My rating: 4 of 5 stars
LOAC Essentials Volume 11: "Cap" Stubbs and Tippie collects all the "Cap" Stubbs and Tippie daily strips from 1945.
Since I'm caught up on the Fantagraphics EC Library, Library of American Comics Essentials is the next classic series I'm taking on. This one was the latest.
Edwina Dumm was one of the first prominent female newspaper cartoonists and was labeled as a dog artist after this. She draws a great dog, I have to say. Tippie, that loveable cur. I was hoping he'd take a bite out of Mr. Perkins. The strip has a wholesome feel for the most part, a portrait of small town life, but the villains are suitably vile. Perkins, in this case. The art style is cartoony and does a good job at conveying emotions. I don't really know what to compare it to.
"Cap" Stubbs and Tippie did not wow me at first. The story of a boy and his dog and extended family? It crawled in the first half, a trip out of town for a diner opening. It wasn't particularly dramatic or funny. I was leaning toward hauling it to Half Price Books on my next trip. Still, there were hints every once in a while about Uncle Albert, who disappeared twenty five years earlier.
The writing was an extremely slow burn for most of the book but things really happened in the last third. Once the telegram from Uncle Albert hit, I was incredibly invested in the goings on. Mr. Perkins graduated from scumbag to son of a bitch to mother fucker. His mother fuckery was eventually exposed for what it was but not before I set the book down and explained all the happenings to my wife.
As with the other LOAC volumes I've read, my only issue with "Cap" Stubbs and Tippie is that there aren't more volumes readily available. Four out of five stars.
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