Print

[MarkWarner]

Last week's choice was a hit, but I think I heard a dissenting voice in the background

This week we have been sent a rather intriguing choice. Noodnik #3 which we have as an IW reprint Pinky the Egghead #1. I had a quick glance and my guess is that this is going to be a hit! Which probably means an epic fail! 

The book can be found at https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20307, and the story we are concentrating on is the first one "The Castaways"

[crashryan]

I don't quite know what to make of this book. Noodnik seems to be a personal project of Frank Roberge, a capable cartoonist who in later years worked on Mort Walker's strips and drew a lot of Hanna-Barbera comics for Charlton. It's not a bad strip, but it doesn't really click with me and it has some odd features.

To start with the title: to me "noodnik" has always suggested the Will Eisner/Harvey Kurtzman big-city Jewish experience...it's hard for me to associate it with Eskimos. That's probably just me. The cartooning is generally good, but I'm put off by the main characters' faces. Their weird designs seem out of synch with the traditional way everything else is drawn. I particularly dislike the solid-black-circle eyes.

The Noodnik stories go up and down but they have their funny moments. I prefer the boating story to the boxing story. But "Pinky Penguin" is better than either of them. Roberge's kids are a bit stiff but his animals are full of life. I don't know what to make of Pinky's spiky feathers, though; they look like little wires.

"Pierre ze Trapper" is sporadically funny but the story is thin and goes on too long. Again the fox is much more interesting than the human character. What's with the author's cameo on the first page? It doesn't add to the story. Vanity, perhaps?

Something that really jars me is the number of spelling errors, especially the mixing up of "you're" and "your." Using "y'no" for "you know" is also irritating.

The strangest part of the book is the text page. The fables are told in a brittle, archaic style at odds with everything else in the book.The first tale, explaining why a captured trumpeter deserves to be executed, strikes an especially sour note.

The cover of this IW reprint demonstrates the difference between a good cartoonist and a mediocre one. It's dull, awkward, and indifferently inked. Quite a contrast to what you see when you open the comic.

[jimmm kelly]

I looked at this book assuming it was going to be offensive, but I was pleasantly surprised that it's relatively inoffensive for the time that it was published. It doeesn't even use the derogatory "Eskimo" term. Maybe the creator didn't want the reader to view the characters as Innuit in particular and he wanted them just to be read as young people living in the north.

The most offensive character in the book is the stereotypical French-Canadian trapper, Pierre. But even he is  given a certain charm.

Frank Roberge's heart seems to be in the right place.

[Mazzucchelli]

In every field of activity there are things you do for obligation and there are things you do out of passion.

When you have a passion for what you do, the product is often good

[narfstar]

Maybe I will be in the minority, but I thought Castaways was fun. I liked the art even with the big black eyes. It had some neat little jokes and was different from many other kid characters.

[SuperScrounge]

The Castaways - Just sit right back and you... whoops! Wrong castaways. ;-) I'm not a fan of stories starring kids, but the story was cute.

Ringside Nonsense - Okay.

Pinky Penguin Jr. - Okay.

Noodnik's Fables - Okay, two I hadn't read before.

Pierre Ze Trapper - Amusing. Kind of Bugs Bunny-ish

[bowers]

This one was just ok. Fair art and stories, but a little boring. If I had to pick my favorite story it would be the Pinky Penguin tale. This one had a good gag or two. The rest of the book just couldn't hold my interest. Five more weeks and we've been doing this for a full year! Keep 'em coming. Cheers, Bowers

[paw broon]

This was sort of ok.  Not particularly humourous.  A typical run of the mill attempt at a funny comic for kids.  The black eyes didn't bother me at all and there was a story there.  What did get to me  a bit was him cheating his pals out of all that food.  It seemed a bit devious and petty. 
I didn't dislike it, nor did I like it.  I would rather have spent the time doing something else.

[MarkWarner]

Judging from the cover, this book will have a European feel to it. It reminds me of translated books from my youth. The authors' had strange names with dots and squiggles in them.

Anyway, let's crack on and see what's inside. The first story was very good. Well, maybe that is an exaggeration but I enjoyed it.  The art.was cool. The story was silly and slapstick, with a twist at the end.

The next story, Ringside Nonsense, also features Noodnik and is on a par with the first one. The manual they used was called Applied Boxing by Milton Mangler  

Next up another is another hit with Pinky Penguin:

Humor him! You mean like th' time he woke up, and wanted to be a woodpecker? ... And I had to stand there, shivering in th' dead of night, making out I was a tree and let him peck holes in my head!!

A change of pace with a the one page text article Noodnik's Fables is followed by the final story this time featuring another character, Pierre Ze Trapper. I think that was probably the best story of the four. That wolf has a future!

Verdict: A hit! All silly, harmless fun and back in the day I'd certainly have read this.