Fred The Clown In... The Iron Duchess — Roger Langridge

This nearly wordless romp from master cartoonist Roger Langridge is the author''s paean to the silent, slapstick comedies of the 1910s and ''20s, spun for a contemporary audience, starring his most popular character. It finds our hero Fred pitching the woo to a lovely equestrian. But with matrimony-minded fathers, boorish beaux, and malicious mad scientists interfering at every opportunity, what''s a clown-and his faithful pig companion-to do? Langridge''s velvety grays evoke the silent films of his patron saint, Buster Keaton (and, in this volume particularly, the latter''s masterpiece, The General). His craft is at a zenith, and captures every screwball twist and turn of the heiress''s and our hero''s romantic roundabout.