Lulu Takes a Trip (Little Lulu, Vol. 5)
The second helping (afterLulu Goes Shopping[BKL F 15 05]) of the classic comic bookLittle Luluhas two flaws. Two pages appear out of sequence (America's librarians cluck: "That's what happens without pagination"). But they aren't radically displaced, and in any event, every Lulu story by Stanley is indispensable to comics history.Little Lulu, you see, is the font of the everyday in comics. What's more quotidian than the bedrock of this evergreen--kids playing? Even at its most fanciful, when Lulu tells stories to nagging little Alvin, Stanley's masterpiece stays within the bounds of a smart child's ordinary knowledge. Furthermore, Lulu and friends' manners among themselves and beyond adult oversight are utterly natural: after a pretty good story, Lulu asks Alvin what he thinks of it; he nonchalantly blurts out, "Not so hot." Away from TV (Lulu here is pre-tube), maybe kids, even bigger ones, are still this intelligently innocent. Or so sixties hippies hoped, and one of them adapted theLittle Lulu weltanschauungto brilliantly satirize those hopes: R. Crumb.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved