Our Gang Vol. 2 (Walt Kelly's Our Gang) (v. 2)
By 1944, when the stories in the second volume of vintage Our Gang comic-book adaptations were originally published, MGM had discontinued the comedy shorts, freeing Kelly to deviate from the films. So these stories range from high adventure—the kids take an old pirate ship to an island and discover a Japanese listening post—to the sort of absurdist humor Kelly would exploit more adeptly in his great strip, Pogo. These delightful tales' considerable charm arises from Kelly's adroit cartooning and from the vision of ideal small-town American childhood they express. Nowadays, of course, the casual racism in the depictions of the black child Buckwheat and the Japanese soldiers dilutes the ambient sweetness. Flagg, GordonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved