Jack Kent's brilliantly conceived world — filled with its fanciful array of clever puns, visual humor, and good old slapstick — has been lauded by critics in the pantheon of great comic strips such as Krazy Kat, Pogo, and Barnaby. Yet King Aroo has been nearly as hard to find as Brigadoon. One of the rarest of comic strips, it is now back in print for the first time in sixty years.
The
postage-stamp-sized kingdom of Myopia is presided over by kindly
King Aroo and his faithful (if sometimes prickly) retainer, Yupyop.
The King turns to Professor Yorgle for wisdom, Wanda Witch for
magic spells, the kangaroo mailman, Mr. Pennipost, for news from
far and wide...and looks for love from the Beautiful Princess From
the Kingdom Next Door.
King Aroo Vol. 1: 1950-1952
by Jack
Kent
Edited & Designed by Dean Mullaney, Essay by Bruce Canwell
Introduction by Sergio Aragones.
Volume One celebrates the strip's 60th anniversary by presenting every daily and Sunday strip from the beginning in 1950 through 1952, reproduced from original artwork and syndicate proofs from the Jack Kent Estate, and includes a new essay by Bruce Canwell featuring the most in-depth biography of Kent's early life and career ever published.
9.5" x 7.5", Hardcover-with-dustjacket, 340 pp., $39.99. ISBN 978-1-60010-581-4.
Jack Kent (1920-1985) was born in Burlington, Iowa, but spent most of his life in San Antonio, Texas. His first cartoons appeared in San Antonio newspapers, and he briefly apprenticed with Elmer Woggon on Big Chief Wahoo before launching King Aroo in 1950. When the King abdicated in 1965, Jack Kent went on to become one of America's most beloved children's book illustrators. He wrote and illustrated over forty children's books and illustrated nearly twenty by other authors.