Toybox Americana: Characters Met Along the Way

Edition excerpt from Toybox Americana: Characters Met Along the Way (2020): A collection of flash fiction and illustrations celebrating the hardscrabble underbelly of Americana. From the rail yards of San Francisco to the dive bars of St. Louis, cartoonist Tim Lane has taken pen in hand to chronicle scenes of American life. Scores of motley characters — roughed-up boxers, bleary gamblers, rowdy winos, philosophical rail riders, acrobatic fire-swallowers, femmes fatale — weave together into the rich tapestry of Lane's America. Through these sharply observed slice-of-life stories, illustrations, and comics Lane captures the spirit of the hardscrabble American character. A uniquely designed collection of images and prose, Toybox Americana, like the culture it explores, is at once meditative and brimming with life.