In-Class Reading: Little Orphan Annie

During our class’s time in the library, I read through some of the Little Orphan Annie comic strips by Harold Gray. I’ll preface this with a confession: as of the time of this post, I have never seen any Annie movie... Except for Annie from 2014, but no one counts that. The only Annie knowledge I knew was absorbed through cultural osmosis. I wasn't even aware that Annie was a comic until a few years ago.
            What surprised me most about the Annie strip was that it had continuity and an ongoing story. Annie goes through many different foster parents before being sent back or running away. It’s also quite sad: even if the strip of the week might have a joke for an ending, the story itself is very depressing as it is telling of even foster kids going through the system today.
            One thing that I thought would be distracting was the art style. The cover shows Annie and her dog Sandy with these humongous egg-shaped eyes, which initially turned me off to the reading when I first saw it a couple years back. Within the comic itself, however, the eyes are much smaller, resembling dot eyes that aren’t colored in more than eggs. The style is comprised of thin outlines, sometimes filled with either black or cross-hatching. The backgrounds are fairly minimal and the staging is fairly flat, but this is so the characters pop out.
            All in all, it’s good and it had me engaged, but I did find it fairly depressing upon reflection. I wouldn’t mind reading more of it, but I personally would prefer to read something a little more uplifting.

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