Dogs and comic strips enjoy a long history together. But leave it to the highly creative mind of cartoonist Steve Watkins to come up with a "dawg" like no other. Watkins's pooch is none other than DJ Dog, a down-on-his-luck, ex-rap star canine forced by circumstances beyond his control to become a permanent houseguest in a suburban family household. Talk about culture shock!Watkins pulls off this unlikely scenario in his hot new comic strip, Housebroken, which captures fans everywhere it appears. Now Housebroken: There's a New Dawg in Town provides the perfect way for fans to find out what happens when hip-hop and suburban cultures clash under one roof. DJ continues to be a star-at least in his own mind-but he must share the stage with the Watson family, including neurotic attorney and father Thurgood, outspoken mother Leslie, nine-year-old businesswoman and daughter Mya, and seven-year-old son Malik, who likes cars and sports second only to his once-famous pit bull.Housebroken boasts all the elements of a hilarious comedy: city dog in the 'burbs, personal agendas galore, attitude and ineptitude, egos to match the extremes. Like the strip, this book holds multiracial appeal, reaching a broad audience with its universal themes of family, cooperation, and overcoming differences.

This latest collection of Doonesbury strips covers the War in Iraq, the California governor's race (won by Arnold the Gropenator Schwarzenegger), and Boopsie's short-lived career as football coach at Walden College.

What would road rage in Beverly Hills look like? From the whimsical perspective of The Other Coast creator Adrian Raeside, it would involve a prim-and-proper hurling of a jar of Grey Poupon at the offending driver.The Other Coast: Road Rage in Beverly Hills is the first collection of Adrian Raeside's strip featuring his off-kilter view of contemporary life. Raeside's lighthearted look at everything from culture, politics, fashion, society, and life in general is both insightful and hilarious. Whether it's taking a clever poke at our obsession with wireless phones, our inability to maintain a workout program, or the witty banter of married life, The Other Coast is a bastion of original thinking, wry wit, and out-loud laughs.Much of the humor comes at the expense of Toulose, the eccentric screenwriter, and his cause-seeking wife, Vicki. But the strip also features a colorful cast of repair people, kids, contractors, tech-support goons, agents, pets, and much more.Those enjoying strips that provide more than the "same 'ol schtick" are sure to relish a visit to The Other Coast, where folks aren't deep enough to be shallow.

All the family fun, pandemonium, and childhood chaos that fans of Baby Blues enjoy in the strip's daily newspaper appearances swirl about this collection. Imagine three hurricanes converging on one household and you get an idea of what Darryl and Wanda MacPherson experience each delightful day of parenting Zoe, Hammie, and Baby Wren. It's a perfect storm of flying foodstuffs, off-the-scale emotional outbursts, and enough offspring energy to make veteran storm chasers duck for cover.........and that's before any little friends come over to play! Playdate: Category 5 captures all this and more. This Baby Blues collection is packed with hilarious family situations and childhood challenges anyone can appreciate, whether it's fellow parents riding out their own ''storms,'' empty-nesters reveling in their calms, or parents-to-be wondering what all the fuss is about. Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott are right on target in episode after episode. Their witty observations and insights-such as ''I think screaming is the primary form of communication for girls,'' ''We've gotta learn to travel lighter, or just put some wheels on the house,'' and ''Sometimes being the dad is like being the weird kid in the neighborhood''-always hit the mark. Playdate: Category 5 will be treasured by Baby Blues fans everywhere. Playdate allows readers to experience the full fury of the MacPherson family tempest time and time again.

This popular, smile-a-minute strip appears in 400 newspapers worldwide. The agony of the summer job, the thrill of crushes on cute lifeguards, the excitement of the shopping mall, the terror of parents watching their children navigate life-it's all there in Dates and Other Disasters, Greg Evans's latest compilation of insightful humor.Nominated four times as "Cartoonist of the Year" by the National Cartoonists Society, Greg Evans has been pleasing audiences of all ages with Luann since she first appeared in the late 1980s. She was a popular part of Teen magazine in the 1990s and has served as the spokes'toon for Girls Inc. and Tambrands. Also, the "every-girl" teen representative is the star of a series of health and fitness brochures distributed to clinics, schools, and hospitals worldwide by Journeyworks Publishing.Everyone can relate to Luann's trials, missteps, and frustrations-preteens, teens, post-teens, adult readers who exclaim, "Phew! I'm glad that's over!" plus parents who relive the adventures with their own kids. Dates and Other Disasters expresses a universal message that declares no matter how times change, the trials of being a teenager are always the same!

Through La Cucaracha, creator Lalo Alcaraz makes blunt social comment both hard-hitting and hilarious. The result-La Cucaracha is not just a pleasure, but also a craving for thousands of readers in more than 60 newspapers.The strong undercurrent of modern Latino themes and issues adds a sharp layer of meaning to the humor. In one strip, an immigrant bartender has listened to two customers rant, "I'm telling ya, there's too many immigrants pouring into this country." When one of the customers asks for another drink the bartender declares, "I'm an immigrant, and guess what? I'm not pouring!"This first of perceptive La Cucaracha humor will delight and gratify all audiences that appreciate intelligent, progressive, deeply amusing comics.

Office workers, cubicle squatters, and corporate drones everywhere read Dilbert in their morning papers and see their own bosses and coworkers in the frames of the strip, enacting on newsprint the weird rituals and bizarre activities that are conducted each day in the American workplace. The characters' names and hairstyles have been changed to protect their identities, but Dilbert's readers aren't fooled. After all, they spend every day with these idiots and lunatics. Jargon-spewing corporate zombies. The sociopath who checks voice mail on his speaker phone. The fascist information systems guy. The sadistic human resources director. The technophobic vice president. The power-mad executive assistant. The pursed-lip sycophant. The big stubborn dumb guy. They're Dilbert's coworkers, and chances are they're yours, too. If you know them, work with them, or dialogue with them about leveraging synergies to maximize shareholder value, then you'll recognize this comic strip as a day at the office, only funnier! Since 1989 Dilbert has lampooned not only the people but also the accepted conventions and practices of the business world. Office politics, management trends, business travel, personnel policies, corporate bureaucracy, irrational strategies, unfathomable accounting practices, unproductive meetings, dysfunctional organizations, oppressive work spaces, silly protocols, and inscrutable jargon are all targets of Adams's darkly goofy satirical pen. Dilbert strikes a deeply resonant chord with fans because it casts such a dead-on reflection of the realities of the white-collar workplace, even with its off-the-wall delivery. It's Not Funny If I Have to Explain It, features Adams's personal all-time favorite selections, along with his own handwritten commentary about the strips.

A little bit of Lola lives inside all of us. Now, if we could just discover how to let her out! Lola's the 70-something firecracker who graces a comic strip by the same name. She's snappy. She's quick with a comeback. She not only knows exactly what she wants, she gets it with great regularity.Now with American Idle: A Lola Collection, Lola delights readers with more than a year of her best single-frame and strip senior adventures. She's full of her trademark vim, vigor-and vinegar-every step of the way. This aged wonder may live with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, but she follows no one down the path of life. Where man has gone before-be it bowling, a favorite park bench, or behind the wheel-this cigar-chomping woman will go . . faster, more fearlessly, and with far more attitude.