"Camping Out," DUNC and LOO Number 8
(October-December 1963)
story and layouts: John Stanley
finished artwork: Bill Williams

This story is from the final issue of John Stanley's
original series DUNC AND LOO (originally titled
AROUND THE BLOCK.)

This sitcom-like ensemble series took place in and around the congested Airy Arms,
a tenement apartment building in what appears to be The Bronx or Brooklyn. Suave
Dunc and spazzy Loo are teenage pals trying to keep their heads up in the asphalt jun-
gle, chasing chicks, bumming treats off the easily riled Sid (owner of Sid's Candy Store)
and dodging an assortment of anti-social foes and eccentric neighbors.

Many of Stanley's series have a strongly urban flavor. His stories for LITTLE LULU and
NEW FUNNIES are often set in a cramped cityscape, with close-set streets, streetfront
buildings, and no visible greenery. DUNC AND LOO was the most urban, crowded,
smoggy, claustrophobic series of Stanley's career. Within these snug confines,
Stanley was inspired to create some sterling situation comedy.

The issues flowed from one story to the next; they feel like fragments from one giant
never-ending tale. The format of DUNC AND LOO is similar to Stanley's summer camp
giant-size comics for LITTLE LULU and NANCY AND SLUGGO.

Fittingly, this tragicomic tale depicts Dunc and Loo's efforts to "rough it" by camping
out on the roof of the treacherous Airy Arms.

The story is a framework for some of Stanley's broadest physical comedy.

Augmenting the actions are an ingenious treatment of sound effects (e.g. the
'receding' thumps seen on pages 4 and 9).Bill Williams' expressive, lively cartooning
translates Stanley's ideas so well that I wish they'd worked together more often.
Williams is a better cartoonist than Irving Tripp, but I can't imagine him drawing
LITTLE LULU. His drawings manage to be cute and grotesque in the same breath.
In DUNC 'N' LOO and the failed beatnik spoof KOOKIE, Williams' brash, assured cartooning style anticipates the underground cartoonists of the later '60s.

To read this story, click on the cover and enjoy!