For me, the best in this latest collection of LULU tales (from issues #118-123, April-September 1958) was (literally) the last. The imaginatively titled story "New Girl" features, big surprise, a new girl in Lulu's neighborhood: a "Franglish"-speaking cutie named Fifi. Actually, that really
should have been the name of her poodle dog, but said dog turned out to be a
male named Gaston, with a bark that goes... "pif pif"? Isn't that
a brand of peanut butter? Well, anyone who knows the i.d. of my favorite female Toon -- POGO's
Miss Ma'amselle Hepzibah -- will not be surprised that this kid was a big hit with me. I wonder whether she appeared in any future LULU stories, either before or after Stanley left the title. Another fave in this issue: "The Super Puzzle," in which Tubby creates the headlined headscratcher by mixing a bunch of different puzzles together. It sounds contrived until you remember how many different flavors of
Sudoku have been invented by now. Stanley only has one more year of LULU work in him, so there won't be many more of these ever-pleasing collections... more's the pity.
2 comments:
As you've probably seen, though, they ARE releasing collections of the Tubby spin-off, so that should be fun. I hope that they also reprint the giant-sized LL specials at some point; I only vaguely remember them, but I do remember thinking that it was neat to see the characters in longer, extended narratives of sorts.
....also, I'm *pretty* sure I remember seeing Fifi in multiple stories, but don't quote me on that.
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