Dude: The Big Book of Zonker

 

Dude: The Big Book of Zonker by G.B. Trudeau  284 pp.

Zonker Harris has been a pivotal character in the Doonesbury comic strip for 50+ years. This collection of strips featuring the beloved Zonker covers his time at Walden College and living in the Walden Commune with the other characters through to his time serving as a nanny for his college football captain, B.D. and his wife, Boopsie, and daughter, Sam. The strips follow Zonker's career gaining national acclaim as a  professional sun tanner, as the Lt. Governor of Haiti, joining the British aristocracy, periodic returns home to his parents, helping to provide medical marijuana to cancer and AIDS patients, becoming a nanny for first for former roommates Mike and J.J. and then for B.D. This collection ends when B.D. loses a leg in combat and the story of B.D. continues in further volumes. In spite of the drug using, anti-establishment antics of Zonker, the comic strip contains much social/political commentary of the years of it's publication. In spite of much that is ridiculous, like surfing with a small baby, Zonker is a loveable dude and provides a kind of social conscience no matter how quirky.

The Long Road Home + two more

The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time 93 pp.

The War Within: One More Step at a Time 110 pp.

Signature Wound: Rocking TBI 122 pp.

Author G.B. Trudeau

G.B. Trudeau revisits his Doonesbury characters in these three graphic novels about injured Iraq War veterans. In the first two books BD, the character who always wore a helmet in the old comic strips, loses his leg in combat. The first volume covers his recovery, learning to use his prosthetic leg and his return to his wife, Boopsie and their daughter, and Zonker the hippie stoner who is their live-in "nanny". While the first story mostly involves his physical recovery, the second is about BD's mental recovery and dealing with PTSD with the help of another disabled vet who does counseling. The third book is about a new character nicknamed "Toggle" who was under BD's command. Toggle suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury and BD ends up working as his counselor. For fans of Doonesbury and everyone else. There is information appended to each book about Fisher House, a "home away from home" for military families with patients in military and VA medical centers (think Ronald McDonald House for soldiers). 

Hark! A Vagrant

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton, 166 pages

New Yorker cartoonist and native Canadian Kate Beaton presents a series of comic strips riffing on history and literature, with a healthy dose of modern-day pop culture thrown in. While it may seem to be solely for the snooty intelligentsia who actually know about Canadian history (so, what, two whole people?), there's plenty for the rest of us. I particularly liked the bits referring to the Bronte sisters, comic book superheroes, and Macbeth, though there's something for the nerd in all of us. Can't wait to check out her second book, Step Aside Pops, which came out last year.

Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection

Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton, 166 pages

An excellent collection of comics from Canadian artist, Kate Beaton. Beaton finds her inspiration in literature, history, and old photos, and popular culture. She often mixes these all together with hilarious results, as with the Jane Austen / X-Files mashup, "House Full of Mulders".
Goofy and thoughtful, Beaton's comics often reference literary classics that I have not yet gotten around to reading, and in this volume she builds a series of strips around a classic of which, I swear, I have heard nothing, Kokoro. We have the book at UCPL, and it is in translation, so now I'll have to read it.
The comics can also be found at harkavagrant.com.

The Adventures of Superhero Girl

The Adventures of Superhero Girl written and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks, 106 pages
A 2014 Top Ten Great Graphic Novel for Teens

She's able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, can throw things deep into outer space, and punch her way out of anything, but that doesn't count for much when you're a superhero still trying to find an identity and a place in the superhero community (especially when your brother is Kevin, a Superman-like superhero beloved by all). Told in a series of strips, collected from the webcomic and printed in Halifax's The Coast newspaper under the same name, Superhero Girl rescues kittens from trees, helps old ladies cross the street, and struggles with the fact that all of the bad guys in Toronto are complete duds when it comes to villainy, no matter how much they try (and boy, does King Ninja try). I don't think I can properly articulate how much I love Faith Erin Hicks's art, especially in full glorious color, or her humorous approach to superheroes and all the tropes that seem to surround them without dissolving into fangirl squeeing. I only wish there was more, but it seems that the rest of the comics world has been figuring out how awesome she is and giving her lots of jobs that keep her away from Superhero Girl. Let's hope she finds time to make more very soon.

(Read as part of YALSA's Hub Reading Challenge.)