This Summer's Cartoon Books

Benson does an amazing job of introducing the romance-comic genre; even novices will be drawn in by his historical perspective and easy style. Some 20 complete comics—all in color—illustrate the points made in Benson's introduction. In "A Stranger Stole My Heart," Sally is sick and tired of her childhood sweetheart; on an impulse, she takes off on a sailboat ride with a male friend. Eventually she meets the boy of her dreams, but her path to him is anything but conventional—and it's completely against her mother's wishes.

Despite the admirable pro-female stance of Dutch's stories, he was no Camille Paglia. His mostly teenage heroines are often given condescending nicknames and are, in various ways, patted gently on the head by their boyfriends and parents. Dutch's stories are still very much products of their day, even as they resist the usual norms and stereotypes. These 20-odd tales of forbidden love and illicit triumphs make for fun, fascinating reading—maybe because they're so coded in a time, and a genre, long past. LAURA CASSIDY

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