Just as it's become difficult to imagine a nation capable of believing itself under alien attack during Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast, the hold of serialized comic stories such as Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie has been lost, despite diluted attempts at revival. Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies captures a time when such stories mattered greatly, without resorting to idealized nostalgia. Fast-paced and populated with colorful characters, the novel is a humorous and enjoyable read, but, like the comic strips that provide its background, it's also something more. As told by his ghostwriter, the last days of the fictional Walter Geebus—a disagreeable, reactionary and brilliant cartoonist—become an encapsulation of a dying era. The jacket and frontispiece by Art Spiegelman, to whom the book is dedicated, add further appeal.