Before authoring one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time, cartoonist Crockett Johnson created the comic strip Barnaby for over ten years (1942 to 1952). It never won a broad following, but it was and is a critical favorite. Barnaby revolved around a precocious five-year-old named Barnaby Baxter and his fairy godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley. Yet O’Malley, a cigar-chomping, bumbling con-artist and fast-talker, was not your typical protector. His grasp of magic was specious at best, limited to occasional flashes, and often aided and abetted by his fellow members in The Elves, Leprechauns, Gnomes, and Little Men’s Chowder & Marching Society. This five-volume Barnaby series will collect the entirety of the original newspaper strips from 1942-1952. Barnaby Vol. 1 will collect all the strips from 1942 and 1943.