| "Peterkin
Pottle [untitled]" Raggedy Ann and Andy No. 33, Feb. 1949 story, layouts and artwork: John Stanley This was John Stanley's first original creation for comic books. This sometimes-disturbing series continues where LITTLE LULU leaves off. While the kid's world of LULU is fraught with perils -- McNabbem the truant officer, the ill- tempered West Side gang -- Lulu, Tubby, Annie and the others have a community. Despite their ups and downs, they like and depend upon one another. Poor Peterkin Pottle, in contrast! This shy, pudgy daydreamer is a playground pariah. Disliked by his peers, he escapes the everyday hell of his life by slipping into BARON MUNCHAUSEN-like fantasies. These daydreams burlesque the conventions of genre fiction, as filtered through a child's eyes. That said, this is a dark, dark series. Stanley's imagination is in top gear, and his breezy graphics are pleasing to the eye. But there's enough going on in this story to keep a squad of psychotherapists busy for a month! The level of violence in this story is striking. Since it's all a dream, Peterkin (and Stanley) can literally get away with murder. The scenes of, well, genocide in this story would have flipped Fredric Wertham's wig, had he looked up from his crime and jungle comics long enough to notice the goings-on in this "kiddie comic." If Roald Dahl had been
a staff writer for Dell comics, this is what he might have come There's not
another comics series like PETERKIN POTTLE. That these stories have |