by Frank Stack (Author), Allen Vanblarcum (Contribution by), Michael H. Price (Author)
Cartoonist V.T. Hamlin's breakthrough to prominence came early on in the 1930s with a comic strip called ALLEY OOP -- still running in the New Century, generations after Hamlin's death. This new volume, ALLEY OOP'S ANCESTORS, traces the evolution of Hamlin's style during the 1920s through two humor strips for a newspaper in Texas, the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth. From 1924 comes the absurdist slapstick fable of THE HIRED HAND, and from 1925-1926 comes the sports cartoon THE PANTHER KITTEN, designed to promote the city's Fort Worth Panthers baseball club (a.k.a. the FW Cats). Reproduced from primary-source drawings and original printings, with commentary from comics historian (and Hamlin protege) Michael H. Price, with cartoonist/scholar Frank Stack.
Author Biography
Michael H. Price, a working cartoonist and film historian, studied under the tutelage of ALLEY OOP's V.T. Hamlin during the 1960s and early 1970s. Price has written commentaries for three volumes of ALLEY OOP reprints. His restoration of art for ALLEY OOP'S ANCESTORS comes from a selection of original drawings and first-run printings, with the assistance of the Hamlin Archive at the University of Missouri Libraries.