The National Cartoonists Society nominated Pearls Before Swine as one of the best comic strips of 2002.

Pearls Before Swine is an impressive comic strip success story. After only a few years of syndication, it appears in more than 150 newspapers worldwide, was nominated as Best Newspaper Comic Strip by the National Cartoonists Society in its debut year-an unprecedented achievement-and its first book collection, Pearls Before Swine, has sold through four printings.

This Little Piggy Stayed Home continues the adventures of Rat and Pig, two characters who couldn't be more different-or more surprising. Rat is your typical Every Rodent: scheming, self-centered, and more than occasionally manipulative. By contrast, Pig is sensitive, kind, and-even on his best days-just plain stupid. Together with Zebra and Goat, they confront the strange and wonderful world around them, a place that looks suspiciously like our own.

By turns thoughtful and subversive, silly and sophisticated, This Little Piggy Stayed Home is one of the funniest comic collections out there.

 "[Zits] is one of the most visually innovative comic strips to come along in years. Borgman's graphic pyrotechnics are the perfect complement to Scott's carefully designed layouts."—Brian Walker, The Comics Since 1945The world is full of issues but none so pressing as those faced by a teenager. For proof, look no further than Zits, the timely teenage-focused strip that now appears in more than 1,100 newspapers worldwide. This two-time recipient of the National Cartoonists Society's Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip follows the life of 15-year-old Jeremy Duncan, a kid bursting with questions, concerns, hormones, and insecurities. Cast adrift between the worlds of peer and parent, Jeremy survives by clinging to his sense of humor . . . the universal flotation device of the teenage years.

  Creators Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman pull all of this eating, dating, driving, and parental angst and energy together in Road Trip! Zits Sketchbook #7. This hilarious collection contains the very popular series of strips that follows Jeremy and his best amigo, Hector, as they actually (okay, and accidentally) get to test-drive their van. Yes, that van on the cover.

You have to wonder what kind of pets cartoonist Darby Conley had as a child. If they were anything like Bucky Katt and Satchel Pooch. . . well, life in the Conley house must have been interesting to say the least. The wacky triumvirate of Bucky, Satchel, and Rob are back in this Get Fuzzy collection,

Rob Wilco is the mild-mannered ad executive caretaker of Bucky and Satchel. Satchel is a sweet and naïve shar-pei-yellow-Lab cross, while Bucky is a Siamese with "cat-titude" to spare. Bucky and Satchel get along like, well, like cats and dogs. Like a beleaguered parent, Rob constantly must thwart Bucky's schemes and protect the unsuspecting Satchel. His pets' mischief continually disrupts his attempts to meet women. You try explaining to your date why your cat thinks he's a gangsta rapper and your dog is filming his ";crib" for MTV. Would anyone live with humans who behaved like this?

Bitingly funny with a wry sense of the absurdity of life with pets, Get Fuzzy appeals to everyone who has ever lived in a mixed-species household.

The Fab Four of the funny pages come together again-this time in their first book treasury.

Rat, Pig, Zebra, and Goat, the central characters of Pearls Before Swine, are back in Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic, the first Pearls Before Swine treasury-supersized for your enjoyment.

But this is no ordinary cartoon treasury. Like the influential Beatles album that inspired the book's title, Sgt. Piggy is full of surprises. In addition to collecting all of the Pearls cartoons that appeared in BLTs Taste So Darn Good and This Little Piggy Stayed Home, cartoonist Stephan Pastis takes readers on a VIP backstage tour of one of the most successful comic strips in newspapers today.

In Sgt. Piggy, Pastis explains the genesis of Pearls (hint: it didn't begin at an artist's easel), why he was initially reluctant to show it to newspaper syndicates (and the surprising reason he changed his mind), the unexpected responses from readers to his work, and which Pearls strips worked and which ones didn't (and how he would have corrected the ones that didn't). The result is a rare and revealing glimpse into the world of Rat, Pig, Goat and Zebra. Full of humor and insight, sardonic asides and unexpected truths, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic is a book that comics fans everywhere can enjoy anytime-even when they're 64!