''King Aroo'' is an American

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

written and drawn by Jack Kent, which made its debut on November 13, 1950 and ran until June 19, 1965. The strip was distributed through the McClure Syndicate.

Characters and story

The strip's central character, King Aroo, is the monarch of the mythical Myopia. Supporting characters included Yupyop, Lord High Almost Everything; scientific expert Professor Yorgle; Mr. Pennipost, the kangaroo mailman with an astounding pocket capacity; Mr. Elephant, so forgetful he doesn't recall himself; nosy court poet Dipody Distich, Drexel the dragon and Wanda Witch, a bird who pushes a cart marked with "Spells and Curses, 5¢" signage. Kent's strip abounded in sophisticated puns and wordplay, alongside

surreal comedy Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviors that are obviously illogical. Portrayals of s ...

. The strip was described in ''The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics'': Kent and his wife June Kent named their home on the banks of the San Antonio River "King Aroo's Castle."

Collections and reprints

The early strips were collected in a 192-page book, ''King Aroo'', published by Doubleday in 1953. The collection had an introduction by Gilbert Seldes. In April 2010,

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic ...

and

The Library of American Comics Library of American Comics (abbreviated as LoAC) is an American publisher of classic United States, American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007. History Background Dean Mullaney ...

released the first volume of an intended complete reprint of ''King Aroo'', with the first volume covering dailies and Sundays from 1950 through 1952. The series is edited and designed by Dean Mullaney with biographical text by Bruce Canwell and an introduction by Sergio Aragones. IDW had difficulty locating certain strips, causing the next volume to be delayed; however, by March 2013 the strips of 1953–54 were also available in book form.

References

External links

Internet Book List: ''King Aroo''

Jack Kent Papers, University of Minnesota
{{Portal bar, Comics American comic strips 1950 comics debuts 1965 comics endings Fictional kings American comics characters Gag-a-day comics Fantasy comics Surreal comedy comics Comics about anthropomorphic kangaroos and wallabies Comics about anthropomorphic elephants Comics about dragons Comics about anthropomorphic birds Comics characters introduced in 1950 Comics about talking animals