Funnybooks is the story of the most popular American comic books of the 1940s and 1950s; those published under the Dell label. For a time; "Dell Comics Are Good Comics" was more than a sloganmdash;it was a simple statement of fact. Many of the stories written and drawn by people like Carl Barks (Donald Duck; Uncle Scrooge); John Stanley (Little Lulu); and Walt Kelly (Pogo) repay reading and rereading by educated adults even today; decades after they were published as disposable entertainment for children. Such triumphs were improbable; to say the least; because midcentury comics were so widely dismissed as trash by angry parents; indignant librarians; and even many of the people who published them. It was all but miraculous that a few great cartoonists were able to look past that nearly universal scorn and grasp the artistic potential of their medium. With clarity and enthusiasm; Barrier explains what made the best stories in the Dell comic books so special. He deftly turns a complex and detailed history into an expressive narrative sure to appeal to an audience beyond scholars and historians.
2014-10-22 2014-10-22File Name: B00OSTEEN8
Review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Reviews that matterBy WRLThe title "When Movies Mattered" could be a jab at current films; or maybe its just a way of justifying a collection of reviews from three to four decades ago. Do those movies still matter? This collection of reviews will help you decide. In an average of four pages per review; Dave Kehr dissects not only a movie but also the factors that went into making the film and any ties to related films or film makers.The magic is that he does this without pontificating. Which makes for reviews that are as easy to digest as they are fresh and informative. Dave Kehr; noted for his independence; manages to spark a kind of curiosity that plays better after all these years than; say; the quirkiness of Pauline Kael; who was reviewing for the New Yorker at the time the reviews in this collection were written.Do these old reviews still matter? Surprisingly little is stale in these pages even after all this time; as long as you care about what makes for a good film and what detracts from one. If youre ever tempted to sign up for a film class; see if Dave Kehrs teaching one. And if not; we at least have this book.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. IndespensableBy Michael DempseyAs anyone knows who has read either this book or his New York Times DVD column; Dave Kehr is a deeply learned critic of movies and their makers. Whether or not one agrees with his assessment of this or that movie or filmmaker; one never fails to learn some new perspective on filmmaking in general as well as his particular subject. If you care about real filmmaking subjects and ideas (which doesnt mean celebrity fluff; gossip; the Oscars; and the whole Hollywood game; though Hollywood has produced large numbers of wonderful; often unsung movies that Dave Kehr analyzes incisively); you should get busy reading this book -- and I mean right now. Anyone who has already read it should read it again...and again...10 of 13 people found the following review helpful. When reviews matteredBy Hande ZDave Kehr compiled a selection of the movie reviews he wrote for the "Chicago Reader" and the "Chicago Tribune" between 1974 and 1986; a period he described as spawning the film generation and the alternative press. He believes that the internets takeover of the alternative press has changed the way reviewers write about movies. Contemporary reviews in mainstream press still publish reviews in the reflective; intellectual style in the vein of Kehrs work; but movie reviews in the internet age have little time for the study of the movie; let alone for reflection and composition. Some of the movies reviewed and collected here were serious documentaries or semi-documentaries - "Blaise Pascal" and "The Memory of Justice"; but one need only read his review of "Dawn of the Dead" to appreciate how a movie that might be dismissed; if reviewed by todays reviewers as "mindless"; brings to life a film that was about the dead idea of zombies. In "The Memory of Justice"; a film about the Nuremberg trials; Kehr asked; "Should all all Americans who didnt resist Vietnam share in the guilt of the Germans who didnt resist the Nazis? If everyone is guilty; then everyone is innocent; and there is no justice in that." Are movies no longer made the way they were or have the movie goers taste change so drastically in this new century to keep in line with the pace - rapid; vapid pace - of life? Or are we seeing the last of a breed of Kehrian reviewers? Dont watch another movie or read another review until youve read at least one review from this book.
