When Pat Brady puts pen to paper, readers can't resist following his original images and tight story lines. This creator pulls more material from the one-child Gumbo family than other cartoonists can with five times the number of characters and settings. That magic comes through in Brady's seventh collection, Rose is Rose Running on Alter Ego. The lively series of daily and Sunday strips revolves around Rose-devoted wife and doting mother-who, try as she might, just can't keep her biker chick fantasies totally in check. Rose never knows, as she manages her blue-collar husband, Jimbo, and their energy-fired son, Pasquale, when Vicki the Biker may show up. But when the long-haired, short-skirted babe surfaces, it's always with a breath of fresh air and a fresh take on ''normal'' family life. Besides appearing on the cover, Rose as Vicki shines throughout the collection, in six new full-page drawings created just for the book. Each shows the seemingly satisfied housewife's alter ego performing some mundane chore demanded by Rose's less adventurous life, while Brady's usual mix of family fun, frolic, and fancy gives Gumbo fans plenty of delight.

Pearls Before Swine was voted the Best Comic Strip of 2003 by the National Cartoonists Society, and in Nighthogs, the strip's third collection, Stephan Pastis proves that his strip is one of the sharpest, funniest comics in newspapers.You never know who you'll bump into at a diner at night. It could be a rat with an anger-management problem. Or an overly sentimental pig. Or a zebra with a story or two to tell about a crocodile. Or even a goat who just wants to be left alone. Welcome to Nighthogs, where the door is always open, the light is always on, and the coffee is as scorching as the humor. In this third collection of the immensely popular Pearls Before Swine, Stephan Pastis again takes us into the world of Rat, Pig, Zebra, and Goat, and he shows once more just how outrageous-and how hilarious-the unpredictable can be. Always surprising (and only occasionally depraved), Pearls Before Swine is one of the sharpest comic strips in newspapers today. So pull up a stool, have a cup of joe, and enjoy.

Animal lovers everywhere adore Patrick McDonnell's charming but pointed Mutts. The strip strikes a delicate balance between lighthearted fun and social commentary-on the human condition as well as the animal world. The deceptively simple comic follows the adventures of Earl the dog and Mooch the cat, an unlikely best-friend team, and Shtinky Puddin', Sourpuss, Guard Dog, and Crabby. Patrick's distinctive cartooning style effectively relays the all-too-real concerns of his characters with entertaining, clever, laugh-out-loud banter. Infodad.com describes Mutts as ''humane and funny and gentle and caring and heartfelt and-did we mention funny?'' The site goes on to say that the strip ''includes enough hijinks and outstanding art (yes, art!) to please anyone with a taste for animals and amusement.'' Mutts has been syndicated by King Features since 1994 and enjoys a circulation of more than 500 daily newspapers. Muttscomics.com, the strip's official Web site, has experienced great popularity since its launch in 2003.

Come one! Come all . . to the exciting world of Big Top! Rob Harrell's three-ring comic strip has already packed the house with fans eager for his hilarious take on the circus and those who bring it to life. The circus and its colorful cast-led by 10-year-old Pete and his happily reformed performing bear, Wink-are a perfect metaphor for life. It's not always what happens on the surface, Big Top reminds us, but what takes place backstage that delivers the lessons and the humor. Pete and Wink keep plenty of odd company, including Kingston, coolest king of the jungle; Stucco, a mute clown who still manages to make his point; Manfred, the bookish monkey; Dusty, the wisecracking tell-it-like-it-is trained poodle; Andrea, the new acrobat girl who's caught Pete's eye; and Hairy Mary the Bearded Lady, a mother figure to them all. Take this crew on the road and you get an endless array of situations and relationships, care and impatience, honesty and intolerance. It's like one big Big Top family . one that welcomes all readers for the mere price of a ticket.

Every once in a great while the glimmer of something different will twinkle from the stack of comic cordwood piled in the daily newspaper. In I Have Tampered with the Divine Plan, the second Agnes collection, that glimmer continues to shine brightly. Agnes, the round-nosed, elegantly footed little girl in the cute black shift, and her best friend, Trout, continue their mad scramble through youth's treacherous minefield. High adventure and mayhem are afoot as they share the odd conversations that cobble together all amazing relationships. And when all that imagination no longer fits in their heads, it spills out into some very messy puddles. And messy puddles are funny. Fans have been eagerly awaiting a second book of Agnes's wisdom and adventure. Agnes appears in many papers across the country, including the San Francisco Examiner, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Daily News.

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!