Three stories - one good and two excellent. I've long been familiar with the Eonite story - it's interesting, with the introduction of Punjab, and the rise and fall of Eonite. I don't like Eli Eon, though - silly man - and the whole thing is a little too convenient (the Depression is over...well, not for real, so we have to kill this wonderful discovery...). Then Daddy goes off again, though this time Annie's being left on her own really couldn't have been helped. She escapes from the Tong men who captured her and Wun Wey - and falls into Hollywood and acting. I've read 9/10ths of this story a dozen times, but the book I had it in quit on New Year's Day, after the movie and all but with Janey still sick (but recovering) and Mr. Gamble just finding out what's going on. It's great to get the ending! Janey and Gamble, one big gamble that goes wrong - and Annie pulls out to let them make their own way without having to support her. Silly girl. I think she just gets itchy feet and wants to be out on her own again. Anyway - then the third story, which I'd never read before - Jack Boot. Annie's adventures getting to him are exciting in themselves, and she's glad to be settled down for a while. She makes some friends - adults who respect her grit and abilities - and then things start getting tangled up. Thirty years ago comes back to haunt three men...but one of them does something about it! Fred Free's action and hard work straighten out an old injustice - though poor girl (Jack's fiancee), it's too late for her. And Annie escapes from the work farm and is out on her own again, though she sends Jack a letter to tell him so. I like Jack and Fred - nice guys, though plenty tough. Love it. ( )

Harold Gray would probably have been a Tea Party/Libertarian today, but I've always been a sucker for this strip. I think it's because he doesn't come off as mean-spirited as the TP folks today do. Yes, he generally opposes government assistance programs and most taxes. But more frequently, LOA extols the homey virtues of helping your neighbor, and giving folks a break when they're down and out. In one episode, Warbucks refuses to have his security men fire on a mob that is destroying his factory, because lives are more important than buildings. And there's a sequence where, when a character who's been poor most of his life comes into a $1 million windfall, he spends it to start a home for orphans that truly has their well-being at heart. Gray may have been the first "compassionate conservative". At any rate, I think "Little Orphan Annie" works for me because Gray truly believed in the virtues his characters displayed. And this book contains what is probably Gray's greatest creative period. The memorable character of Punjab, introduced in the last book, is expanded on here. Warbucks makes and loses a fortune with Eli Eon and his wonder material, "Eonite". Annie is chased by the Chinese Tong and escapes into the anonymity of Hollywood and the movies. Later, on the road, she is taken in and adopted by the gruff old bachelor Jack Boot. With almost any other author, this could have had creepy undertones, but in Gray's hands, this whole episode is seen only in the innocent aspect that Gray intended. That's why LOA works so well: It's cornpone, but it's sincere cornpone. ( )