How illustration in Davy Crockett Saves the world support the tone on the Tall Tale

hanzer (Gold Fever!) raids the annals of American history once again, emerging with a feisty tall tale inspired by the Davy Crockett almanacs published in the 19th century. Assuring readers that "every single word is true, unless it is false," she spins a rollicking yarn of how Crockett (who could "whip ten times his weight in wildcats and drink the Mississippi River dry") saves the world from a disastrous collision with Halley's Comet. Deep in the woods with his pet bear, Death Hug, Crockett is bent on wooing "purty" Sally Sugartree, unaware that the president has advertised for his help to reign in the comet. Once Crockett finds out he's needed, he's off "like a high-powered hurrycane," climbing to the top of a high mountain and leaping onto the comet. In the end, a triumphant Crockett gets both the girl and his coonskin cap (to cover what's left of his comet-singed hair). Schanzer's lickety-split pace and picaresque prose are equal parts swagger and sass, and her vibrant, color-drenched paintings extend the spirited tone. Careful attention to comic detail and visual echoes of the genre's hallmark exaggeration (Crockett, for instance, has the chiseled-jaw and popping muscles of a Disney hero) frame this zesty slice of Americana admirably.

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