Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume 4 (v. 4)
As this collection opens, the plucky orphan is serenely ensconced in Daddy Warbucks’ stately mansion. This tranquil interlude is disrupted when Warbucks marries a former showgirl who, unsurprisingly to all except her husband, is only after his millions. Within a few months, Annie and her faithful dog, Sandy, are again on the road, where their impecunious wanderings were, one presumes, easier for Depression-era readers to relate to. Gray’s populist sympathies had yet to ossify into the hard-core conservatism that later dominated the strip. He packs a huge amount of story into these dialogue-laden panels, but his simple, effective artwork makes it go down easy. --Gordon Flagg