Editorial: A Popular Culture Original

A FORM OF POPULAR CULTURE STORYTELLING THAT I HAVE ALWAYS found fascinating is the classic adventure comic strip, not that contemporary anemic variant known as the humor comic strip that attempts little more than telling poor jokes in four poorly illustrated panels, but rather the full-blooded, gloriously illustrated comic strips from the 1930s, which popular culture historian Ron Goulart calls the "Adventurous Decade." Profusely illusrrated, full of charming details and revealing insights into the life and work of Chester Gould, the book has done much to explain the life story of the man who gave the American Great Depression one of its most memorable heroes, a character adapted in nearly all the entertainment media, from Big Little Books, to television, to film, to comic books, to radio, as well as in toys and merchandizing.