Tubby Volume 1: The Castaway and Other Stories (Little Lulu's Pal Tubby)
Little Lulu’s popularity mandated a spin-off, and in 1952, Stanley’s fertile imagination birthed a vehicle for Lulu’s pal and nemesis, Tubby. Debuting in Four Color Comics before appearing under its own name, Tubby gave Stanley the chance to stretch out. Each of the six issues collected here is one long story, like Carl Barks’ tales of Scrooge McDuck (another Four Color debutant), though the last is split into three chapters, either to conform to how a comic book was supposed to be or to acknowledge the episodic nature of Stanley at length. And whether he sets Tubby to pirating on the high-seas, tracking down a lion, running from “wild” Indians (the publisher apologizes for the dated stereotypes in this particular offering), or getting involved in (so having to solve) a bank robbery, Stanley is most certainly episodic, often turning a plot sharply enough to endanger readers’ necks. These are rambunctious romps made all the more delightful because five feature Stanley’s loose and speedy, Milt Gross–like artwork, ungussied-up by Irving Tripp. --Ray Olson