A Fairy Tale within a Fairy Tale

Rounding out our set of consecutive Adventures of Peter Wheat is issue #29, as always supplied ever-generously by OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum:

OtherEric:

You're probably sick of me trying vainly to come up with new words to praise Kelly at this point, so for this issue I'll stick to noting how Kelly plays with scale yet again in this one; using larger panels almost every time the beanstalk or the giant is shown, often going for two tiers instead of three. I also like the extreme perspective and oversized lettering on page 11.

Taken as a whole, these issues show Kelly trying all sorts of different things to contrast sizes and I find it amazing to see. It never gets in the way of telling the stories, though—it took me a while to realize it was even there.

I hope you've enjoyed this run of books. I thank Thom again for doing it, and hopefully I (or somebody else) will have more issues to share soon!

Thom:

And thank you OtherEric for the time, expense, and effort of sharing Kelly's Peter Wheat with us. I'll bet we have some more stories soon!

Regarding this story, I'm ready to say that is Seminole Sam, the fox from Pogo's Okefenokee, wandering afield, showing the proximity of Kelly's Whirlds.

Easter is a Time for Peace

Making Possible the Comic Strip Industry

Howland's outfit adds some dash to the hash. And of course Moon Mullins was a comic strip hooroar for many a moon.

Thought I Saw an Otter

The Adventures of Peter Wheat #28, as always courtesy of OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum. His words come after.

OtherEric:

Here we go back to single issue stories. Kelly continues his playing with scale here, with the Rock-Norse being as small to Peter as Peter is to a normal human, and with the contrast between the Otter and the Shrew. It also features a couple of amazing fight scenes. I've said it before and will probably say it again: Kelly could have been one of the great adventure strip artists if he wanted to; his fights are just perfectly choreographed and executed. And as always his ability to convey emotion in his characters' expressions is unsurpassed.

Thom:

I really like stories where enemies become friends.

Mooza Peegle Ain't a Larf

Sorry, the paper came a little late today.

Pursuing the Wizard and the Goblins

The saga of The Adventures of Peter Wheat continues, with so many thanks to OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum. Look for his words after the last page, below.

Lookit that opening panel! Epic!!!

OtherEric:

Hey, Peter finally got his Pegasus! This is probably my favorite cover from the series—since it's also the first page of the story, most of the covers tend to be beautiful but somewhat subdued as the story gets started. This one just pops!

The rest of the issue, while not quite the Tour de Force of the #26, provides a suitably exciting conclusion to the epic, with a three-way fight between the goblins, the hornet knights, and the wheatfield folk as background to a thrilling rescue attempt by Peter.

For all my comments about coloring, art continuity, and excessive captions, this story as a whole really is just an amazing piece of work by Kelly—the small flaws not getting in the way of a wonderful, huge adventure. I really do hope somebody reprints these someday—this story would make an excellent collection in my opinion. (If anybody out there is willing to try and publish a collection, let me know—I'm more than happy to rescan my issues at any resolution required just to see an actual book out there).

Thom:

And I'll be happy to edit, or write an essay or contribute in any way:)