I remember the comic strip "Dondi" from my childhood, and I liked it a lot. Dondi is a 6-year old WWII Italian orphan who stows away on a Navy ship headed for America, to be with his two G.I. buddies. There is a fair amount of drama when Dondi is discovered and his fate is wangled over by the authorities. This is a heartwarming strip that celebrates old-fashioned American virtues. If you crossed "Gasoline Alley" with "Little Orphan Annie" and "The Heart of Juliet Jones", you'd get something very similar to this strip, although "Dondi" is not quite in their league. But I have quite a soft spot for the strip; the art is fine, and the storylines and emotions never quite become too cloying. My only beef so far is that the rich dowager who is forced by the terms of her dead son's will to raise Dondi, Mrs. McGowan, is such a hateful harpy that her character becomes unbelievable and two-dimensional. I hope that the second volume reveals some smidgen of humanity in her. ( )