This is a collection of some of the earliest of Scott Roberts’ long-running PATTY CAKE series, taken from the first three (of nine) issues self-published by Roberts (as Permanent Press) in 1994-1995. By the time of this book it was on the fourth series, being published by Slave Labor imprint Amaze Ink, eventually seeing at least 44 issues by 2005, many of them double sized, with as many as 52 pages of content from cover to cover.
This is pretty good stuff. I first read this material a few years after it was done, after I'd already some of Roberts' later work. I think he improved very quickly and is much more confident and polished within a year, but there's a lot of heart and potential in this rough earlier material. Roberts is heavily inspired by classic humour comics, most notably Harvey Kurtzman, with a frantic energy and an anything-for-the-gag ethos. Even early on he varies the contents from longer stories to single page strips, pin-ups, phony ads and activity pages. He also introduces a few of the cast of family and friends that join young Patricia Bakerman in her journey to discover how the world works, a cast which would grow much more in later issues.
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