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The Search for Smilin' Ed!
Originally created in 1997 and 1998 for the underground anthology Zero Zero, The Search for Smilin’ Ed! is the latest of Kim Deitch’s graphic novels to showcase his obsessive burrowing into the nooks and crannies of vintage American popular culture.
Where Boulevard of Broken Dreams focused on the earliest days of the animation industry, Alias the Cat delved into the history of comic strips, and “Molly O’Dare” (collected in Shadowland) concerned vintage movie serials, The search for Smilin’ Ed! explores the wacky world of children’s TV shows.
Launched on his latest investigation by a remark from his brother about a shared childhood favorite (“Y’know, I heard that when Smilin’ Ed died... his body was never found!”), Deitch begins to uncover some truly amazing things about the kiddie-show host and his malevolent sidekick, Froggy the Gremlin. Meanwhile, Deitch’s muse and nemesis Waldo the Cat abandons Deitch to hang out with some demon buddies, and soon both Waldo and Deitch are closing in on the mysteries of Smilin’ Ed and Froggy.
Ranging across the entire twentieth century, replete with flashbacks, stories within stories, and guest appearances from other Deitch regulars, The Search for Smilin’ Ed! is a narrative whirligig that shows Deitch at his wildest and woolliest. For those whose heads have started to spin at the complexity of “Deitch world,” Deitch scholar Bill Kartalopoulos offers a lengthy essay on the ins and outs of this ever-evolving, ever-expanding world where fantasy, reality, and satire combine, clash, and are sometimes downright indistinguishable.
Bonus! Deitch has also created a brand new story starring Waldo in his twenty-first century post-Alias The Cat state of domestic bliss, stumbling across an army of (French-) talking beavers. Of course, there’s a story behind that...
144 pages, Paperback
First published June 22, 2010
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About the author
Kim Deitch
75 books48 followersKim Deitch has a reserved place at the first table of underground cartoonists. The son of UPA and Terrytoons animator Gene Deitch, Kim was born in 1944 and grew up around the animation business. He began doing comic strips for the East Village Other in 1967, introducing two of his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. In 1969 he succeeded Vaughn Bodé as editor of Gothic Blimp Works, the Other’s underground comics tabloid. During this period he married fellow cartoonist Trina Robbins and had a daughter, Casey. “The Mishkin Saga” was named one of the Top 30 best English-language comics of the 20th Century by The Comics Journal, and the first issue of The Stuff of Dreams received the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 2003. Deitch's recent acclaimed graphic novels include The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Shadowland, Alias the Cat and Deitch's Pictorama, done in collaboration with his brothers Simon and Seth. Deitch remains a true cartoonists’ cartoonist, adored by his peers as much as anyone in the history of the medium.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 4, 2020
Read this with a group. All but one of them assumed the characters were purely fictional, but Smilin' Ed McConnell really did have a kids TV show including a creepy-eyed kid "Buster Brown", played by a little person actor, and "Froggy the Gremlin" who would magically appear after hearing "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!"
That show was bonkers. Far, far worse than Howdy Doody or Kookla, Fran and Ollie. Like a version of Krusty the Klown show as filmed by David Lynch.
Froggy is creepy, but the most nightmare-inducing segments involve "Midnight and Squeaky", a musical cat and mouse. The cat and mouse (really guinea pig) were fastened securely, probably drugged, and had their arms moved by "invisible" wires to make them play organ, cello, and drums. If you are brave enough to watch this clip of them performing "Yes, Jesus Loves Me", it will haunt your dreams forever! (That clip has Andy Devine who took over after Ed's death.)
The story told here is non-linear and weird but goes something like this: Maybe it starts with the true story of Deitch's brother making an offhand remark about how Smilin' Ed's body was never found. Or maybe that isn't how it starts. Alternatively, Kim Deitch has a dream or nightmare involving Smilin' Ed, Froggy, Elvis, etc., where he learns the truth of aliens and demons living inside the earth and cataloging human entertainment. In the dream he is given a web address. On waking, he goes to that website and it tells more of the story day by day, and he writes what it tells him, giving this book. One of the discoveries is that after Smilin' Ed died, his body was replaced by a wooden replica which became possessed by a demon. And so on. Making it more complicated is the fact that all of Deitch's books contain shared characters, like Waldo the demon cat.
The art is fantastic. Black and White in the style of woodcuts, not too different from Jim Woodring's art. The story is confusing, but it ultimately doesn't matter whether you understand it. It was originally printed in separate chapters, so each chapter starts with a re-cap of the previous one.
That show was bonkers. Far, far worse than Howdy Doody or Kookla, Fran and Ollie. Like a version of Krusty the Klown show as filmed by David Lynch.
Froggy is creepy, but the most nightmare-inducing segments involve "Midnight and Squeaky", a musical cat and mouse. The cat and mouse (really guinea pig) were fastened securely, probably drugged, and had their arms moved by "invisible" wires to make them play organ, cello, and drums. If you are brave enough to watch this clip of them performing "Yes, Jesus Loves Me", it will haunt your dreams forever! (That clip has Andy Devine who took over after Ed's death.)
The story told here is non-linear and weird but goes something like this: Maybe it starts with the true story of Deitch's brother making an offhand remark about how Smilin' Ed's body was never found. Or maybe that isn't how it starts. Alternatively, Kim Deitch has a dream or nightmare involving Smilin' Ed, Froggy, Elvis, etc., where he learns the truth of aliens and demons living inside the earth and cataloging human entertainment. In the dream he is given a web address. On waking, he goes to that website and it tells more of the story day by day, and he writes what it tells him, giving this book. One of the discoveries is that after Smilin' Ed died, his body was replaced by a wooden replica which became possessed by a demon. And so on. Making it more complicated is the fact that all of Deitch's books contain shared characters, like Waldo the demon cat.
The art is fantastic. Black and White in the style of woodcuts, not too different from Jim Woodring's art. The story is confusing, but it ultimately doesn't matter whether you understand it. It was originally printed in separate chapters, so each chapter starts with a re-cap of the previous one.
September 18, 2011
Kim Deitch sees his brother off at the bus station to get treatment for drug addiction but before he leaves he reminds Kim of an old kids show they used to watch - Smilin' Ed's Gang - and how Smilin' Ed's body was never found when he died at sea. Intrigued, Kim sets out to discover all he can find about Smilin' Ed but the trail is cold with barely a mention of Smilin' Ed. After reaching a seemingly dead end, the story switches to Waldo the Cat who meets some old demon friends who say they know where Ed is and the trail to find Smilin' Ed takes off!
"Smilin' Ed" is a welcome re-release of the series of comic books collected from the 90s and is bound strongly with high quality paper by those wizards of the graphic art, Fantagraphics. Also included is an introduction/essay on Deitch's work, a new comic book added to the end titled "Consider the Beaver" and a fold out colour montage featuring dozens of Deitch's characters, zipping around his brain.
The seemingly innocuous tale of an old television personality soon takes on horror and sci-fi elements mixing fact with fiction to become a larger, more elaborate and far more interesting story than reality ascribes to the real Smilin' Ed. Demonic possession, Southern magic, a murderous frog and puppet show, aliens, a museum of pop culture, and of course Waldo all mix together in this excellent graphic novel.
Kim Deitch's inimitable, original and incredibly well crafted drawing style is once again the centrepiece of this brilliant book. One of the pioneers of the underground comics movement from the 60s, I feel the place R. Crumb holds in today's culture should share space to include Kim Deitch whose work has only gotten better with time. "Smilin' Ed" is a well written, well told, and above all beautifully illustrated comic book that is easily one of the best books I've read in months, and is great fun. Highly recommended.
"Smilin' Ed" is a welcome re-release of the series of comic books collected from the 90s and is bound strongly with high quality paper by those wizards of the graphic art, Fantagraphics. Also included is an introduction/essay on Deitch's work, a new comic book added to the end titled "Consider the Beaver" and a fold out colour montage featuring dozens of Deitch's characters, zipping around his brain.
The seemingly innocuous tale of an old television personality soon takes on horror and sci-fi elements mixing fact with fiction to become a larger, more elaborate and far more interesting story than reality ascribes to the real Smilin' Ed. Demonic possession, Southern magic, a murderous frog and puppet show, aliens, a museum of pop culture, and of course Waldo all mix together in this excellent graphic novel.
Kim Deitch's inimitable, original and incredibly well crafted drawing style is once again the centrepiece of this brilliant book. One of the pioneers of the underground comics movement from the 60s, I feel the place R. Crumb holds in today's culture should share space to include Kim Deitch whose work has only gotten better with time. "Smilin' Ed" is a well written, well told, and above all beautifully illustrated comic book that is easily one of the best books I've read in months, and is great fun. Highly recommended.
August 22, 2012
One of my friends made a remark recently in one of his Goodreads reviews, saying that essentially the difference between a four and five star review is one of personal connection. I couldn't agree more.
This is the second Kim Deitch book I've read, and like the first one I read, Shadowland, this one gets five stars. Deitch's work resonates on a personal level for me. I enjoy stories that are in different ways weird, dark, and absurd, but there has to be a level of truth or resonance among all the absurdism. It's difficult to parse the difference, and maybe I could if I really deconstructed everything I read, but then it might lose some of its magic. I know when I'm moved, and I know when I'm not.
The premise of The Search For Smilin' Ed finds Kim Deitch (as a character in his own comic) trying to find out the circumstances surrounding the death of a 1940's kid's TV show personality named Smilin' Ed. Then the narrative is taken over by one of Deitch's characters, a cat demon from hell named Waldo, who goes on to find out the "truth" about Smilin' Ed, his death, and the mysterious character, Froggy. Many of Deitch's other characters from previous comics make cameos, like the grey men, the tiny aliens that record all of humanity's art and entertainment, Doc Ledicker, and others.
As with his other works, Smilin' Ed has several layers of "meta" narrative in which stories overlap with other stories, all done very well and appropriate to the story.
I'm no artist, so I don't know how to comment upon Deitch's artistic style. I can say that I love the depictions of his characters, usually taking something seemingly harmless and infusing it with great power or potential for darkness. Each panel tells the story well, often with enough detail to be overwhelming at first glance. Sometimes I would read the panel and just stare at the drawings to get a sense of their creation.
Great work. Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Richard Sala and Dame Darcy.
This is the second Kim Deitch book I've read, and like the first one I read, Shadowland, this one gets five stars. Deitch's work resonates on a personal level for me. I enjoy stories that are in different ways weird, dark, and absurd, but there has to be a level of truth or resonance among all the absurdism. It's difficult to parse the difference, and maybe I could if I really deconstructed everything I read, but then it might lose some of its magic. I know when I'm moved, and I know when I'm not.
The premise of The Search For Smilin' Ed finds Kim Deitch (as a character in his own comic) trying to find out the circumstances surrounding the death of a 1940's kid's TV show personality named Smilin' Ed. Then the narrative is taken over by one of Deitch's characters, a cat demon from hell named Waldo, who goes on to find out the "truth" about Smilin' Ed, his death, and the mysterious character, Froggy. Many of Deitch's other characters from previous comics make cameos, like the grey men, the tiny aliens that record all of humanity's art and entertainment, Doc Ledicker, and others.
As with his other works, Smilin' Ed has several layers of "meta" narrative in which stories overlap with other stories, all done very well and appropriate to the story.
I'm no artist, so I don't know how to comment upon Deitch's artistic style. I can say that I love the depictions of his characters, usually taking something seemingly harmless and infusing it with great power or potential for darkness. Each panel tells the story well, often with enough detail to be overwhelming at first glance. Sometimes I would read the panel and just stare at the drawings to get a sense of their creation.
Great work. Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Richard Sala and Dame Darcy.
April 5, 2018
I typically love Deitch's work, but this one felt flat to me. Too much exposition, too little character. The plot seemed to pull in a few too many directions. Some good ideas filtered through, some crazy twists, but it never felt like a cohesive, settled narrative. The epilogue was also oddly pessimistic for a Deitch book. I'd still recommend nearly anything the man does, but this book isn't the best place to start.
March 28, 2011
Deitch makes embedded narratives -- flashbacks within flashbacks, a TV show that elaborates on events that occurred in the lives of the people watching the show, a dream that yields the URL of a website containing the script of the next chapter of Deitch's book, a comic book that contains panels that happened several pages ago ...... To make matters more convoluted, the various narrators (including Deitch himself, who appears as a character) are not only unreliable, but also sometimes drunk, asleep, demonic, or dead. The cartoonist does a miraculous job to keep all of these threads sorted, and weave them into an entertaining quest.
Entertainment itself is one of Deitch's primary subjects in this book. His love for entertainments that some consider trashy -- early TV variety programs, puppet shows, cartoons, and comic books -- leads him to a fascination with the off-stage, off-camera, off-panel lives of the characters who populate these entertainments. In this off-universe, Deitch's stories come to life. His characters, who all look like wooden puppets to some degree, are creepy embodiments of the human desire to peek behind the music, to know more, to wikipedia it, to let our curiosity turn into obsession, and to let our obsession become the entertainment.
This one was real good, but my sense is that the Mishkin-related stories are still Deitch's high point, emotionally and entertainment-wise. Got to dig up Boulevard of Broken Dreams and check if my memory's right.
Entertainment itself is one of Deitch's primary subjects in this book. His love for entertainments that some consider trashy -- early TV variety programs, puppet shows, cartoons, and comic books -- leads him to a fascination with the off-stage, off-camera, off-panel lives of the characters who populate these entertainments. In this off-universe, Deitch's stories come to life. His characters, who all look like wooden puppets to some degree, are creepy embodiments of the human desire to peek behind the music, to know more, to wikipedia it, to let our curiosity turn into obsession, and to let our obsession become the entertainment.
This one was real good, but my sense is that the Mishkin-related stories are still Deitch's high point, emotionally and entertainment-wise. Got to dig up Boulevard of Broken Dreams and check if my memory's right.
August 9, 2017
This is one of the weirdest books
April 1, 2018
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams is one of my favorite books ever, but I'd never read any other long-form Deitch before The Search for Smilin' Ed. There were a lot of neat ideas in this one, and some neat ways to tie them together, and the artwork is, as always, top-notch. Ultimately, though, I found that work unsatisfying: a lot of the stuff seemed tacked on, such as the chapter where Waldo looks at old chapters (a clip show?) or the non-sequitur "sequel" that has less to do with the story than other Deitch works do. If the book had been 1/2-2/3 of the length, pared down to the story, and story within, it would have been a much stronger work. I didn't regret reading it, but I was glad I'd gotten it from a library rather than having purchased it.
July 15, 2010
More weird wonderful and whacked out wanderings and wonderings of a great strange mind! I love this story-teller, I love his stories! Some edgy humor on a psychedelic ride down nostalgia (& dementia) lane. Quirky jerky black and white drawings, I find to be crudely genius, have a wonderful flow. It's like a fugue. Superb.
September 19, 2010
I did not like this, but I will concede it was amazing. Deitch is a cartoon genius, and like R. Crumb, I am somewhat disgusted by his talent. A trippy cross between MC Escher and Crumb, The Search for Smilin' Ed follows Deitch's quest to track down the weird children's show host who disappeared mysteriously in 1954. WEIRD children's show with Buster Brown and Froggy the gremlin.
July 18, 2010
A typically fascinating elaboration on the alternate universe that Deitch has been exploring for 40 or more years now.
October 10, 2010
FIrst time I'd read anything by Kim Deitch and found it really fun. Story sort of petered out/was of no consequence, but a lot of cool images and notions.
March 26, 2011
Pure Genius. Twilight Zone meets RAW.
July 12, 2012
Surreal romp through quirky nostalgia, kitsch, daemons, aliens & even pygmies ! Guess common theme since just encountered in other recent graphic novel 'Ed the Happy Clown'.
November 25, 2012
A tapestry of brilliant surreality that puts to shame the most hilarious and terrifying LSD trips I've had. Each page is a masterpiece.
April 6, 2011
Deitch at his finest and weirdest. Bizarre and inventive. Fun.
November 19, 2014
h 22.2
w 15.3
d 1.8
bought new and damaged
w 15.3
d 1.8
bought new and damaged
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews