At Comixology, the pros and cons of “Little Lulu” are discussed, with excellent insights, by Shaenon K. Garrity. (Link via The Beat.)
Garrity has an on-the-nose observation of the difference between the world in which “Little Lulu” was written, and the world of today:
The kids in Little Lulu have the kind of freedom modern middle-class American kids can hardly imagine: they have the run of the town, they play in the woods unsupervised, they pick up stray dogs and skate on thin ice and run errands for local shopkeeps that take them into the homes of friendly strangers. In one story, Lulu and Tubby play mountain climber and scale the outside of a brownstone with ropes tied around their waists. In another, Tubby teaches the West Side Gang “riding the pookle,” which involves swimming for miles through an underground drainage pipe. (It’s a ruse, of course; you know Tubby.) Kids today could never do anything remotely this dangerous. And if they did, you couldn’t draw a comic about it. The Scholastic Book Club would have your ass on a platter.
Garrity also notes the repetitiveness of the “Lulu” formula, which was perfect for an age where comics were bought, read, and thrown out. It’s a little harder to take reading 19 straight volumes of the stuff, but Garrity still rightly praises Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson for following through on the reprint project.
– Matt Price