When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours: Joe Teller -- A Portrait by His Kid

When Teller, the quiet half of the Penn and Teller showbiz team, made one of his monthly Philadelphia visits to see his parents, Joe and Irene (""Pad"" and ""Mam""), he was shown 100 unpublished cartoons his father drew in 1939. These ""wryly observed scenes of Philadelphia street life,"" as Teller describes them, are in a loose, sketchy style imitative of the great George Lichty (1905-1983), famed for his long-run syndicated ""Grin and Bear It."" Teller and his father's ""memories began to pump and the stories flowed"" after they opened boxes of old letters that Teller read out loud (learning for the first time about a period in his parents' lives that he knew nothing about--such as the fact that his father's name is really Israel Max Teller). Joe's Depression-era hobo adventures led to travels throughout the U.S., Canada and Alaska, and by 1933, he returned to Philadelphia for art study. After Joe and Irene met during evening art classes, they married, and Joe worked half-days as a Philadelphia Inquirer copy boy. When the Inquirer rejected his cartoons, he moved into advertising art just as WWII began. Employing excerpts from letters and postcards, Teller successfully re-creates the world of his parents in a relaxed writing style of light humor and easy (yet highly effective) transitions between the past and present. The book is illustrated with 20 of Joe Teller's paintings in color and 50 of his b&w cartoons, plus a half-dozen photos. (Dec. 4) Forecast: Fans of the Penn and Teller team are certain to take an interest in this entertaining and poignant book, with its striking father-son cover photograph, but since Teller chooses not to speak as a performer, how will he promote the book?