Sara Ryan

One day when I was home sick from junior high, my mom read to me about Archy, the vers libre poet reincarnated in the body of a cockroach, and his friend Mehitabel the cat, who may or may not be the reincarnation of Cleopatra. I fell in love with them both, and with the George Herriman illustrations.

A few things I learned about from Archy:

• vers libre
• Prohibition and its discontents
• the use of monkey glands to promote longevity
• the Pythagorean theory of the transmigration of souls
• the word corybantic
• the effects of erosion

Archy, along with Pogo, demonstrated how serious funny animals (and insects) could be.