Little Lulu: The Big Dipper Club and Other Stories
Some 30 issues before he would leave Little Lulu, Stanley was getting a tad verbose. Dialogue balloons frequently take up 40 percent of a panel, and when a narrative is running up above, as when Lulu’s spinning a Witch Hazel-Little Itch yarn for Alvin, it’s sometimes a wonder that there’s still plenty of picture. Besides the stories with Tubby in the spotlight, others starring Alvin now appear, including a wordless three-pager that exploits Alvin’s preschool status to serve up an endearing helping of toddler humor seldom seen in the normal Lulu continuum. (Elsewhere, of course, when Alvin speaks—watch out!) --Ray Olson