This book is filled with page after page of Posy Simmonds's fantastically well drawn, witty, insightful comics about middle-aged members of the English middle class who emerged from the idealism of the 1960s into the realities of the conservative 1980s. It is work has been criminally neglected here in the USA .   Mrs Weber's Omnibus  was published in the UK in 2012.  This import edition combines six previous collections of the strips that originally ran in The Guardian UK throughout the 1980s (from 1979 to 1993, to be more exact) into one massive (over 4 lbs), horizontally formatted (10 1/2”  x 8 1/2”), 488 page hardcover volume which presents the complete collected strips that ran in the Guardian throughout the 1980s (from 1979 to 1993, to be more exact).

The strips collected here are the equivalent of US Newspaper Sunday strips, taking up a half-page of the newspaper.  Most are self contained, but there are various degrees of continuity involved.  Also, there are a number of strips that must have originally appeared as full pages in The Guardian and so are reproduced as two-pagers here (they all divide neatly, so there's no weird reformatting involved).  One of the books collected is a duo-tone with red dropped into the B&W, and there's also a full color section towards the end, but the bulk of the work is in black & white. 

And what work it is!  Casual readers will find plenty to enjoy simply reading the strips, but comics fans and, particularly, fellow cartoonists, will discover extra layers of enjoyment and appreciation at the nuanced cartooning, attention to detail and general all around high level of craft embodied in the work collected here.

RECOMMENDED!

Found in the Archives:  ONE nice copy. (there may be another...)