LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE Volume Two: 1932 <i> by Harold Gray (Fantagraphics Books: $14.95) </i>

Ideal reading for a nostalgia buff. By 1932, Gray had given up trying to do a humorous strip and was developing the soap opera/adventure format that made “Annie” famous. Eleven-year-old Annie talks like a Reagan Republican 50 years before the fact, extolling the virtues of thrift, hard work and private enterprise. Billionaire “Daddy” Warbucks counts as a good guy because he uses his wealth to create jobs. (Leapin’ Lizards--is that the origin of the “trickle down” theory?) Included in this collection is Warbucks’ forgotten marriage to the gold-digging ex-show girl Trixie Tinkle, who sent Annie to Clara Treat’s reformatory (where, decades later, she would sing “Tomorrow”).