Father and Son

“A lovely new edition that will make an excellent stocking filler…if you don’t know Plauen’s strangely affecting work already, these are dialogue-free, slapstick adventures involving a gruff but loving father and his sweet but occasionally naughty son.” —Rachel Cooke, The Guardian

“This gem of an unjustly forgotten book was originally published in the 1930s. German cartoonist Erich Ohser created this charming comic strip under the pen name E.O. Plauen after being barred by the Nazi government from drawing political cartoons….None of the darkness in his life can be seen in this sunny pantomime strip about a gruff but indulgent father and his mischievous, tousle-haired son. There’s a warmth to the characters’ relationship unusual in old gag cartoons….A perfect book for Father’s Day.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Fatherhood is a many hued thing. Some moments are pure joy. Others contain levels of frustration you hadn’t thought possible. Then there’s the self-doubt and the love. It’s a hard thing to capture in words — trust us — and a hard thing to capture in images and a hard thing to capture in both. That’s why comic strips that offer even the slightest nod to the real experience of fatherhood, like Calvin & Hobbes, hit so hard. But no comic strip has captured a father’s rapport with his son as beautifully or accurately as the largely forgotten German comic Father & Son.” —Joshua David Stein, Fatherly