scarecrow and the
Scarecrowess, obvious precursors to Raggedy Ann and Andy, to be
utterly fascinating. Here is the breakdown for the strips collected
in this section: Two strips from 1912, 10 from 1914, two from 1915,
12 from 1916, six from 1917, and seven from 1918. Also of interest is
the cover of one two hardcover reprint books from 1918. Could these
be the earliest collected editions? The mind boggles.
So
while my completist OCD wants to read every strip in order of
original publication, the realist in me fears that these strips no
longer exist in any form. In short, I fear that the bulk of the Mr.
Twee Deedle strips have been lost to the mists of time, and that
is a damn shame.
There
are two post-Mr. Twee Deedle strips, titled Brutus,
also reprinted after the main course, one from 1929 and the other
from 1930. They are mind-numbingly dull, and it is hard to believe
that the same genius created them.
 |
| The Scarecrow and the Scarecrowess, whose appearance is similar to characters that would make Johnny Gruelle famous: Raggedy Ann and Andy. |
While I enjoyed reading the non-Mr. Twee Deedle strips as a historical curiosity item, I cannot call them great or even good. The artwork is nice, and the stories are pleasant enough, but that's about it. Rating is based on my enjoyment of the Mr. Twee Deedle strips and presentation of the book, which is superb.
Junk
Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.
The
OCD zone- This book is a difficult read because of its unwieldy
size. It is too large and awkwardly heavy to hold at five pounds. It
lays flat and can be read on a bed or table, but you must do a
forward fold to really study the top of the page. The material was
presented in the size of the original Sunday pages. The only possible
solution that I could come up with would be to cut the strips in half
like Titan's Flash Gordon Sunday strip books. Still, there
would be a few problems with even this approach, as the earliest
strips shown in the introduction were full page, single frame shots,
as well as the bird's-eye view full page illustrations. So you see,
there is no perfect solution. I advise practicing your yoga,
especially forward folds to limber up for reading this book.
DVD-style
Extras included in this book: Too hard to
categorize. See breakdown in the review section.
Linework
and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. The restoration
techniques used in this book are covered in detail on the Rosebud
Archives website. They demonstrate how they don't recolor the scanned
pages, only remove the yellow and use photoshop only to eliminate
line bleed, off register printing where the colors seep outside of
the lines, and replace portions of color which have flaked off due to
age. There are many schools of thought as to which technique is best
(warts and all scans, full blown frame up restoration completely
recolored to match the original color palette, the hybrid approach
used by Hermes Press, so on and so forth). I can't pick a favorite,
and am I glad that I don't have to. I can appreciate the benefits,
drawbacks, and limitations of all of the various restoration methods
found in these collected editions. A hearty thank you to those who
dedicate their time and life to the craft of preserving the integrity
and history of the artform.
Paper
rating: 5 out of 5. This has to be the thickest paper that I have
ever seen used on a collected edition. Beautiful, thick uncoated
stock with zero sheen under any light source. Believe me, I've tried.
I use different bulbs in different rooms for science experiments such
as this. Incandescent, CFL, LED, Halogen, and natural sunlight are
all in use in my house.
Binding
rating: 5 out of 5. Sewn binding with sufficient case for the
book block to flex and lay perfectly flat, an absolute must for a
book as unwieldy as this tome.
Hardback
cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. Fantagraphics books are as much
works of art as much as they are art books. No expense is spared, no
artsy design is cut in favor of cost. Case in point the cover of this
book. This book's cover looks and feels like some 100 year old book.
Again, Fantagraphics could have gone for the cheap but, as usual,
they didn't. Props to them for making physical media something of
value.
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