An anthology of the innovative vertical comic strip by the legendary MAD Magazine contributor—with an introduction by Stephen Colbert. Tall Tales was a one-of-a-kind newspaper strip that could only have come from the mind of Al Jaffee. While other newspaper strips are square, single-panel or multiple-panel horizontal gag cartoons, Jaffee, known for the Fold-In in MAD Magazine, once again altered the format of his work to create a vertical strip—the first, and last, in newspaper history. The original comic strip was syndicated internationally by the New York Herald Tribune from 1957–1963. This anthology contains the best 120 wordless strips out of over 2,200, scanned from the original files. The book features a new preface by Jaffee and an introduction by Stephen Colbert.

This collection of stories includes amazing and funny stories about American legends Paul Bunyan, Sal Fink, Stormalong, Bess Call, John Henry, Annie Oakley, and Johnny Appleseed.

One number each year includes Annual bibliography of Commonwealth literature.

We think of Zeus as the mightiest god of Greece, accompanied by his servants Force, Might and Victory,—the Cloud-gatherer, the Rain-giver, the Thunderer, the Lightning-hurler, the Sender of Prodigies, the Guider of Stars, the Ruler of other gods and men, whom even Poseidon the Earth-shaker must obey. The very name reverberates with majesty, power, dominion. But the beginnings of this vast deity were in darkness and danger. True, the reign of his father Kronos was that Golden Age when, in the fresh morning of the world, "Heat and Cold were not yet at strife, the Seasons had not begun their mystic dance, and one mild and equable climate stretched from pole to pole; when the trees bore fruit and the vine her purple clusters all the year, and honey-dew dripped from the laurel and juniper which are now so bitter; when flowers of every hue filled the air with perpetual fragrance, the lion gambolled with the kid, and the unfanged serpent was as harmless as the dove"; when over-curious Pandora not yet having released her boxful of ills, men had neither care nor sickness nor old age, but, after centuries of blissful calm, faded like flowers and became kindly spirit-guardians of their successors. Yet amid this charming serenity Kronos could never forget the curse of his father Uranus whom he had overthrown, and the prophecy that he himself should in his turn be cast down by his own children. "Wherefore being resolved to defeat that prophecy, he swallowed each child his wife Rhea brought forth, as soon as it was born. When Rhea had thus lost five babes,—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon—and knew herself about to bear yet another, she made her prayer to Uranus her ancient sire, imploring counsel and aid.

"Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett, Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry have all become heroes of American folklore. Some of them, like Crokett, were real, but all have become the subject of tall tales. This is a folksy history of the United States, told as if the characters were all real. This panoramic (if completely untrue) history begins with Columbus. . . . En route to its end in the 1940s (where traditional American heroes are enlisted to fight in World War II), it covers the great and small events of our national history, including the overlooked, but important ones, such as the invention of the prairie dog."—Washington Post Book World

This wonderful book is a collection of nine tall tales from America by renowned children’s author Irwin Shapiro: Pecos Bill, Anthony and the Mossbunker, Old Stormalong, Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crockett, the Yaller Blossom o’ the Forest, Sam Patch’s Last Leap, Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Joe Magarac the Steel Man. Illustrated throughout by Al Schmidt.

The perfect addition to every family’s home library and just right for sharing aloud, American Tall Tales introduces readers to America’s first folk heroes in nine wildly exaggerated and downright funny stories. Here are Paul Bunyan, that king-sized lumberjack who could fell “ten white pines with a single swing”; John Henry, with his mighty hammer; Mose, old New York’s biggest, bravest fireman; Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind, who could “outgrin, outsnort, outrun, outlift, outsneeze, outsleep, outlie any varmint”; and other uniquely American characters, together in one superb collection. In the tradition of the original nineteenth-century storytellers, Mary Pope Osborne compiles, edits, and adds her own two cents’ worth—and also supplies fascinating historical headnotes. Michael McCurdy’s robust colored wood engravings recall an earlier time, perfectly capturing all the vitality of the men and women who carved a new country out of the North American wilderness.

Eight exciting classic American Tall Tales! This collection includes the famed stories of Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Stormalong, Mike Fink, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, and Joe Magarac, with evocative illustrations by Richard M. Powers.