Walt and Skeezix : 1931-1932
(Book)

Introduction by Jeet Heer, endnotes by Tim Samuelson.

The Gasoline Alley gang enters a new decade with this volume: Skeezix moves from childhood to early adolescence and the high spirits of the 1920s give way to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Walt and Phyllis Wallet travel to England, an extended tour that echoes the real-life journey taken by the cartoonist Frank King and his family in the late 1920s. While his parents are away, Skeezix tries to solve the mystery of an arsonist. Now entering his teens, he comes to the fore of the strip as an adventurous boy surrounded by a gang of like-minded pals, and Gasoline Alley becomes an influential pillar of teenage culture, soon to be widely imitated in Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland films as well as in Archie comics. Designed and edited by Chris Ware (Building Stories), this sixth volume of Walt and Skeezix is a celebration of and an homage to American middle-class life in the early twentieth century. An introductory essay from the comics historian Jeet Heer (In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly's Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman), historical appendixes from the Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson, and tons of extras make this book a dream come true for Gasoline Alley fans.