Andrews McMeel Publishing

Library Bookwatch, August, 2004

Andrews McMeel Publishing

4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111

www.comicspage.com

Steve Dickenson was a 'military brat' whose family moved a lot; as an adult he joined with cartoonist Todd Clark to produce the cartoon Lola, about a politically-incorrect grandmother on the loose. Readers of American Idle: A Lola Collection (0740741373, $10.95) will find this packed with rebellion of the adult kind, and will find Grandma Lola has her ways of getting even. Patrick McDonnell's Mutts: Sunday Afternoons (0740741411, $12.95) comes from the pen of the co-author of Krazy Kat: Art of George Harrison, and spreads a dose of animal issues along with his fun comic. Darby Conley's Bucky Katt's Big Book Of Get Fuzzy (0740741365, $16.95) provides a follow-up to the best-selling Blue Print For Disaster: a cat, a dog, and a frustrated human chaperone dealing with a dumb dog. The cartoons are in both black and white and color, which adds many an unexpected moment. Bill Hinds' Cleats: Who Tracked Soccer Through The House? (0740741381, $10.95) will be welcomed by any sports parent used to kids tracking things through the house. Black and white comics depict parent/child relationships and sports ironies. Stephan Pastis' Pearls Before Swine (0740738135, $10.95) takes his popular syndicated column and explores a fun world of rabble-rousers. Pastis may be an unlikely-sounding cartoonist--he's an attorney by training--but his second Pearls Before Swine book is a fun winner. The new 'Between Friends' comic collection by Sandra Bell-Lundy Coffee, Tea And Reality (0740741349, $10.95) presents Canadian cartoonist Bell-Lundy's satirical comics of women's lives and concerns. From weight shifts to preoccupations with younger women, Bell-Lundy's characters are filled with insights. The 18th 'Baby Blues' cartoon scrapbook presents Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott's Two Plus One Is Enough (074-741403, $10.95), a fun gathering of black and white parent/kid cartoons from the popular syndicated 'Baby Blues' strip. Newcomers will also find Two Plus One Enough is engrossing. Highly recommended.