Cartoons Books

This first book of stone soup is wonderful. I finally understand where the characters began and laughed all the way through. The drawings are less refined than the most recent comics, but I enjoy seeing the figures improve as the writing gets sharper.

How completely, utterly *refreshing* to read a comic strip where the female characters don't value themselves based on their waist measurements, their spendthrift shopping habits, or by how men see them. How wonderful and hilarious to see a comic-strip Mom who's got better things to do than become the family doormat -- Val's no-nonsense dealings with the kids is a refreshing change from the usual Mommy-clean-my-mess (from husband as well as kids) in most family comic strips. Of course STONE SOUP is feminist (Oh! I just said the "f" word!) -- it dares to presume that female characters can carry a comic strip all by themselves, and be funny and interesting in and of themselves, and that families come in all shapes and sizes. Naturally it's taken years for Eliot to come out with a *second* collection of these wonderful strips while the bulimia manual CATHY and the formulaic mommy-doormat FOXTROT are on their umpteenth releases -- some people are just so *threatened* by real women, aren't they?

I read a lot of comic strips and most make me smile, some invoke a chuckle. Stone Soup is the only one that makes me laugh out loud over and over. My refrigerator is covered in Stone Soup and so is the wall of my cubicle at work. BUY THIS BOOK AND THE SECOND COLLECTION, YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

There seems to be a lot of debate going on in the previous reviews over whether or not Stone Soup is feminist. My opinion: of course it is! And it's quite refreshing to see a comic strip that isn't afraid to be. Better yet, the strip is never preachy and, unlike Foxtrot (to which it gets compared frequently), it's almost always funny. I've also seen a lot of comparisons to For Better or for Worse (helped along perhaps by the fact that Lynn Johnston wrote the introduction to this collection) which I find closer to the truth. The big difference there is that unlike FBoFW, Stone Soup is almost never sentimental. Eliot always finds a way to squeeze a laugh out of good times and bad, without dwelling on her storylines or overdeveloping them. While her focus may be on single mothers, her humor is accessible to one and all. And of course, it helps that Val and the gang always manage to keep their sanity intact at the end of each story!

Someone below called this a feminist comic strip but I think that's misleading, especially given the current difficulties in just defining that word. Yes, it happens to have several female characters, and yes it's not a stereotypical mom-dad-dog-2.4-kids-wagon-picket-fence family, BUT: This strip is about all of us, everyone of every sex and age and family style, and it's enjoyable to (and enjoyed by) a wide range of people -- even ordinary traditional people and even (gasp) men! My husband loves it, my 60-something dad loves it, and so on. I think the publisher's blurb on the back of the second Stone Soup collection ("You Can't Say Boobs On Sunday") got it right: "Anyone who's ever had a family, been in a family, or known a family seems to love Stone Soup. ... Readers see themselves and their families in Stone Soup, and they love it." That goes for people who don't consider themselves family-oriented, and for people who do.

Everyone I've known who's read any Stone Soup has enjoyed it and wound up quoting or passing around some of the strips.

Recommended reading for everyone except total grumps, I say.

I caught the tail end of the Li'l Abner series as a child in the 1960's and remember loving it. I recently started looking for some collections in libraries, but couldn't find any so I looked on Amazon and found this volume and bought it. I've had a great time reading it and even though the things it satirizes occurred before I was born, I'm familiar with much of them through my study of history. Much of what is satirized is applicable to any time and is still fresh.

I've recently been reading some of the classic satire of Voltaire (Candide) and Rabelais (Gargantua and Pantagruel) and this seems to fit right in with that style. I guess I have a warped sense of humor. I wish today's comics were this good.

I enjoyed the artwork and appreciated the explanations at the end of the book highlighting some of the items that someone born after that era may have missed. I highly recommend this book. I will probably order more volumes.

Grew up reading this series. Now I have a permanent copy of my own. Good price and great product for comics junkies.

I bought this volume (and volumes 2-4) for my Dad for Christmas because he was such a big L'il Abner fan when I was a kid in the 60's. When they arrived I just had to sit down and read them all before wrapping them up! L'il Abner is a lens focused on it's own era in time, totally tongue-in-cheek! For rollicking fun and biting satire these comics can't be beat!

These are Sunday Li'l Abner pages, penciled by comics legend Frank Frazetta. In my opinion, Li'l Abner was the greatest comic stip of all time. The strip was fantastic during the 1950s, so you can't go wrong here. It seems like this was released because of the Frazetta connection, but the art looks pretty much like all other Li'l Abner art. Frazetta was clearly drawing as close as he could to Al Capp's style. But any excuse to have Li'l Abner strips released works for me. Highly recommended.

Lil Abner always had a strong fan club that allowed the reprinting of the daily strips by Kitchen Sink press for about 25 volumes, which if there was no fan base, only one or two volumes would have been published.

In addition,we are very lucky that Frazetta's reputation and fan club would allow the printing of a comic strip that John Steinbeck once stated, its author, Al Capp, should be given the Putszler (excuse the spelling) prize.

Al Capp was a master satirist and storyteller, who would have one acclaim like Mark Twain or O'Henry if not for the snob attitude toward comic strips.

This is shown here. The 50-year-old color strips are re-printed in a fine manner with expert commentary about the period they were written in by Denis Kitchen.

Beware, they feature "politically incorrect" well-endowed women, and one main character, Daisy Mae, as mostly submissive, which would not be allowed in comic strips today as it would raise the ire of feminists and other "progressive" people.

On the other hand, it features the two main male characters, Abner and Pappy, as idiots or wimps, Abner and his brother Tiny as "hunks", and the one of the main women characters, Mammy as the leader of the Yokum clan, who occassionally beats Pappy, which are allowed in comic strips today as the "Progressives" seem to have no problem with this.

Remember, vintage comic strip reprints do not generate big bucks, some even lose money. They are produced out of great admiration for the strips, and we should be grateful for the publishers for doing so.


By the way, why does Amazon include a 'NO' in 'was this review helpful to you?'. People are only human and don't like opinions that differ from themselves. With some who are less mature, this the 'NO' makes it too easy express such displeasure.

Are they trying to discourage negative reviews, hence not purchase the CD. Such reviews only help a person in not being dissatisfied a product that received positive reviews

I can't believe I've had this book all these years and I've only finally gotten around to writing a quick review of it NOW. Suffice to say, it's a stumper. It was ground-breaking when the original web comic came out almost a decade ago, and remains as fresh-creative-exciting and charming today as it did today.

I would love to see a VOLUME TWO! That seems unlikely, on paper, but you can always see the poor cousin online version. Not the same for bedside reading, tho.

Charly, kiddo, yr still batting 100 or 400 or whatever is a good number for American baseball players to bat. It's not like percentages, is it? 100 doesn't equal everything, does it? I never understood numbers. Heck, I'm a WORD man, not a numbers man.

dig it out, it's worth it,
=link

I read Charley Parker's "Dinosaur Cartoons" and wanted to see what else he did. This book is beautiful. And the website, zark.com is spectacular. A must-read and a must-see.

In most cases, a comic book is done on paper, then converted into a virtual comic book. In this case, a virtual comic goes onto paper! The book contains the entire Book One of Argon Zark, a humorous comic book for those who enjoy and understand humor about the internet and computers. The characters are lovable and the plot is one of the best I've yet to see in a series comic book! Great pictures and very enjoyable. A must read!

ARGON ZARK! is a really well done book. It was originally done to be an all digital on-line comic, but there were so many people saying that it deserves to be something that requires...

No electricity required! No waiting for the server to connect! No download time! No RAM requirements! No software conflicts!

...and something that...

Won't crash or freeze! Is Y2K compliant! Is lightweight, portable, bendable, tactile! Take it on the bus, train, or airship! Read it under the covers with a flashlight!

...so, that is what he did and it turned out great and to be a big success!

Take it from someone who has read it and tried to figure out how he did it so well, you MUST read it! You won't be dissapointed!

-Ovi Demetrian

Argon Zark, The Delux, Portable, Cordless Souvenir Dead-tree Edition (i.e. book) more than makes up for the lack of hyperlinks, JavaScript, and slow downloads with:

1.Instant Gratification (just turn the page and you're there, duh!);

2.a postscript showing how some of the art is assembled, and explaining some of the in-jokes to the non-web-savvy;

3.and the thing we've all been waiting for: RESOLUTION!. These are no baby 50kB jpegs like we've seen on the Web! For this book, Charley Parker has gone back to the original pre-anti-aliasing ultra-high-resolution artwork, re-rendering it in eyepopping detail. Almost all the frames from the web are here (some of the hidden frames that rely upon animation to make their point and aren't really part of the story got cut), but with more detail, more luscious backgrounds, and more in-jokes that you can see clearly. Those of us who remember squinting at the anti-aliased Page 1, for instance, to make out tidbits like "Pretzel Logic" and "Marx and Lennon" can now show it to our friends...and can even see what's on the milk carton behind them!

The book format also facilitates a more restful appreciation of the art as connoiseur's comics art... for instance, the way in which changing style of borders around frames may anticipate a page boundary (e.g. last frame of p.31), activating the reader's semiotic radar. Bottom line: This is artwork to be treasured.

Matthew H. Fields, D.M.A.

17 April 1998

I've been reading Asterix since I was a child, and I've never read a better comic. They're clever, silly and have great twists on words. I've picked up bits of history, Latin and enlarged my vocabulary without meaning to. These comics don't get old, even when read and reread. Now my kids and their friends read my Asterix collection and they're as absorbed as my friends and I were. The "Mansions of the Gods" is one of my top 3 picks, along with "Asterix and the Legionnary" and "Asterix and Cleopatra." Make sure to buy the Asterix written by Goscinny and illustrated by Uderzo. After Goscinny died, Uderzo continued both writing and illustrating these comics and they aren't as clever.

This is one of the best books in the series of Asterix adventures. Finally it has been translated to English so that it can be enjoyed in the US as well. This book is full of reliable historical details. For example, do you know that Caesar in his "De Bello Gallico" (translation: "About the war in Gaul") talks about himself using the third person? Well, Goscinny and Uderzo knew: this is one of the many "cultural" jokes in this beautiful comics book.
The graphic is also wonderful. I personally enjoy looking at the brochure presenting "The mansion of Gods" to possible buyers. Of course the brochure is engraved in marble.
Having read these books as a child in Italy I am looking forward to more translated adventures to enjoy reading together with my kid in the US.

Rene Goscinny, The Mansions of the Gods (Dargaud, 1971)

The seventeenth Asterix adventure, and (at least if you're going through the library system) seemingly the hardest to get hold of-- perhaps because the title doesn't have "Asterix" or "Obelix" in it. Caesar has a new plan for getting the Gaulish village to acquiesce-- develop the forest around it into Roman housing blocks called the Mansions of the Gods. All well and good, except, of course, the Gauls have some tricks up their sleeves for holding construction up, including organizing the workers. Fun stuff, this. ***

Great adventure for a great character as Asterix! Include it in your collection, it will be worth!

Originally done as a comic in a french childrens' magazine, the Adventures of Asterix the Gaul have grown beyond that small framework and can be enjoyed by peoples around the world. the idea is that in the world of 55BC all Gual has been conquored by the Romans, except for one small village which holds out against the invaders. The source of their survival is a magic potion brewed by the village Druid which gives the drinker superhuman strength. The gauls are not waging a war with the romans, they just go about theirl ives and after being thumped a few times, the local Romans are more than happy to let them do it.

in this adventure the Romans decide to try and force the gauls to intergrate with the Roman world by building luxery apartments near them. The thought is that when the guals are surrounded by woodlands, they cannot appreciate roman culture but by building Roman towns on their doorstep, they Gauls will be forced to accept the pax romana.

What follows are a series of adventures based on deforestation, colonization, and good neighbors. And if you ever thought your own building contractors were pirates or bandits...well.

I have been a faithful FoxTrot reader for years. Roger, Andy and their kids Peter, Paige and Jason are always good for a reality check with a large dose of laughter. I've got two girls and let me tell you, I see a lot of my kids in Paige with, I believe, even a healthy dose of Jason thrown in. And they have Peter's bottomless stomach. Of course, they're faithful FoxTrot readers too. I used to read the strip to them, explain what was going on, but now they get it just fine and we three all laugh together. Then my girls try and explain the strip to their dad, who pretends he doesn't get it.

The FoxTrot folks are a great family, one we sort of got used to checking up on every day, so we took the news that Mr. Amend was going to cease daily distribution of his wonderfully funny people and turn his strip to Sunday only, with a bit of sadness. Still, we have these terrific FoxTrot books to keep us going with our FoxTrot fix. Mr. Amend is to be commended for his great gift to our culture and his great gift to so many lives. I truly believe a laugh a day, helps keep the blues away and the FoxTrot gang are always good for a laugh. Heck there are a lot of laughs in the FoxTrot books. I know, I have them all and I am, along with my girls and my hubby dear, eagerly awaiting the next one.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, we don't have an iguana, but my girls do have a pet gecko and, you guessed it, his name is Quincy.

I've been a Foxtrot reader for a long time and personally I think there is something suspiciously wrong with people who don't find Bill Amend's characters funny as all get out. If you want a good laugh, check out Bill in your local newspaper, or better yet, get one of the Foxtrot books. They are all great, really, they are.

Like many of Mr. Amend's fans I'm a bit disappointed he's switching his strip to Sunday-only, but fortunately I can still read him daily in the Foxtrot books. Get them one and all and you can keep right on a laughing.

"There's nothing like going into a big bookstore on a cold winter evening...finding a collection of short stories that you'd always meant to read...taking off your coat...plopping down in their café...and watching shoppers come and go as you sit back and sip on coffee. Ah, bliss."
"Mom, did you bring your credit card? They have every STAR TREK book." (Jason)
"Since calendars are half-price, can I get Niki *and* Stephanie?" (Peter)
"Fourth and one and they're *punting*?" (Roger, on headphones)
"At least this place sells T-shirts." (Paige)
"Ah, reality."
- Mrs. Fox and family, herein

All the cartoons in this collection are included - in the same order - in the omnibus FOXTROT BEYOND A DOUBT except for the single-page additions of Jason personalizing a T-shirt and the dedication page's picture of Quincy the iguana with a teddy bear. The Sunday double strips are not in colour in this book, although they are printed in colour in FOXTROT BEYOND A DOUBT.

Unless you're particularly attached to the smaller size of this book, its cute cover art, or the three single frame cartoons that were added for the dedication and endpages as described above, I recommend considering FOXTROT BEYOND A DOUBT instead, since it includes all the content of this book with the addition of colour formatting for the Sunday strips, together with content from the previous collection RETURN OF THE LONE IGUANA.

Having said that, let's move on to the content. :)

FOXTROT maintains a continuing storyline, although the kids seem to be growing up rather slowly despite the passing seasons. This particular book begins during the Fox family's summer holidays and ends the following spring.

Some of the memorable bits include:
- Paige babysits for Margaret O'Dell from her mother's book club for the first time, whose little girl is cute but whose babysitting conditions are dire. "Hi there! You must be little Katherine!" "Um, it's 'Katherine', with a 'K'." "That's what I said." "No, you said 'Catherine' with a 'C'. I could tell. Hold on - I'll be right back." "Hi, there! You must be the little girl who's going to need massive therapy in twelve years!" (Peter, much later, takes a dog-sitting job looking after a crazed little canine Nac Mac Feegle - pit bull aggression levels in a toy dog's body).
- Jason and Marcus experiment with model rockets and with the biggest kite they can manage to put together.
- The Fox family takes a family vacation to Fun-Fun Universe (not to be confused with Disney World, of course).
- Paige learns during a speech in social studies class not to listen to her dad's advice on how to control her nerves: "Yowza! It's like a Chippendales show!"
- Peter's first anniversary of dating Denise and his efforts to select a good present (genes from his mom's side, since his dad buys spatulas for Valentine's Day). He also goes through some rather trying study sessions with her while her parents aren't home.
- Jason's classmate Eileen beats his score on a math test; she suckers him into going out for ice cream with her family afterward, even though he officially doesn't like girls.
- Paige is assigned to write a ghost story in English class. After she makes Jason the victim, she gets an A plus an appointment with the school counselor.
- Paige's brother Peter passes himself off as her secret admirer as a joke.
- Jason asks for Doomathon II for Christmas, but trades it at the computer store after his mom becomes addicted to it. "Mom convinced me that I was too young to have a game like that in the house...I mean, *I* can't do my laundry."
- Roger suffers through an efficiency expert at work who complains at finding perfectly good paper clips in the trash and is then treated to lunch at the Ritz by the boss.
- The baseball team players, including Peter, shave their heads after losing a bet with the soccer team (which temporarily cheers Peter's balding father no end).

Oh, my lord this is like the greatest Foxtrot ever written. The Strips are so cool and the stories are soooooooooooo funny espesialy when Roger smokes a cigar and Paige writes a ghost story. Truely, very fuuny

This is a great book to give to someone as a gift to introduce them to the humor of Foxtrot. It is wonderfully funny and engrossing: you will have finished it before you realize it!

When I was 11 years old (that was three years ago) I was first introduced to B.B. Explosion and I fell in love with it! I waited and waited for a new book in the series to come out and it seemed time would never stop. Now that it is over and now that I am 14 I still believe that this series is very cute but it is no longer for my age range. I'd say this manga is made for people 7-12. I still have this series and I'm so GLAD to have. It's about a young girl that's 12 who is trying to follow and make her dreams of becoming a star and sharing her music to the whole world!

I wish they had decided to publish the sequel, it's such a cute series and I would have liked to see what happened officially between Takaya and Airi!

This book is one of the best childrens mangas written. It shines truth on the music buisness without saying it is pretty harsh. Most of the charactars in the book can be found in the real word. The school that the main character (Airi) goes to really exists! This book keeps reality in check while whisking you away on the dream of a girl. Anyway, will Airi sky rocket to fame? Or fall down? You can only find out if you read...

Ok, I was in borders yesterday and looked in the manga books. i found a book that had bad words in every page! ugh.. so I kept looking and saw this book. I flipped through it and looked on the back cover it said "all ages" for the reading level. I picked it up and ran to my dad to pay for it. during lunch I relized that hey, I chose a good book! the front cover may look a little odd but don't judge a manga by it's cover! it's good for girls age 10-13 and there's NO bad words! Trust someone who read the whole thing!! and I bought 2-5 with it. I defintaly spent my money on a treasure! so like, GO TO BORDERS AND SEARCH FOR B. B. EXPLOSION! YOU WON'T BE DISSAPONITED!

B.B. Explosion is my favorite graphic novel I own. Once you read it you will totally flip! Did you know most of the people in the book are real? Airi is real. Yu Yamanda is real and so is 'Da Pump'. Haven't seen anything about Yumi though! Read the others. Each english version comes out every three months!

As someone whom has seen many fascets to the entertainment industry, it is nice to see a fresh and innocent, yet VERY honest portrayal of the entertainment industry.

Airi is a young 12yr girl whom is obsessed with an entertainment show that broadcast in her homtown Okinawa. She obsesses over the hip and hot boy band on the show, and when an opne audition is announced to go to the Elite "Actors School" in Okinawa she goes in hopes of meeting her teen idol. :) Little does she know is that she in for far much more than she EVER expected.

She is mentored by a gaurdian statue named Caeser that comes to life and follows he around, he claims that ONLY people whom have what it takes to make it can see him. This adds a cuteness and somewhat fantastical character to it, that COULD undermine the story by making it see to fluffy, but it doesn't. It works with the story overall, and it is interesting to see how he's used throughout the series. :)

The great thing about this, is that it teaches you that, although the industry want someone to convey their own ideas and images, that need someone whom is comfortable in their skin, and not jsut a carbon copy of someone else. And it shows the hard work that goes on behind the scenes and the tears, without seeming soap-operish and trite, like some stories I've read. Because of its cast of young and well fleshe dout characters, it is a fresh portrayal of one girls climb to the top. :)

I would recomend this manga highly to anyone!!! I devoured the first 3 volumes in one sitting!!! It is worth every penny, and is worth re-reading, and is oppropriate for ALL ages. :D So if you're looking for something to read that is fun and fresh, and that has an overall positive message without being trite, pick up B.B. Explosion!!! :D

God Bless ~Amy

The joy in this strip comes from knowing that it's all accurate. The cartoons in this collection are on-target in their ability to make the reader realize how the things that made us mad when we experienced them with our own children are very funny when they happen to someone else!

You'll be laughing out loud at this collection.

Material is as funny as the first book years ago. Our whole family enjoys Baby Blues. I'm proud to support comics in the "wholesome, clean, safe for the family" category, like Peanuts started by Charles Schulze so long ago.

I first picked up a copy of Baby Blues when I was on my honeymoon in US. Never saw it before in my life, but after flipping through a few pages of this, I was hooked. Todate, I've ended up with the entire set in my house, all read over and over again.

The strips simply mirror my life as a parent, although I don't quite have Wanda's benefit of being a SAHM. I personally have 2 kids who are have a very close age gap of only 14 months. Wanda and Darryl's misadventures and experiences couldn't be more realistic for parents or parents-to-be.

I've introduced it to my friends, who have become hooked as well and some of them have the whole collection as well.

Buy a copy. You won't go wrong!

Here is a whole collection of "Baby Blues", a clever, brutally honest comedy satire all about child-rearing from a couple of good ol' "been-there" daddies! Features a well-meaning but know-nothing dork of a dad, a disgruntled, long-suffering mommy who smiles graciously through clenched teeth, and - the big stars of the strip - Zoe, the precicous but spoiled rotten brat in perky red pigtails and Ham, the pin-headed baby of the whole family with a personality to match his name! A very generous helping of really crazy domestic misadventures for the new parents to find comfort and reassurance in as well as for the happily childless to gloat outrageously over!

You already know which comic strips you like, right? But newspapers don't carry every comic strip, so it's possible you aren't familiar with Baby Blues. It's also possible you like the strip but wondered what happens "behind the scenes." You might even be looking for a "housewarming" type gift in the $10-20 range.

I've been introduced to some of my favorite comic strips over the years. So this is my recommendation to the people who haven't heard of Baby Blues. My tastes range from Dilbert, The Far Side, and Calvin & Hobbes to the more obscure Overboard, Robotman and Fusco Brothers to the gentleness of For Better or Worse and Peanuts. Basically, I don't like a lot of "syrup," but my comics must have sensitive human observation. Baby Blues has a raw warmth, with more energy than "For Better" and more realistic characters than "Peanuts."

I enjoyed Baby Blues before my child was born, but it really "hits home" now. It's amusing with or without your own children. But if you're one of the "withs," the book doubles as a mirror!

I always find the lives of the artist and what goes into their drawings interesting from a perspective standpoint. (I liked "The PreHistory of the Far Side.") "10 Years and Still in Diapers" gives this perspective during the early chapters and in a friendly, mildly self-deprecating way.

Instead of yet another bottle of wine, why not bring this book to your next casual get together? Instead of yet another outfit, why not make this a baby shower gift? Besides being "painfully" entertaining, it's attractive enough for the coffee table.

Goats on a printed page. who wouldve thunk it? For long time fans, and people who have never even heard of goats, if you think you have a twisted sense of humor, then goats is for you.

please, please, please... read this book.

As I am somewhat of a Goat-head (not in the pagan sense), I am a bit bias to this book. However, a scant 6 months ago, I did not have any idea about Goats. I spend 3 weeks reading the archive (which I recommend to anyone - great stuff out there). The Book, the fourth in a series of one, is a great primer, and will give people hours and hours of enjoyment. Check out the site!...! You'll thank me later.

Jon Rosenberg's Goats can't fail to raise a smile from these jaded lips when I read it online, so a book with hundreds of those self-same strips is just the thing to see you through the long ,dark winter. Pert, pertinent character comedy, surrealism and pure sexy fun make this a must-have. If you liked Bloom County, this is for you. If you like Fred Bassett, it might just take the top of your head off. Superb.

The cover of this book alone cracks me up as does much of the content inside. "Goats" is a non-syndicated web comic strip done by Jonathan Rosenberg. This strip came to my attention when Jonathan first started it and asked me to throw him a link (my site being all about comic strips). "Goats" is a surreal strip about two male best friends Jon and Philip, their talking pet goat Toothgnip, and their evil talking pet chicken Diablo. There are also aliens, beer, women, beer, dwarves, beer, zombies, beer, and more beer.

This book is the first "Goats" book despite the fact that it is called "Volume 4". However, Jonathan has promised to follow George Lucas's footsteps and release the prequels soon ("Volume 3" will be out soon). This book covers strips from January 2000 to December 2000. The significant event of this book is that Jon (who is a loser when it comes to women) finally gets a girlfriend named Megan. She's a hottie and totally with it that makes you wonder if it isn't pity love. Ah, but if it weren't for pity, many of us would be in a world of hurt!

Bottom line, this is a pretty funny comic strip but it is NOT for the kids (in my opinion). The humor and content can often shift into the "R" range so you've been warned. Otherwise, get this book and help a web cartoonist!

Fantastic. Magnificent. Compelling, original and satyrical, a must have for any Gen-Xer's Ikea mail-ordered coffee table or the floor of the bohemian studio apartment in the parent's basement. Bringing together issues of single-life, animal rights, alien invasions, sexual dysfunction, and sado-masochism this hilarious book filled with wit and slapstick compiles the Goats comic strip for the year 2000. Not only are the comics a poignant commentary on everyday-life, through trips into the surreal they speak volumes on social issues of the day. Through the innocence of some characters and the wickedness of others, the entire gamut of human emotion is displayed among the denziens of a specific New York pub. This book makes a fantastic gift for those who've never heard of Goats and enjoy quality, edgy humor.

Like the first 'Zits' treasury, this book will provide you with a lot of laughs, and you will probably want to return to reread the strips again in the future. I enjoyed this book immensely and plowed right through it in two sittings, even though I had planned to stretch it out over a week.

My one quibble with the book is that several of the strips are exact duplicates of strips from the first treasury.

If you have or have had teenagers, you need to red Zits. The adventures of all the characters will keep you laughing. They even manage to capture the angst of both parents and teens.

I evaluate funnies by the drawings, and, of course, is it funny or not? With that said, here we go.

In some ways, I think this comic is influenced by Calvin and Hobbes, one of the most memorable and classic strips. This comic strip is drowned in sarcasm and irony. The drawings have a sort of sketchy quality about them, something that makes them loose and very cool-looking. They have shading and scribbly detail, but are still very clear and easy to understand.

It has more than 4 characters, allowing the cartoonist to come up with many interesting character traits. Exploring these personalities is very fun to read. A boy and a girl never seen not hugging each other, a mom, a dad, a big brother, and a boy with a guitar are just some of the characters. I think this strip has about the right amount of characters.

This book is my first encounter with the comic and it is very appealing. I won't tell you to buy it, because I'm not a salesperson. I'm merely telling you why I like it.

In Big Honkin Zits (hey, it's named after ME when I was 16..or 26) you can clearly see WHY this strip by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman is one of the fastest growing and most popular strips EVER.

The best way to explain it is: it's on the same quality level as Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes at it's funniest, most irony-laced and visually comedic BEST. Once again we have Jeremy...the self-absorbed 15-year-old who is constantly (in his view) humiliated by his parents' mere existance (except when he lowers the posture and briefly show he really cares). The strip shows things from the adult point of view but ALSO does a good job of pointing out how a teen might view the parents (his parents ARE dorky).

There are several reasons why this strip is such great COMEDY, and holds up so well in a treasury form such as this. The artists use a story-line of sorts (akin to the story-line Watterson would use where a given daily strip would stand alone but is part of a group with a theme). The shorter strips work as well as the longer ones. As in Calvin & Hobbes we often see things from the teen or parental view in the form of a fantasy (his father dressed like a clown; Jeremy with huge ears after his girlfriend mentions his ears are big).It's a strip that shows character evolution: his girlfriend finally gets her braces off; he goes to his first real rock concert; sneaks into his first teen porn film etc.

But above all it's the world-class visual comedy, character facial expressions and actual irony-heavy comedy that makes this strip among the best EVER. Since there are tons of strips I'll share one that is my favorite. Jeremy's mother reads an article that says "the average teenage boy thinks about sex once every eight minutes." They look at each other and each says "Wow." She thinks: "That much?" He thinks: "That's all?"

You're going to want to read Big Honkin' Zits again and again and each time you're going to laugh as much as the first time. SUPERB selection of a SUPERB strip that happily continues to quickly grow in circulation, artistically and comedically.

Jeremy returns in his second treasury, combining strips from the books "Don't Roll Your Eyes at Me, Young Man!" and "Are We an Us?" Not much has changed since the first treasury. He still wishes his parents would get off his back, he still doesn't understand women, and he still dreams of making it big in music. But whether he's trying to decide what to do about the upcoming Gingivitis concert, win back Sara from a sophomore, support a friend's mom who has cancer, or sneak over to his girlfriend's babysitting job, he's sure to find the humor in any situation.

Unfortunately, I don't get the strip in my local paper, so I have to wait for these books to enjoy it. But I can certainly see why it has become such a popular strip. Everyone can appreciate the humor in the storylines, which poke fun at everyone equally. The visual gages are some of the best in the papers today and make for some of the best strips in the book as well. And it's easy to like these characters because they really do have good hearts just beneath the surface. My only complaint with this book is that the strips don't appear to be in order. It makes for a little confusion when a character is first introduced after we've already met him or her, but over all, it really is minor.

This is a wonderful collection that should win new fans and satisfy the old. Buy it today and enjoy the laughs.

Bizzaro is one of the best comic strips I have ever seen. Even on the all too numerous occasions when it si clear that my political etc. views are diametrically opposite to Mr. Piraro's I find his comic strips funny and very clever. I even have a reproduction of one his 'strips framed and hanging on a wall in my house. This collection is one of the funniest comic strip collections I have seen and it is also published in a very high quality format- it is *not* your typical flimsily bound and poorly printed paperback collection. I also like the fact that he reveals where his ideas come from. This brings me to my second point: it's one thing to include your political and religious beliefs in your book. These illuminate the origin of many of his ideas, but it's another to have them constantly shoved down your throat in a very childish fashion. He writes with the style of an angry and idealistic high school student with no thought that anyone else with very differing views could have valid ideas or - gasp- could even be correct. It get's tiring to be constantly told that anyone with opposing views is "whacked out", to use a common phrase of his. I only write this because I think even this very personal book goes way overboard for a comic book collection in his attacks on people whose views he dislikes and I expect a little more restraint more from an adult author- even a cartoonist with very strong views. Still in all, I would highly recommend this book to any fan of the daily comics and plan on buying his new hardcover collection upon it's release.

Dan Piraro is undeniably one of today's most talented newspaper cartoonists, and there's much to enjoy in this overview, if you can get past the tiresome, unrelenting narcissism and vegan proselytizing. More art (there's room on the pages) and less smug self-righteousness would've served this book better (and I AGREE with most of Piraro's politics).

This book provides insight into Dan Piraro, the most consistently humorous cartoonist of our day. Buy this book!

Pop quiz: Name an artist whose wildly popular daily cartoon frequently promotes veganism - and who is not Dan Piraro. Stumped? Well, there really isn't anyone else. Indeed, Piraro has that niche pretty much covered and is regarded as the veg community's most-recognized comic voice. His print cartoon, "Bizarro," which began two decades ago, is syndicated in more than 200 newspapers and routinely takes on topics ranging from animal rights and religion to gay rights and politics. The surreal cartoon has spawned a number of equally surreal book-length collections, the latest of which is "Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro."

But this new volume is no mere anthology of "Bizarro" cartoons. Accompanying the pages of comics, paintings, sketches and personal photographs is an extended autobiographical essay that is at turns hilarious and a compelling indictment of agribusiness. The author-artist never misses an opportunity to promote the cruelty-free lifestyle (mentioning, for example, that he won't buy paint brushes made from animal hair), and the book chronicles Piraro's transformation from, as he puts it, "a creative misfit class clown in Oklahoma to a passionate animal-rights advocate in New York City."

As an outspoken vegan activist, Piraro proves himself to be articulate, well-informed and clever. He writes: "Some argue that while we started as vegetarians, we have `evolved' to eat meat. Biologically speaking, we haven't changed at all in this regard. You might as well say we've evolved to smoke tobacco. We've been doing it for centuries and we enjoy it, but we haven't developed a natural need for it, or a defense against its ill effects." You can bet I'll be keeping that analogy handy.

Among the biggest treats in Piraro's revolutionary cartoons are the richly detailed backgrounds and extra jokes for those with the time (and eyesight) to look closely. Regular "Bizarro" readers know that Piraro hides symbols in his cartoons, such as spaceships, sticks of dynamite and pieces of pie. While he purports to explain these objects on his website, bizarro.com, he includes them simply for fun. More serious are the animal-rights messages punctuating his comics. A typical cartoon reproduced in Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations depicts several men at a bar; one guy has a "no veal" button on his jacket while another sports a "Farm Sanctuary" tattoo. Yet another cartoon shows two characters (actually Piraro and his wife Ashley) walking past a vegan café. Perhaps best of all, the themes in these particular cartoons aren't even animal rights, making the premise of compassionate living all the more mainstream.

Even if you're not a fan of comics or Piraro's work, this oversized paperback will look great on your coffee table (even if you don't like coffee - or tables, for that matter). Who knows how many houseguests, unaware of the inhumane practices involved in factory farming, will peruse this colorful, hip-looking book, get to laughing and then realize the deeper truths within its pages? Piraro could be contributing these books for some time. He writes: "People in my family tend to live well past life expectancy, no matter how badly they abuse their bodies, so I figure with regular exercise and my vegan diet, I should live well into the next century." Let's hope so.

Mark Hawthorne, author of Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism

One of the few good reasons to spend retirement years in America is the dependable presence of at least one laugh in your morning newspaper, aside from those sardonic guffaws you suppress with a sob when you look at the front page. Now, none of you techno-whippersnappers had better tell me that the comics are available on-line anywhere I wander, anywhere I roam, cuz looking at Bizarro on a computer screen is about as gratifying as staring at a photo of a snifter of cognac. It's the smell of the newsprint and the satisfaction of snatching the pertinent image from your lovey at her sudoku. Yes sir, that's livin'! Gets you all stirred up for tooling around Sun City in your golf cart.

Dan Piraro has been amassing a comprehensive dossier of my own particular world-view for many years, one frame at a time, but I've been abroad enough to have missed any number of his sharpest insights. But with this here book in my suitcase, I can face moving to "The Sequoias" with equanimity. What name for an assisted living facilty, eh? The Sequoias. Piraro would appreciate it.