Funny Stuff – Zits, Sherman’s Lagoon – 11 books each!

OK. Two of my favorite comic strips each came out with their 11th book compilation of strips respectively. Weird coincidence, yes, but the frustrating thing is that I didn’t know about their first 10. Just saw the reviews of both books on the smartly-named SeriousComedySite.com. Read the reviews on the comedy site, but here’s a bit about each strip…

Zits is an amazing cartoon delving into the life of a teenager and his two middle age parents. The concepts are fresh, the writing is on point, and the drawing shows the imaginative genius of Jerry Scott and Jim Bergman. I am not trying to flatter anyone. I and my 4-year art degree are continually floored by the visual perspectives, the visual freedom, that is used to convey the storyline. The writer and parent in me also love how smart it is. Oh, and it makes me laugh.

Sherman’s Lagoon is also amazingly funny. The humor is less intellectual, but down right hilarious. Sherman the shark and his friends and family are a great group to watch each week. Jim Toomey must be having a great time.

So turn off Comedy Central and check out these strips in the Sunday paper, in the books, in the reviews. And laugh.

Thumbs down for Sliding Scales

Alan Dean Foster’s latest novel, Sliding Scales: A Pip & Flinx Adventure was a major disappointment. In the story, Flinx is encouraged by his ship’s AI to take a vacation on the out of the way planet Jast. Just like Flinx, this book certainly takes a vacation. It does almost nothing to advance Flinx’s story, and after finishing it I wondered if I had wasted my time. Like most of the Foster’s work it was easy reading, although the alien terminology was a little overdone and distracting. The book did help bring some humanization to the AAnn and that may prove useful in the future, but that future doesn’t seem any closer or clearer after finishing the book. 1.5 out of 5 stars.