James Van Hise: Calvin & Hobbes, Garfield, Bloom County, Doonesbury and All That Funny Stuff (K)

A new wave of humor strips has swept the comics section, winning the hearts of America, young and old. These are the pulsebeat of the '90s, capturing the way people view the world from the quirky perspectives of today. Could anyone in 1950 have envisioned the off-the-wall humor of Outland, Bloom County, Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side, Doonesbury, Life in Hell, Garfield and the other wild, weird and wonderful wackines?

From the ground breaking social and political satire of Doonesbury 20 years ago to the strangely on-target portrayal of childhood imagination run amuck in Calvin & Hobbes, comics have caught up to the humor of our time and, in some cases, are rolling back the boundaries of imagination. Inside this book you'll meet creative geniuses, including Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), Gary Larson (The Far Side), Matt Groening (Life in Hell, The Simpsons), Gary Trudeau (Doonesbury), an others who have changed the face of the modern newspaper daily and Sunday cartoon strip. Each major strip is profiled, its unique brand of humor examined, as each creator explains their motivations and intentions in their own words.