Further Grickle
Annable's visual inspiration seems to be Captain Kangaroo's cartoon featureTom Terrific. His figures are shrouds with stick arms and legs and faces on top, but frantically expressive, anyway. Mostly young, they do more-or-less young-person things. Two guys going to a party ride with a boorish friend who gets them in a fight that puts them in the ER. A guy with a helluva cough sees a doctor who dons a football helmet and butts him; the guy slams back and thinks he's killed the doc. An out-of-work guy living with a gal thinks her pet wombat has killed the next-door neighbor's dog; while he's elaborately dealing with that, she moves out to take a job in another town. Annable realizes these scenarios with considerable poignance, despite the occasional ridiculous detail (e.g., the wombat), giving them the punch of good short stories. Shorter gag stories fill out the book.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved