"I want to be the ferret in the pants of the government." --Duke, on Larry King Live Hot on the heels of his surprising in-your-face presidential campaign, the roots of candidate Duke are revisited in this reissue of Action Figure!, the definitive history of his adventures from 1970 to 1991. The perennial bad boy of American comics has always been a man of action: libelous action, irrational action, covert action, back-street action-even when comatose, he has a certain flair. Duke is the man of a thousand vices, with almost as many pages to his resume. For 17 years, from Samoa to China to Panama to Kuwait, wherever serious mischief was being dealt, Duke has been a major figure. Action Figure!, gives the Toasted One his due-one vast, staggering flashback that tracks his careening career from Gonzo Journalist to Governor, Ambassador, Coach, Laetrile Farmer, Fugitive, and Zombie. No risk has been too great, no prospect too strange, to sway the man with nerves of steel from his random course.

The Boondocks is a rich, multilayered comic strip that offers a frank yet often funny look at race in America. It starts with a simple premise: Two young boys, Riley and Huey, move from innercity Chicago to live with their grandfather. The tension increases, however, because the two boys are African-Americans now compelled to adapt to a white suburban world. They must take all they've learned in the ''hood and apply it to life in the 'burbs. Superbly illustrated, The Boondocks has stirred controversy, attracted widespread media coverage, and won readers who've applauded McGruder's unapologetic and humorous approach to race.

This third collection of Sherman's Lagoon comic strip offers another engaging assortment of cartoons from the popular syndicated strip, appearing in nearly 150 newspapers. Sherman and his turtle sidekick team up to battle the encroachment of civilization on a remote tropical paradise in the South Pacific.

Only in the world of Close to Home can you find hospitals staffed with hypochondriac-sniffing dogs, Yellowstone employees who secretly spike Old Faithful with gallons of Mr. Bubble, and telephones equipped with Caller I.Q. Of course, for the creator of the screamingly successful Close to Home, it's just another no-holds-barred day at the drawing board. Specializing in humor in everyday situations, John McPherson lampoons the worlds of parenting, marriage, school, health care, work, and leisure in ways that get readers to laugh at themselves.

The Boondocks has taken the syndication world by storm. Introduced in April 1999, the edgy new comic strip produced a stronger launch for Universal Press Syndicate than Calvin and Hobbes and For Better or For Worse. The impressive list of early papers included the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Dallas Morning News. In fact, the notoriety landed Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder in publications ranging from Time magazine to People magazine which named him one of the ''25 Most Intriguing People of '99.''The first collection, The Boondocks, gathers together material from the record-setting first year of this sensational new strip. Centered around the experiences of two young African-American boys, Huey and Riley, who move from inner-city Chicago to the suburbs (or the ''boondocks'' to them), the strip fuses hip-hop sensibilities with Japanese anime-style drawings and a candid discussion of race. Funny yet revealing, the combination of superb art and envelope-pushing content provides one of the most unique strips in syndication today.

Doonesbury continues to entertain, inspire, and provoke with its unique blend of social commentary, humor, and political satire. Chronicling the millennial state of the nation through the interconnected lives of its large cast of characters, the strip offers unusual perspectives on the usual suspects, and asks impertinent questions on the pertinent subjects of the day. In Duke 2000: Whatever It Takes Trudeau's Pulitzer Prize-winning strip tracks the end of an Internet start-up and the beginning of a gay marriage, the revival of an aging rocker's career -- and the complete reinvention of the irrepressible Uncle Duke. In a presidential primary campaign attracting the likes of Warren Beatty and Donald Trump, perhaps it was not surprising that the former ambassador to China decided to throw his bandana into the ring.

No other comic strip combines such a rich imagination, dazzling perspective and sweet substance as Rose is Rose. In each installment, cartoonist Pat Brady presents a loving and funny family that fans simply want to be a part of. In The Irresistible Rose is Rose, Brady plays up Rose's active fantasy world. Through one or two clever flip-art sequences she morphs into her alter ego, the leather-clad biker sexpot, Vicki the Biker. In this fourth Rose is Rose collection, Rose's playful nature is complemented by her son Pasquale's wild dream life and the constant devotion from her adoring husband Jimbo.The strip has received many accolades, including the prestigious Wilbur Award from the Religious Public Relations Council, and has been nominated five times for Best Newspaper Comic Strip by the National Cartoonists Society. Rose is Rose appears in over 500 newspapers. Fans will find this newest collection completely irresistible!

Everyone who's in business, works for a business, or even just gives others the business is amazed: Scott Adams never lacks for yet another way to lampoon the corporate world. It's not that Adams is anti-business. He's more anti-bad boss than anything. But poor management practices, the effects of bad decisions, and what it all means for the average worker add up to more comedic material than even the man who created Dilbert can tame. Since Dilbert was first syndicated in 1989, Adams has built a following that would be the envy of any corporate sales and marketing team. His work not only generates howls from readers as they rush to plaster it on lunch-room refrigerators and scan it into interoffice e-mails, it has those same fans reading about their workplaces every Sunday in a multiple-panel, color format. And that's what this treasury, The Collected Dilbert Sundays, provides. This collection offers yet another glimpse into the zany life of Dilbert, Dogbert, Ratbert, and the rest of the crazy cube crew through the masterpiece Sunday comics. Here's even more of the great Adams's irony, sarcasm, and satire that so many have come to depend upon to cope with the corporate workplace. The Collected Dilbert Sundays humorously continues the tradition of poking fun at the world of business from which we all seek to temporarily escape.