No one walks away from a Close to Home cartoon unscathed. John McPherson's lumpy characters and bizarre situations are tailor-made for gut-splitting laughs. And then there are the cartoons that leave readers shaking their heads, sputtering, "Oh my gosh" as a guilty smile passes across their faces. The Scourge of Vinyl Car Seats delivers what fans expect from McPherson: jokes about everything from parenting to dating to car repairs. McPherson takes his readers on a journey that's very Close to Home.

  Fifteen-year-old Jeremy Duncan is the heart and soul of puberty. A typical teen, Jeremy is shy, self-absorbed, and bored. He loves hanging out and playing the guitar. He lives in the shadow of his older brother's perfect 4.0 grade-point-average, athletic talents, and flawless complexion. Jeremy's girlfriend, Sara, loves that she can get him to do anything for her. His best friends are Hector and Pierce, whom he's known for-almost-ever. His parents? Uncool baby boomers. (Unless you're a parent, then they are two suburban professionals just trying to do the best they can with a teenager going through that "awkward" phase.)

  The enormously popular comic strip Zits depicts teenage and parental angst like no other. Teenage Tales is a cornucopia of Zits for die-hard fans everywhere. Zits can be seen in more than 1,100 newspapers, which is almost unheard of—only 18 other comic strips have achieved that extraordinary milestone. Zits has also won the National Cartoonists Society's Best Comic Strip of the Year award for two years in a row.

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!

"One of the best things about Baby Blues is that it follows reality so closely that you're never quite sure whether Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott are over the top or are merely excellent reporters." Oh, baby, it's Baby Blues! Just when readers thought the MacPherson world was baby-proofed, cocreators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott flip up the toilet-training lid, throw open the kitchen cabinets, and drag the garden hose into the house with Wall-to-Wall Baby Blues: A Baby Blues Treasury.

Baby Blues, of course, is the delightful internationally syndicated comic strip that depicts the adventures of the MacPherson family: Dad Darryl, Mom Wanda, and the three youngsters: Zoe, Hammie, and newborn Wren. From games of Destroy the Legos to how to blow a two-year-old's nose with just one box of tissues, Baby Blues never fails to revel in the funny facts and fantasies about raising kids.

Wall-to-Wall Baby Blues: A Baby Blues Treasury. represents a treasury of the best moments from three previous Kirkman and Scott collections—Baby Blues: Unplugged, Dad to the Bone, and Never a Dry Moment.

This combination of daily strips and full-color Sunday features delivers an array of hilarious family comedy. Wall-to-Wall Baby Blues: A Baby Blues Treasury. has young readers, parents, expectant parents, and grandparents nodding their heads in recognition of life in the MacPherson household. It's truly family fun for everyone in the family.