Review: Interesting artifact from a bygone era
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 28, 2013
It can be fun to browse old comic strips, but it's not much fun if they are ragged, faded, and sometimes microfilmed shadows of their former selves. Ms. Lansing has restored some of these old Jiggs and Maggie strips: I'm not sure exactly what the process was (redrawing? tracing? computer enhancement?) but they definitely look good. I dimly remember Jiggs and Maggie from my long-ago childhood, and the strip was pretty dated in the 1940's (I was astonished to learn on wikipedia that it was still being published until 2000). These strips are from about 1920, and while there are still a few chuckles, this is mostly interesting as an example of what people thought was funny in those days. Threats of violence (and actual violence) are pervasive: one "joke" involves an effeminate man being beaten so savagely by Jiggs that he has to be taken to a hospital by ambulance! The strip had only a few characters and a few stock gags, but McManus's clever artistic compositions make it worthwhile, and they are well-reproduced here. This contains 25 4-panel strips; I got it on a day when it was free, not sure it's worth three bucks, but your mileage may vary.