I read “It Takes Two to Tickle,” my first Rose is Rose comic over ten years ago, and it was one of my favorite books. I must have read it twenty times over!
Rose is Rose is a comic serial by Pat Brady, about the Gumbo family composed of Rose (the mom), Jimbo (the dad), and baby Pasquale, running since 1984. Rose and Jimbo are the sweetest couple, and Pasquale is the cutest baby ever with his garbled babbling, and the comics generally deal with everyday situations in the Gumbo household.
Here are some favorite strips from that collection:
Last year I got a bunch of new Rose is Rose comic collections: License to Dream, Right on the Lips, and Red Carpet Rose, and I’ve been  reading them over the last few weeks, and somehow I don’t find the comics as appealing as they used to be.
For one thing, there are too many changes in the newer strips. Â Pasquale loses his baby talk (Boo! Apparently he’s been speaking straight since 1991), they get a cat named Peekaboo, and Rose has a biker chick alter ego for when she fantasizes about a more glamorous life. Even Pasquale has elaborate fantasies — a lot of space exploration — which suspiciously remind me of Calvin and Hobbes. Sheesh, even the cat has fantasies!
And then the sappy-ness! The old strips were cute and laugh out loud funny. The new strips are cutesy and I didn’t find much humor in the three collections I read.
I also learned that another artist has been drawing the comics since 2004! I liked Pat Brady’s original art more.
If comics can “jump the shark” I’m guessing Rose is Rose jumped the shark when Pasquale started talking!
***
Rose is Rose License to Dream, Red Carpet Rose and Right on the Lips, all softcover
all 2/5 stars
Books 15-17 of 2010
[amazonify]::omakase::300:250[/amazonify]