Mr. Twee Deedle: Raggedy Ann's Sprightly Cousin - Hardcover

Gruelle, Johnny

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1606994115 ISBN 13: 9781606994115

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, 2012

Synopsis

Mr. Twee Deedle, Johnny Gruelle’s masterpiece, has been unjustly forgotten by history. Gruelle’s creation was the successor to Little Nemo in the New York Herald. The title character in the Sunday color page, Mr. Twee Deedle, is a magical wood sprite that only appeared before the strip’s two human children, Dickie and Dolly. Gruelle depicted a charming, fantastical child’s world, filled with light whimsy and outlandish surrealism.

Yet the wood sprite and his fanciful world have been strangely overlooked, partly because Gruelle created Raggedy Ann immediately after the strip’s run, eclipsing not only Mr. Twee Deedle, but almost everything else the cartoonist ever did. Mr. Twee Deedle stands as a bizarre time-warp: at a time when most children’s literature and kids’ comic strips were somewhat violent or starkly moralistic (the Brothers Grimm; the Katzenjammer Kids; and even Little Nemo itself, which often depicted nightmares, fears, and dangers), Mr. Twee Deedle was sensitive and whimsical. Instead of stark moralizing, it presented gentle lessons. It reads today like a work for the 21st century... indeed for all times, all ages.

About this title

About the Authors

Johnny Gruelle was an American artist, magazine cartoonist, and writer of children's books, best known as the creator of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. He was born in 1880 and died in 1938.

Rick Marschall, called by BostoniaMagazine "perhaps America's foremost authority on popular culture," has written or edited more than 60 books. He co-founded Nemo: The Classic Comics Library and Hogan's Alley magazines and is President of Rosebud Archives. He also has taught comics history at the School of Visual Arts and Rutgers University.

Tony Millionaire is the creator of the award-winning weekly syndicated comic strip Maakies. His books include Billy Hazelnuts, Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird, Der Struwwelmaakies, Drinky Crow's Maakies Treasury, Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees, Mighty Mite the Ear Mite, Premillennial Maakies, Little Maakies on the Prairie, The House at Maakies Corner, When We Were Very Maakies, 500 Portraits, and the Sock Monkey series of comics and storybooks. He lives in Maine.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1606994115
• ISBN 13: 9781606994115
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128
• Editor: Marschall Richard