Peppy and Virginny in Lapinoland

Herge is known worldwide for his plucky, globetrotting, strikingly quiffedhero Tintin. But before the runaway success of this character, the strugglingBelgian cartoonist created a number of shorter-lived and less well-known seriesand characters. By far the loopiest were 1934's Peppy and Virginny (Popol andVirginie in the original), a couple of haberdashers who journeyed to the WildWest in search of new clientele, accompanied by their trusty horse Bluebellwhere they ran into savage Indian tribes, evil bandits, and much more. Theyexperienced only one adventure, but it was a doozy! The crisp, clear linedrawing style of the earliest vintage Tintin albums combines with afreewheeling, farcical storyline and engaging funny-animal characters (the leadsare bears, the Indians are rabbits with ears for feathers, and the main villainis a bulldog) and gorgeous Euro-album coloring to make this a genuine oddballclassic of Franco-Belgian comics, and Fantagraphics is proud to present itsfirst American release (and its first English-language release in two decades).With the Spielberg/Jackson Tintin adaptations and a steady flow of new booksabout Tintin and his creator (such as last year's Adventures of Hergegraphic-novel biography), work by Herge remains in high demand and this bookshows a fascinatingly idiosyncratic facet of his career. And it's a rollicking,hilarious, kid-friendly (if you can give the non-PC 1930s Injuns a pass) read toboot.