Alley Oop: Dinny

Alley Oop and Dinny: Book One by V.T. Hamlin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second half of this collects the 20 weeks of Alley Oop strips from Bonnet-Brown. The first half collects the first 20 weeks of the NEA Alley Oop strip. I list the B-B portion first because it came earlier and the first half is a second draft and/or parallel universe version of it.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, it's amazing to me how refined VT Hamlin's Alley Oop was right out of the gate. The character looks like he would for the life of the strip, a caveman with thick, Popeye-esque forearms and calves. Is Alley Oop still being made? Anyway, both sections tell of Alley Oop's first meeting with Dinny the dinosaur and the resulting fallout.

Hamlin puts in a lot more work than he needed to, particularly in the foliage. The dinosaurs also look textured, which probably took a while, always a concern when you're doing a daily strip. The caveman hijinks are entertaining enough but I can only stomach so much of it at a time. That's why it took about a week to read.

Oop's rivalry with King Guz is just getting started. Hamlin's style doesn't change much between the two sections. One thing I preferred about the original is that Foozy wasn't around. His rhyming dialog gets tiresome to me.

I enjoyed this but wasn't in love with it. I know the humor gets better as the series goes on since I read the Library of American Comics volume earlier this year. Good thing since I have five more volumes of this at home with some more coming next year.

View all my reviews