Funny Papers

The spirit of the book and its many memorable characters is infused with the joyful creative energy of the late 19th Century. I love books about that period, and the fact that Funny Papers is centered on the birth of the newspaper comic strip makes it all the more enjoyable. Funny Papers is a glorious mixture of humor, drama, pathos, education, and literary sleight-of-hand - a true portrait of the period it illuminates. Secondary character Walter Geebus is wide-eyed and callow in Funny Papers - when the sequel, Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies arrives, he is worn down and bitter. And I loved the character of Pinfold! It's ironic to see Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem getting so much ink about their mixing prose and comics when De Haven has been doing it since the mid-'80s. Much as I love Kavalier & Clay, I found Funny Papers to be just as memorable.

Tom De Haven's Funny Papers is a fantastic evocation of the Good Old Days in New York of the 1890's and the beginning of the newspaper comic strip. It ventures, from time to time, into the realm bordering magic realism, but that only places the greater realism in higher relief. His character's parallel to the history of R. F. Outcault and the Yellow Kid, and the birth of Buster Brown, is well done and entertaining.