[MarkWarner]

In my opinion the funniest things about last week's book were the comments left by reading group members

"The Loony Family - Shame it wasn't the Funny Family."

"Can't help thinking how much funnier this would have been if the jokes made you laugh." 

"I had no idea that wartime Britain had to ration humor too. At least, that's the best explanation I can think of for this book."

Now for this week's book, I thought it was about time we had an animal book, but I really didn't fancy another cowboy horse comic. But then I saw this. I am not sure what it is going to be like. But  a Yoc scan from a JVJ book, means I am hoping for great things. Fingers crossed!

True Animal Picture Stories #1 can be found here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=64927. As there appears quite a range of stories pick what you fancy!

[crashryan]

Last week's comic was a real dog, and oddly enough this week's comic starts out with two real dogs.

This comic is typical of true-story comics: interesting but not particularly entertaining. The Balto story is the best. I can't read about Balto without remembering Carl Barks' funny, poignant story about Barko the sled dog.

The pig story is strange. Its cartoony artwork reminds me of a Graham Ingels horror comic. Which is not what the editors intended, I'm sure. Did hundreds of monkeys really run loose in New York? Wish I'd been there.

The bring-'em-back-alive stories leave me with mixed feelings. I realize "those were different times," but the idea of hauling tens of thousands of animals from their natural habitats--resulting in countless "unfortunate" deaths along the way--is unpleasant.

I enjoyed reading about the wagon load of cats. It must have been fun cleaning up all those litter boxes. I also liked the bear story. The cartoony bear is great. As I always understood it, unlike a box of nitroglycerine, a box of dynamite without blasting caps won't explode when dropped. In fact it could catch fire and still not explode. Yet over and over I see stories in which people scramble to save a box of dynamite. Which is the truth?

Ernie Schroeder's artwork is strong. At times he tended to slough off backgrounds, but this time he stuck with it. The art in general is good without being great.

A fair book over all, and a welcome relief from last week's laugh fest.

[EHowie60]

As far as I can tell, most of the stories that I was able to look up seem to be historically attested to some degree. I found a delightful article about the wagon load of cats, which puts their origin in North Dakota or Wyoming. Even Henry Trefflich's monkeys are attested to (see the end of the "Public Life" section). I really enjoyed this book. Nonfiction comics are a bit of a rarity, and it's good to see one with the writing and art on point. I wonder if perhaps the Mrs. Sherman's Pig story was attempting to imitate colonial caracture art?

[crashryan]

Using Google I found news stories describing the hundred-monkey escape. They provided more interesting details. The first monkeys to escape opened the other monkeys' cages so they could get out. Monkeys raided a bar and started sampling beer and liquor, causing a dozen customers to flee.  Monkeys invaded a firehouse, played on the equipment, and slid down the pole. One monkey fell from a tall building and died. The last monkey was captured 3 months later. It had survived by stealing bait bananas from traps set to catch it.

[SuperScrounge]

Soldier Dog - Not bad.

Balto of Nome - Okay, if short.

Fireman's Dog - Good story.

A Pig That Made History - So the pig is responsible for Congress? Figures.  Interesting tale

A Dog Named Bill - Interesting.

Monkey Business on Wall St. - Funny. 

Bear Facts - Usually when I read about the dangers of bears, it's mauling, not handling explosives, that gets mentioned. You learn something new every day. 

Jungle Master - Interesting, but brief.

Schooner of Cats - Cute.

Panda Man - Worst superhero ever.  Interesting. Don't recall ever hearing of this guy before.

[Morgus]

The Balto story has become such a staple that I LITERALLY said; 'deliver the serum' before I even read the line. A DOG NAMED BILL had one of the soldiers looking like Hitler. I was pretty surprised that close to the end of WWII. I would have loved this as a kid, and still thought it was okay. Read it all the way through. Great art work by Ernie Schroeder. The name was new to me. What else did he do? The monkey story was featured in a Readers Digest humor collection when I was a kid. Man, the smell of ammonia must have just about knocked you down when they drove by with hundreds of cats.

[narfstar]

I will probably read some more stories because I liked the first one I read so much. The Pig That Made History was a really cool story. Even more cool because it was real.

[MarkWarner]

So a beer in hand I am about to read this week's book. And we are off ...

Soldier Dog: An unintentionally depressing text story.

Balto: Great art and a cool story about a dog rescue sledge team. But it was rather predictable

Fireman's Dog: See above. So far this is a very readable family book.

A Pig that Made History: Apart from some unnamed horses in the previous story we have our first animal fatality in Mrs Sherman's pig. Which reminds me, I must take some time out to work out the basics of the U.S. House of Representatives and The Senate.

A Dog Named Bill: So big deal. We have a dog named Gary, and he can find a tennis ball outside the courts whenever he wants one! In the undergrowth he goes and a minute or two later out he comes with a ball. You can bet your week's wages in it!

Monkey Business on Wall St: A 100 monkeys seems an awful lot for a pet shop to have. Blimey how much would their food bill be ... and I loved this picture of a "monkey catcher"



Bear Facts: Surely, this is a crazy pioneer or an O'Henry tall-tale.

Frank Buck: A sort of half-way house between the earlier hunters and the conservation efforts of today.

Schooner of Cats: Another wild story???

Panda Man: A gung-ho attitude to animal welfare, which to be kind we will just say reflects the attitudes of its time. 

Verdict: A hit. The art was excellent and you just have to be grateful that general attitudes to animals have changed (somewhat). I am about to read the other comments as by the looks of it the stories were not quite as wild as I believed.

[paw broon]

I'm the odd man out where this book is concerned.  I dislike animal comics/books to start with and I cringed at what I thought was the awfulness of this issue.  Not realisng that the American democratic system was due to a wee wifie and a dead porker, this story did, at least pique my interest.
I have to admit that I only gave a passing glance to the rest of the comic. 
Not for me.