"Crankshaft has touched on a raft of senior concerns with humor and often poignancy, including illness, mortality, making out a will, literacy, physical deterioration, vulnerability, security, and, recently, muggings and Alzheimer's disease." —The Telegraph, Alton, Illinois

  Cranky Ed Crankshaft is at it again, gunning his school bus so he can outdistance the little Johnson girl, backing over the Keestermans' mailbox, and holding up a record-breaking line of cars. It's just another day for the sixty-something curmudgeon who's earned a soft spot in the hearts of millions of readers.

  Originally spun off from the popular Funky Winkerbean strip, Crankshaft is an enormously popular character in his own right. Writer Tom Batiuk and artist Chuck Ayers combine their talent and insights into a strip that deals with aging in a heartfelt and funny way. "After sixty, it's just patch, patch, patch," says Crankshaft as he waits at the doctor's office.

  In this Crankshaft book, I've Still Got It! , readers can follow their beloved grandfather figure as he struggles with new challenges, from a friend with Alzheimer's disease to another friend who's been mugged. Along the way, Crankshaft continues his quest to finally read all the Popular Mechanics magazines daughter Pam has given him over the years.

  Although readers love Crankshaft because the strip makes them laugh, they also cherish the panel's honesty about issues faced by people of all ages, from literacy to illness to crime. They also appreciate the real feelings that linger just below the surface between Crankshaft and his housemates—daughter Pam, son-in-law Jeff, and their kids Max and Mindy, his stray cat, Pickles, and his girlfriend, Grace.

I've Still Got It!

$18.99

  "Anyone with children, or anyone who even likes being around children, will find something to laugh about in Baby Blues." —Blade Citizen, Oceanside, CA

  Who can resist adorably wide-eyed Zoe MacPherson? Certainly not her parents, Wanda and Darryl, a mid-thirties career couple who've become mommy and daddy. But, like the millions of parents who flock to this engaging comic strip, the MacPhersons also find parenthood more rewarding—and frustrating—than they'd expected. Each day of this incisive and entertaining comic series, millions empathize with them as they face the joys and demands of parenting.

I Thought Labor Ended When the Baby Was Born is a heartwarming collection from Baby Blues creators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott. Developed in 1990 after Kirkman became a neophyte dad, Baby Blues appeals to anyone who's witnessed the eye-opening experiences only a baby can bring. Moms, for example, relate to Wanda, a former midlevel career woman who now stays home full-time to care for the mostly adorable Zoe. Dads connect with rattled-but-determined Darryl, as he still staggers off to an office each day despite mind-boggling changes life has wrought at home. Together, Mom and Dad juggle and struggle to decipher their new relationship, wondering where romance fits in, whether they're "parentnoid," and how they're affecting their daughter.

  Artist Rick Kirkman and writer Jerry Scott know about parenting and provide a hilarious, yet true-to-life, view of this mixed blessing.

I Thought Labor Ended When the Baby Was Born

$18.99

  Now that baby Zoe is a full-fledged mobile toddler, everyone can sit back and heave a big sigh of AAAAACCCH! The indefatigable MacPhersons are bringing up baby in a wild-eyed, yet true to life.

  Darryl and Wanda, a typical stretched-to-the-limit couple, struggled with the demands and joys of first-time parenthood in classics such as Guess Who Didn't Take a Nap? and I Thought Labor Ended When the Baby Was Born. The MacPhersons found parenthood more rewarding and frustrating than they ever expected. Through it all they adapted to this new addition to their lives with aplomb and severe exhaustion.

We Are Experiencing Parental Difficulties...Please Stand By is a Baby Blues collection from creators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott. In the pair's lovingly realistic way, the book captures the continuing challenges Darryl and Wanda face as Zoe begins to walk, talk, and take over the remote control. It's a natural growing-up progression that Baby Blues fans have watched with rapt interest.

  Mothers love the strip because they can relate to Wanda's continued surprise at how her days have changed, from career woman to Mom, especially as she faces the prospects of adding another bundle of joy to the MacPhersons' already busy household. Dads laugh knowingly as Darryl tries to help out and hold down a demanding job. Everyone cherishes the little Zoe for making childhood antics (even the obnoxious ones) so adorable.

  Artist Kirkman and writer Scott obviously know about parenting—you can see it in every strip they produce. In this book, they provide another delicious view of life's most precious mixed blessing.

We Are Experiencing Parental Difficulties...Please Stand By

$18.99