Der Struwwelmaakies
Like the titles ofThe House at Maakies Corner(2002) andWhen We Were Very Maakies(2004), that of the third Maakiescollection parodies a historic children's book, Der Struwwelpeter, a nineteenth-century German collection of cautionary tales in verse, best known for its unsettling cover illustration (an icon for comics artists) of a boy with unkempt hair and curly, overgrown nails. Standing in for "Sloppy Peter" on this book's cover areMaakies' alcoholic, superslob antiheroes, Uncle Gabby (a monkey) and Drinky Crow. Moreover, the latest gathering of Millionaire's outrageously scabrous, consummately politically incorrect comic strip sees the duo come--time and again, and one or the other--to much the same end as Struwwelpeter, whose fingers are eventually chopped off. For as you might expect of antiheroes nonpareil, Gabby and Drinky are virtually incapable of success and wind up shot, stabbed, hung, and otherwise rendered food for worms. Which doesn't keep them from coming back for more abuse and further raunchy, unspeakably fatalistic shenanigans. Not for the kids.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved