Return to romance The strange love stories of Ogden Whitney

In her introduction to these nine comics from Eisner hall-of-famer Whitney's My Romantic Adventures series, which he wrote in the 1950s and early 1960s, cartoonist Liana Finck advises reading the subversively moralistic stories as fairy tales and eyeing the female stereotypes of a very sexist, very white Protestant, early-sixties American society that they present with hearty skepticism. Built on exaggerated clichés and absurd coincidences, stories introduce characters like Astrid Franklin, a dowdy housewife who wins back her charming husband by undergoing a complete physical makeover, and Jerry Fielding, a phony, sure . . . a dreamer . . . a ne'erdowell who nonetheless gets a cool car and wins his girl's heart. This reprinting stays true to the comics' original look and feel, in saturated colors on grainy, newsprint-effect paper. Figures have a vintage-look sameness, but characters are distinguished by their hairstyles and dress. Dialogue is ridiculous. In his afterword, Nadel echoes Finck to remark on the psychological precision and refreshing directness of Whitney's storytelling, which is sure to ensnare new readers in this well-­presented throwback volume.--Annie Bostrom Copyright 2019 Booklist