'a darned good read' - The ComicsJournalIn 1939, Vincent Trout Hamlin had been writing and drawingthe successful Alley Oop for more than five years. In Alley Oop,Hamlin created a unique concept, marrying his fascination with dinosaurs andprehistoric times to a rollicking style of storytelling and drawing that wassimultaneously serious, fantastic, and loaded with slapstick. The series was setin the kingdom of Moo and starred Alley Oop, the club-wielding caveman, hisgirlfriend Ooola, friends Dinny the dinosaur and Foozy (who speaks in rhyme),plus Oop's rival, King Guz, and Guz's Queen Umpateedle. Yet Hamlin knew that thestrip's horizons in Moo were limited. So it was, in early 1939, that Alley Oopand Ooola see a mysterious box and, to the utter amazement of Guz and hisminions, promptly fade from view, followed by the caption: 'Dear Reader: youmust now say goodbye to Moo...if you are to follow Alley Oop in this strangestof many strange adventures. - V. T. Hamlin'. Oop and Ooola had entered atime machine and were now living in the modern day 20th Century! Their host wasthe inventor of the time machine, Dr. Elbert Wonmug! No change of such magnitudehad ever occurred in a continuing newspaper strip, and readers respondedenthusiastically. With every time period in history available as a backdrop,Alley Oop became even more popular.This volume features Oop'sfinal Moo adventure, followed by his trips to the 20th Century and ancientGreece, where he and Ooola share adventures with brave Ulysses, the lovely Helenof Troy, and the mighty Hercules. V.T. Hamlin would send his characterseverywhere and everywhen - but the classic Alley Oop begins withthe stories contained in this volume. The book is introduced by Michael T.Price, who first met V. T. Hamlin in the 1960s and remained friendly with himfor the rest of the cartoonist's life. Price also composed the musical score forHip Pocket Theatre's production, Alley Oop.