The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies by Tom De Haven
Joseph Witek

Tom De Haven, Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies. Metropolitan Books, 1996. 290 pp. Paper: $12.00.

A sequel of sorts to De Haven’s novel of early comic-strip publishing, Funny Papers (1985), Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies follows narrator Al Bready as the comic-strip ghostwriter and prodigiously prolific pulp-fiction author negotiates a pair of low-level crises in his life in late 1930s New York. His first problem is the sudden illness of one of his bosses, Walter Geebus, the comic-strip artist whose rabid right-wing politics and general irascibility fail to sour Bready on the pleasures of writing about the peregrinations of a orphaned urchin in the comic strip “Durby Dugan.” Complicating Bready’s life is the prospect that Jewel Rodgers, his typist and Platonic sweetheart, is about to move upstate with her dim-witted and suddenly suspicious husband. How to replace Geebus on the wildly successful comic strip, occupies Bready’s thoughts as he drifts comfortably through a smoky world of speakeasies, neighborhood brothels, gangsters, and gossipmon-gers.

Bready’s narrative voice is sharp and cynical, and he has a quick ear for a slangy quip. The book’s structure itself evokes the breezy punch of the comics: the chapters, called “episodes”, are rather shortish (sometimes only a few sentences) and often end with a punchline of sorts. As the novel develops it becomes clear that the tough-talking Bready isn’t as confident in the world as he tries to sound: the trauma of childhood family discord resurfaces in the form of his troubled sister, now living alone in the empty family home, and the detachment that serves Bready so well as a writer likewise renders him unable either to grab the professional opportunities that come his way or to convince Jewel to stay in New York, even though she makes it clear that she won’t need much convincing.

Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies does a fine job of evoking the texture of an imagined Depression-era New York, with its distinctive slang, the smells of its delis, and the shouts of the newsboys. The recreation of the little-known netherworld of the marginal publishers (some of whom are intrigued by the prospects offered by the new-fangled comic books just starting to appear), unsung ghostwriters, and pulp-fiction hacks is especially well done. De Haven’s novel will be a romp for cognoscenti who can pick out the bits of historical and biographical fact that make up the novel’s fictional bricolage, as fragments of comic-strip creators such as Rube Goldberg and Harold Gray emerge at different points, while “Joe Palooka” artist Ham Fisher appears in proper persona. The air of verisimilitude is enhanced even more by cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s jacket design and a sample “Derby Dugan” interior page, an episode whose visual style captures perfectly the novel’s mixture of convincing period detail and cool, slightly parodistic irony. Fans of comics history will need to read this book; other readers will simply want to. [Joseph Witek]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies by Tom De Haven Joseph Witek Tom De Haven, Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies. Metropolitan Books, 1996. 290 pp. Paper: $12.00. A sequel of sorts to De Haven’s novel of early comic-strip publishing, Funny Papers (1985), Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies follows narrator Al Bready as the comic-strip ghostwriter and prodigiously prolific pulp-fiction author negotiates a pair of low-level crises in his life in late 1930s New York. His first problem is the sudden illness of one of his bosses, Walter Geebus, the comic-strip artist whose rabid right-wing politics and general irascibility fail to sour Bready on the pleasures of writing about the peregrinations of a orphaned urchin in the comic strip “Durby Dugan.” Complicating Bready’s life is the prospect that Jewel Rodgers, his typist and Platonic sweetheart, is about to move upstate with her dim-witted and suddenly suspicious husband. How to replace Geebus on the wildly successful comic strip, occupies Bready’s thoughts as he drifts comfortably through a smoky world of speakeasies, neighborhood brothels, gangsters, and gossipmon-gers. Bready’s narrative voice is sharp and cynical, and he has a quick ear for a slangy quip. The book’s structure itself evokes the breezy punch of the comics: the chapters, called “episodes”, are rather shortish (sometimes only a few sentences) and often end with a punchline of sorts. As the novel develops it becomes clear that the tough-talking Bready isn’t as confident in the world as he tries to sound: the trauma of childhood family discord resurfaces in the form of his troubled sister, now living alone in the empty family home, and the detachment that serves Bready so well as a writer likewise renders him unable either to grab the professional opportunities that come his way or to convince Jewel to stay in New York, even though she makes it clear that she won’t need much convincing. Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies does a fine job of evoking the texture of an imagined Depression-era New York, with its distinctive slang, the smells of its delis, and the shouts of the newsboys. The recreation of the little-known netherworld of the marginal publishers (some of whom are intrigued by the prospects offered by the new-fangled comic books just starting to appear), unsung ghostwriters, and pulp-fiction hacks is especially well done. De Haven’s novel will be a romp for cognoscenti who can pick out the bits of historical and biographical fact that make up the novel’s fictional bricolage, as fragments of comic-strip creators such as Rube Goldberg and Harold Gray emerge at different points, while “Joe Palooka” artist Ham Fisher appears in proper persona. The air of verisimilitude is enhanced even more by cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s jacket design and a sample “Derby Dugan” interior page, an episode whose visual style captures perfectly the novel’s mixture of convincing period detail and cool, slightly parodistic irony. Fans of comics history will need to read this book; other readers will simply want to. [Joseph Witek]

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