The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art

Reader Reviews
First published in '74, Robinson's THE COMICS -an informal history of the newspaper comic strip- stands the test of Time better than most formal histories attempted in the years since. The book's format (no strip represented with more than one or two examples) allows Robinson the elbow room to go beyond simply recounting a chronological series of high points. Where the Bill Blackbeard anthologies concentrate on generous continuities of landmark strips (and these books are terrific as well), THE COMICS covers more terrain. All of the acknowledged Grand Masters are paid appropriate homage, but in addition, Robinson covers dozens of little-known or forgotten strips (Etta Kett, Willie Doodle, Rusty Riley), single gag-panels, and even a chapter on foreign comics to close out the book. His text is refreshingly down-to-earth and devoid of snobbery, yet always respectful of the various creators and always reverential to the form itself...no doubt due to Robinson being a toiler in the same vineyards himself (among others, the very funny CLASSROOM FLUBS & FLUFFS). He makes no claim for the book as an encyclopaedic reference work, yet this is as comprehensive and carefully-researched a history as you're likely to find, even a quarter-century later. Certainly they whip the tar out of the better-known Maurice Horn titles. Perhaps the best facet of THE COMICS is Robinson's uncanny knack for describing the various styles of the artists with startling accuracy in a sentence or two. Each of his analyses on the rendering techniques of McManus, Gould, McCay, et al, is a small revelation: quick, precise and dead-on. (A born cartoonist, even in prose form.)....


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