Review by C.J. Bunce
It’s no accident Quacky rhymes with wacky. At least that’s apt when it comes to cartoonist Jim Woodring’s new look at his familiar character Frank in the illustrated Big Little Book-formatted book Quacky, available for pre-order now here at Amazon. The anthropomorphic tales of A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, early Walt Disney animation, Frank Cho’s Liberty Meadows–visual storytelling across the decades finds its way into Frank’s encounters in his familiar world.
The book is all very 1920s to 1930s in its primitive style, both in its storytelling and artwork. There’s a Boxcar Willy vibe, and Walt Disney seems to be conjured for Woodring’s “everycreature” Frank, who seems a species cousin of Disney’s own lovable Goofy.
It’s all very cartoony, except when it isn’t. That’s when the more pastoral life of living in the realm of “the Unifactor” bends into the angst and uncertainties of our own world, via similarity of experiences. It’s there that the story captures what Hayao Miyazaki explores in his animated books and films–a search for something personal via the fantastical.
But it’s the ease in which Woodring pulls the reader into the good of Frank that will keep them coming back for more. Here that’s the return of Frank in a story after 35 years, along with his loyal whatsit pals Pupshaw and Pushpaw, and a newcomer–a Temple Dog puppy named Nopper. It’s the sad natural fate of Nopper that gives the story its gravitas.
The title character Quacky, a duck-inspired fellow sets the action, angst, heartbreak, and drama into action. What’s going on here? Maybe it will appeal more to adults. Maybe a precocious young reader will be drawn to more than the unusual characters. Maybe it’s too much for the young set? Manhog is something shocking and all-out creepy, and whenever he arises it just feels like something is very wrong here.
In his own, far earlier allegories Thomas Hobbes called a life in the state of nature from a socio-political standpoint “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” If you wanted to read that literally you might land on Woodring’s story of Frank and his friends in the allegories of this new story. Neither “crude” nor “reductionist,” Woodring’s simplicity is trickery–that crisp style, those carefully shaded buildings are as powerful stuff as the woodcuts of Dürer. Just different.
The main story clocks in at 220 pages, but it’s followed by a shorter tale called “Cunningham–Hoggy Goes Hogwild,” an even wackier story about a group of porcine characters.
From the typeface to the presentation, the small 3×4-inch, one-inch thick style book format, to the writing style, the look of the characters, and the nature of the story itself, Woodring has evoked something very retro, very vintage American, very early 20th century, something at the roots of modern comics storytelling but with a modern meta twist. For those willing to step into something curious, absurd, different, and somewhat wacky, you can pre-order Jim Woodring’s Quacky from Fantagraphics now here at Amazon. It arrives in bookshops August 11, 2026.
