August 2023 MBR The Humor Shelf

The Humor Shelf

People's Park Cartoon Chronicles
Carol Denney
Regent Press
2747 Regent St., Berkeley, CA 94705
www.regentpress.net
9781587906565, $18.00, PB, 32pp

https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Park-CartoonChronicles-Carol-Denney/dp/1587906562

Synopsis: With the publication of "People's Park Cartoon Chronicles", Carol Denny presented a color collection of cartoons created for and about People's Park highlighting its history, gardens, cast of characters, and its strangely comedic 50-plus year struggle against the University of California's efforts to convert it into sports courts, housing, anything but what it is; a community-built, user-developed garden that played a role in stopping the Vietnam War.

The subjects covered with great humor and originality include People's Park's history, People's Park's inherent comedy, People's Park's struggle against the recent effort to develop it into 17 stories of high-end housing, the political players dedicated to ending its 50-plus years of providing music, poetry, community gardens, a community stage and dance space for everyone, the puns, the punchlines, the parody, the bone-crunching court battles and the avian audience that observes it all from above.

Critique: Local political satire at its very best, "People's Park Cartoon Chronicles" by accomplished cartoonist Carol Denny is a fun and thought-provoking read from cover to cover. Available in a large format paperback edition (11 x 0.08 x 8.5 inches), "People's Park Cartoon Chronicles" is unabashedly recommended for personal, community, college, and university library Contemporary American Humor collections.

Editorial Note: Carol Denney (http://www.caroldenney.com) started the satirical Pepper Spray Times thirty years ago to help highlight local and national political issues and worked several years as a songwriter and cast member of TwitWit Radio for KPFA in Berkeley. She became a cartoonist after Donald Trump's election in 2016, chronicling the overwhelming humor in local and national events working for the Bay Guardian, the Berkeley Daily Planet, and the Berkeley Times. The People's Park Cartoon Chronicles is a collection first shown at the Canessa Gallery in San Francisco.

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