The new volume of the Eisner-nominated series, designed and edited by Chris Ware
This new volume, Walt and Skeezix 1933-1934, opens amid tough times, as the Depression grinds into its fourth year. Against this setting, a con artist sets up a storefront in town for Continental Corncob, a fictitious company established to dupe would-be investors. Somehow Walt Wallet and the Gasoline Alley gang are roped into the scheme, with the promise that they could earn steep returns if they purchase shares in the allegedly thriving company.
The lean economic climate motivates young Skeezix and his friends to find inventive ways to earn money, although not always with the intended results. For their first project, they create a local newspaper for the neighborhood kids but are forced to shut down after the corner printshop burns down. Later, they start an after-school delivery service on roller skates, but the new business folds after a rival undercuts their prices with a cheaper alternative.
Frank King was one of the pioneering masters of cartooning, and this ongoing series serves as a fascinating historical document of early- to mid-twentieth-century American life. Edited and designed by Chris Ware (Building Stories, Monograph) and featuring an introduction by the comics historian Jeet Heer (The New Republic), this new volume also includes never-before-seen photographs and rare archival documents from the private collection of the King family.
About the Author: One of the pioneering giants of American comic strips, Frank King was born in Cashton, Wisconsin, in 1883. He joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune in 1909. Almost from the start of his career, King's cartoons were frequently featured on the front page of the paper. He made his lasting mark in 1919 by creating Gasoline Alley, which became one of the most widely syndicated and read strips in North America until King's death in 1969.
Cartoonist/designer Chris Ware is the author of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Quimby the Mouse, and the ACME Novelty Datebook. Ware was born in 1967, two years before Frank King's death.
