Frank King

Collects the daily comic strip "Gasoline Alley" from the time the character Skeezix appeared in 1921 to the early 1950s.

Book One

Walt and Skeezix: Book One, 1921 & 1922

"Gasoline Alley clearly belongs in the cannon as a deeply American masterwork of cartooning." -Time.com Walt and Skeezix: Book Two collects the Gasoline Alley strips by the great American cartoonist Frank King from 1923 to 1924. King was the first cartoonist to have his characters age in real time and have modern story lines, a landmark conception for comic strips in the early twentieth century. There is a new eighty-page introduction by journalist Jeet Heer.

Book Two

Walt and Skeezix: Book Two

No Rest for the Witty, A Doggone Good Read

"Steps to the Victorious Walk" provides a systematic and biblical road map to spiritual maturity. The text is recommended for all believers who desire to live a vibrant Christian life. (Practical Life)

Steps to the Victorious Walk

THE DEADLY SEASON The summer of ’88 is the season it all might happen again. “Bunny” Bunsen has inherited the team, and with a sharp business sense, has rebuilt the organization. For the first time in 25 years, the Wolves have it together. THE SEASON OF THE WEREWOLF All the evidence suggests that there is something out there that doesn’t care if the team wins or loses . . . only if they survive. “(Frank King) is a superior writer . . . His pose is sharp, clear, untouched by rhetoric or cliché.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES

Southpaw

In New York's tough Hell's Kitchen, unemployed actress Sally Tepper turns private eye to unravel the brutal murder of a blind man and his seeing-eye dog

Sleeping Dogs Die

Without Reservations

Travels with Doris

Dick Moores

"Forty-plus years earlier, Walt Wallet found baby Skeezix in a basket on his doorstep and in the 1964-1966 strips reproduced in this volume. Skeezix is now middle-aged and has a family of his own. For the first time since they appeared in newspapers fifty years ago, readers can enjoy these classic strips featuring Walt and his wife Phyllis, Skeezix and his wife Nina, Corky, Clovia, Slim, Avery, Mr. Pert, Joel, Rufus, and a whole cast of familiar characters. Reproduced from syndicate proofbooks and featuring an enlightening introduction by Rick Norwood."--

Daily Comics 1964-1966

Gasoline Alley

The latest volume in the acclaimed series, designed by Chris Ware Frank King's Gasoline Alley remains one of the truest chronicles of American domestic life, tracing the joys and heartbreaks of a typical middle-class family from the giddy 1920s to the Great Depression to World War II and after. In book five of the ongoing series, the Wallets and their friends continue their daily rounds: Uncle Walt and his friends play the stock market, a risky proposition on the eve of the Depression; Walt also takes his wife, Phyllis, on an extended vacation to England; cousin Lora starts dating boys; and Skeezix, now ten years old, has his first serious case of puppy love after being entranced by the coquettish new neighborhood girl, Sally. The award-winning cartoonist and designer Chris Ware will add a special treat to the volume: a DVD that shows select scenes from King's home movies of the 1920s. Augmenting the already impressive photographs that have accompanied this classic comic strip reprint series, the DVD demonstrates King's protean artistic talent and the links between his own family life and that of his beloved cartoon characters.

1929-1930

Walt and Skeezix: Book Five

"Few cartoon strips have this kind of longevity and quality; Gasoline Alley has been with us since 1919 and is a gentle mirror held up to ordinary American life in the early twentieth century. It started as a mild satire on the post-WWI 'craze' for cars, but it wasn't long before it developed into a quirky family story attracting an audience of more than thirty million readers in four hundred-plus newspapers. Gasoline Alley, an affectionate portrait of modern living, is remembered for being the first strip to set itself in contemporary American history. The characters of Gasoline Alley grow up, go to war, and have grandchildren. The strip always reflects the kind, sweet pace of life."--Amazon.com.

Walt & Skeezix: 1925 & 1926

Walt & Skeezix: 1918-1920 : Walt before Skeezix

The new volume of the Eisner-nominated series, designed and edited by Chris Ware This new volume, Walt and Skeezix 1933–1934, opens amid tough times, as the Depression grinds into its fourth year. Against this setting, a con artist sets up a storefront in town for Continental Corncob, a fictitious company established to dupe would-be investors. Somehow Walt Wallet and the Gasoline Alley gang are roped into the scheme, with the promise that they could earn steep returns if they purchase shares in the allegedly thriving company. The lean economic climate motivates young Skeezix and his friends to find inventive ways to earn money, although not always with the intended results. For their first project, they create a local newspaper for the neighborhood kids but are forced to shut down after the corner printshop burns down. Later, they start an after-school delivery service on roller skates, but the new business folds after a rival undercuts their prices with a cheaper alternative. Frank King was one of the pioneering masters of cartooning, and this ongoing series serves as a fascinating historical document of early- to mid-twentieth-century American life. Edited and designed by Chris Ware (Building Stories, Monograph) and featuring an introduction by the comics historian Jeet Heer (The New Republic), this new volume also includes never-before-seen photographs and rare archival documents from the private collection of the King family.

Walt and Skeezix 1933-1934:

"The loveliest rediscovery of the vintage-comic-strip renaissance is [Walt and Skeezix]." —The Washington Post The Gasoline Alley gang enters a new decade with this volume: Skeezix moves from childhood to early adolescence and the high spirits of the 1920s give way to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Walt and Phyllis Wallet travel to England, an extended tour that echoes the real-life journey taken by the cartoonist Frank King and his family in the late 1920s. While his parents are away, Skeezix tries to solve the mystery of an arsonist. Now entering his teens, he comes to the fore of the strip as an adventurous boy surrounded by a gang of like-minded pals, and Gasoline Alley becomes an influential pillar of teenage culture, soon to be widely imitated in Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland films as well as in Archie comics. Designed and edited by Chris Ware (Building Stories), this sixth volume of Walt and Skeezix is a celebration of and an homage to American middle-class life in the early twentieth century. An introductory essay from the comics historian Jeet Heer (In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly's Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman), historical appendixes from the Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson, and tons of extras make this book a dream come true for Gasoline Alley fans.

1931-1932

Walt and Skeezix: Book Six

Frank King (1883-1969) is best known for his long-running comic strip Gasoline Alley. Characters from the strip, Nina Clock and Skeezix Wallet, are featured in this illustrated novel.

Nina and Skeezix, the Problem of the Lost Ring

The prelude to the Walt and Skeezix series offers a portrait of a country in transition Walt Before Skeezix collects the first years of Frank King's beloved comic strip Gasoline Alley--one of the most widely read and syndicated strips of its time, which is still syndicated today. These comics, produced between 1919 and 1920, focus primarily on Walt Wallet and his friends as they engage with the then-novel automobile sensation that was sweeping the nation. This period of the newspaper strip is especially fascinating as a historical time capsule, charting a moment in America's past when horses and buggies shared the road with cars, and when the country was making the transition from rural farmers to urban, industrialized society. King was a pioneering American cartoonist who changed comics forever by setting his strip in contemporary America and having his characters age. These lavish volumes pay tribute to the evolution of his style and storytelling. Designed and edited by the world-renowned cartoonist Chris Ware (Building Stories), Walt Before Skeezix includes a wide-ranging introductory essay from the noted comics historian Jeet Heer, the coeditor of Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium, and an essay by Tim Samuelson, the cultural historian for the city of Chicago, about how Chicago's history is reflected in King's newspaper strip.

Walt Before Skeezix

Collected for the first time here are the best of King's early Gasoline Alley Sunday comics, starting from the very first Sunday in 1921, reprinted in the original size and colors. King's innovations in art, layout and storytelling brought a new warmth and style to the medium at the dawn of the Golden Age of newspaper comic strips. If you are interested in the development of this unique American art form, or simply love beautiful comics, this sumptuous volume is a masterpiece in comic art, and a must for your collection. Like McCay, Feininger, Herriman, and others of that era, King was a graphic innovator. His panoramic layouts, themed styling, and whimsical cartoon conceits explored new artistic methods. But he also had a great knowledge of story and character, presented with a warmth and humanity never seen before in comics, and rarely done as well since. He went beyond the gags and slapstick of his contemporaries to create vignettes of genuinely human characters; showing them relating to each other and, particularly in his Sunday comics, to the world around them.

Frank King

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