Yes there are even more FRECKLES collections available from GOLDEN AGE REPRINTS, and these taken from the back pages of RED RYDER COMICS present some of the strips that appeared in the daily and Sunday edition of your local fave rave paper. Yes, live vicariously through these sagas and think about days long gone when comics like this were what every red-blooded suburban slob kid looked forward to after a hard day at stool, that oasis in a tough world where your parents expected you to study hard and grow up to be rich, and you did that only you never did buy 'em that million dollar house out of pure SPITE which is why they hate you even this late inna game!
These particular FRECKLES originally appeared in 1939-40 so we can see just what kind of comic it was at the time, and surprisingly enough by this time FRECKLES had developed into the teen comic that it would remain albeit they had yet to get to the daily gag version that I remember seeing as a mere zygote. All of the familiar teenage characters are here from Lard Smith (who actually is tubby though he loses weight if only so the sexoid Hilda would lower her drawbridge so to speak) and the Diltonesque Nutty, although the likes of kid brother Tag and his pal Ossie with the bulbous nose are still around, somewhat. The stories are in a rather melodramatic serio-comedy vein that the strip remained in at least until the fifties, with storylines ranging from Freckles and Lard writing a swing number that gets stolen after Nutty plays it on his shortwave radio to one where Dudley (a short-lived character who was more of a menacing Reggie type than Bazoo who had yet to appear) chases Freckles in his car and gets creamed by a truck. Unfortunately the guy lives, and that's only because Freckles has the same blood type and boy is Freckles mad!
I don't think teenbo living was ever like this back then and it certainly wasn't like this when I was a teen, but then again what reality do you see in programming these days? I happen to love these old-style strips for the realistic art (well, realistic next to those six-year-olds they have drawing comics these days!) and the sagas ain't that bad t'boot. The only thing that really gripes me about this collection is that the story where Lard goes on his diet is never resolved which is something that really woulda kept me up nights had I got this book age eight! Sheesh, the folk at Golden Age should at least waited until the next issue of RED RYDER was available before printing this because like, it ain't fair and we buy these books for more'n just looking at the pictures! Maybe another volume will come out but hey, if you know how this epic ended up howzbout sending me a line???
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