What do you think?
Rate this book
Mr. O'Malley Goes for the Gold
215 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
10 people want to read
About the author
Crockett Johnson
111 books146 followersCrockett Johnson was the pen name of the American cartoonist and children's book illustrator David Johnson Leisk. He is best known for the comic strip Barnaby (1942–1952) and the Harold series of books beginning with Harold and the Purple Crayon. [From Wikipedia.]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 22, 2019
This book reprints some of the Barnaby comic strips from 1944. There had been earlier Barnaby collections, but this Ballantine/Del Rey Books series from the 1980's was a noble attempt at gathering all the strips in order. There is currently a new series of large-format hardcover collections from Fantagraphics Books, which is also intended to reprint the entire run of the strip.
Barnaby tells the tale of Barnaby Baxter, a five year old boy living with his parents, John and Ellen. At the very beginning of the strip, Barnaby acquires a fairy godfather, Jackeen J. O'Malley. O'Malley is short (the same height as Barnaby), rotund, and has pink wings. (We are told that the wings are pink; the strip is black and white.) He smokes a cigar, which doubles as a magic wand. His magic rarely works as planned. None of the adults ever see O'Malley, not because he is invisible, but just because they are never in the same place at the same time.
The sequences included in this volume are:
⚫Barnaby's father is feeling ill and is told by his doctor to stay home for a week. He worries that the chart that he maintains at work of total plant production will not be properly updated. Mr. O'Malley takes care of the updating; unfortunately, he neglects the "properly" part.
⚫Barnaby, his friend Jane (another child), and Barnaby's mother vacation at the shore. Naturally, Mr. O'Malley goes as well. They meet O'Malley's friend Davy Jones and search for hidden treasure.
⚫Mr. O'Malley decides to take part in national politics and become a "power behind the scene" in the presidential election. He recruits three "eminent tycoons" to help, all ghosts of a conservative bent.
⚫Mr. O'Malley runs into his cousin, Myles O'Malley, who looks very much like him but wears Pilgrim garb. They hunt for a turkey for Thanksgiving.
⚫O'Malley and a friend, J. P. Orion, "the mightiest hunter of them all," try to trap an ermine to make a wrap for Barnaby's mother for Christmas. They get involved with thieves who have stolen a load of valuable fur coats. The book ends in the middle of this sequence.
As always in Barnaby, the artwork is impressive. Barnaby was drawn in a simple but extremely effective style of black and white with no shading and little attention to perspective.
The main thing to know about Barnaby is that it is very funny. Even after over seventy years since these comics originally appeared, they are still really amusing. Barnaby was one of the truly great comic strips and this book holds up very well indeed.
Barnaby tells the tale of Barnaby Baxter, a five year old boy living with his parents, John and Ellen. At the very beginning of the strip, Barnaby acquires a fairy godfather, Jackeen J. O'Malley. O'Malley is short (the same height as Barnaby), rotund, and has pink wings. (We are told that the wings are pink; the strip is black and white.) He smokes a cigar, which doubles as a magic wand. His magic rarely works as planned. None of the adults ever see O'Malley, not because he is invisible, but just because they are never in the same place at the same time.
The sequences included in this volume are:
⚫Barnaby's father is feeling ill and is told by his doctor to stay home for a week. He worries that the chart that he maintains at work of total plant production will not be properly updated. Mr. O'Malley takes care of the updating; unfortunately, he neglects the "properly" part.
⚫Barnaby, his friend Jane (another child), and Barnaby's mother vacation at the shore. Naturally, Mr. O'Malley goes as well. They meet O'Malley's friend Davy Jones and search for hidden treasure.
⚫Mr. O'Malley decides to take part in national politics and become a "power behind the scene" in the presidential election. He recruits three "eminent tycoons" to help, all ghosts of a conservative bent.
⚫Mr. O'Malley runs into his cousin, Myles O'Malley, who looks very much like him but wears Pilgrim garb. They hunt for a turkey for Thanksgiving.
⚫O'Malley and a friend, J. P. Orion, "the mightiest hunter of them all," try to trap an ermine to make a wrap for Barnaby's mother for Christmas. They get involved with thieves who have stolen a load of valuable fur coats. The book ends in the middle of this sequence.
As always in Barnaby, the artwork is impressive. Barnaby was drawn in a simple but extremely effective style of black and white with no shading and little attention to perspective.
The main thing to know about Barnaby is that it is very funny. Even after over seventy years since these comics originally appeared, they are still really amusing. Barnaby was one of the truly great comic strips and this book holds up very well indeed.
Displaying 1 of 1 review