This is the first collection of the popular comic strip that features Calvin, a rambunctious 6-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, who comes charmingly to life.

    300 black-and-white and 44 color comic strips.

    Instead, Rumpole settles for the beaded bubbles of Chateau Pommeroy's ordinary claret, and his role extraordinaire as Defender of the Faith: "Never Plead Guilty.""Mortimer has created one of the legendary fictional detectives . . . a barrister [who's] as much a detective as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot." -- The Boston Sunday Globe"Wonderfully amusing . . . full of pithy writing . . . witty and opinionated." -- The Wall Street Journal

    There is a long and honourable tradition of great detectives and Dirk Gently does not belong to it. Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Dirk Gently, however, does not like to eliminate the impossible.In Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency a simple search for a missing cat reveals two ghosts, a dodo, an Electric Monk, the devastating secret that lies behind the whole of human history and threatens to bring it to a premature close, and, finally, the utterly terrifying reason why Richard MacDuff has had a sofa stuck on his stairs for three weeks.As The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul opens a passenger check-in desk at Terminal Two, Heathrow Airport, shoots up through the roof engulfed in a ball of orange flame. The usual people try to claim responsibility. However, no rational cause can be found for the explosion - it was simply designated an act of God. But, thinks Dirk Gently, which God? And why? What God would be hanging around Terminal Two of Heathrow Airport trying to catch the 15.37 to Oslo?What do a dead cat, a computer whizz-kid, an electric monk, quantum mechanics, a chronologit over 200 years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and pizza have in common? Apparently not much, until Dirk Gently begins his investigation.

    He introduces a variety of friends old and new, and takes readers to many exotic locales outdoors and indoors.

    His readers are legion - and this is the bestselling book that started it all, converting thousands of people who love to laugh into avid Plass readers.The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass (aged 37 3/4) is merriment and facetiousness at its best - a journal of the wacky Christian life of Plass's fictional alter-ego, who chronicles in his 'sacred' diary the daily goings-on in the lives of ordinary-but-somewhat-eccentric people he knows and meets. Reading it will doeth good like a medicine!

    Wit and repartee permeate his work — from the short, light pieces to his great novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and even later, in dark meditations on the human condition where his humor takes on a cynical, satirical twist.This remarkably inexpensive volume gathers together hundreds of Twain's most memorable quips and comments on life, love, history, culture, travel, and a diversity of other topics that occupied his thoughts over 50 years of writing and lecturing.An invaluable, ready reference for writers, speakers, and others in search of amusing and insightful quotes, this entertaining and thought-provoking compilation is also an ideal introduction to Twain's inimitable style and thought.

    Although not regarded as poetic or artistic acts, pranks constitute an art form and genre. Here, pranksters such as Mark Pauline, Monte Cazazza, Jello Biafra, Joe Coleman, Karen Finley, Henry Rollins, John Waters and Henry Rollins challenge the sovereign authority of words, images and behavioral convention. Some tales are bizarre, as when Boyd Rice presented the First Lady with a skinned sheep's head on a platter. This iconoclastic compendium will dazzle and delight all lovers of humor, satire and irony. A great quotations section is also included.

    The Complete Unexpurgated Scripts of the Original TV Series (Except for the Animation Bits)

    Sometimes is... now. First, there was The Gilgamesh. Then... the Bhagavad-Gita Then... the Torah, the New Testament, the Koran Then... the Book of Mormon, Dianetics, I'm OK You're OK. And now...The Book of the Subgenius (How to Prosper in the Coming Weird Times)

    When luckless Raymond Jardine becomes Sean Delancey's eleventh-grade-English project partner, he persuades Sean's grandfather to pose as a long-deceased, obscure Canadian poet, in an effort to pass the course and win a vacation to a luxurious Greek island.

    From bloopers and blunders to Signs of the Times to Mixed Up Metaphors...from Two-Headed Headlines to Mangling Modifiers, Anguished English is a treasury of assaults upon our common language.

    But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story—and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man’s careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves.

    Meanwhile back at the ranch, all that happens is Elna strikes oil, inherits a fortune, and is visited by the President. Never has the West been wilder or funnier. A Reading Rainbow Feature Selection. Full-color illustrations.

    Higher and higher he bounces gleefully, until his hair brushes the ceiling. But when he lands back on the bed--thump, creak, crack--it crashes right through the floor! Suddenly Walter finds himself visiting all the downstairs neighbors in his apartment building in a most unusual way!"Hip, hip, hooray for this delightful urban fantasy, a comic morality tale that explores the consequences of ignoring that age-old 'momilie, ' 'If I've told you once I've told you a million times, no jumping on the bed!'"--School Library Journal

    This dramatisation of the last three books, Life, The Universe And Everything; So Long And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless, features Douglas Adams himself, thanks to the wonders of digital technology, and includes new material written by him specially for the radio sequels. The original Hitchhiker's radio cast is returning; Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin The Paranoid Android. The late Peter Jones's great friend, William Franklyn, replaces him as The Voice Of The Book. Also involved are famous names such as Joanna Lumley, Richard Griffiths, Chris Langham, Fred Trueman and Henry Blofeld. The shows will be broadcast in two series in Sept. 2004 and spring 2005.

    Erma's conclusion: families—you can't live with them, you can't live without them... or can you?

    Funny and touching, these 20 stories from original live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion follow the seasons in Lake Wobegon.Contents:Spring: Me and Choir; A Day in the Life of Clarence Bunsen; Letter from Jim; FictionSummer: The Living Flag; The Tollefson Boy Goes to College; Tomato Butt; Chamber of Commerce; Dog Days of August; Mrs. Berge and the Schubert Carillon PianoFall: Giant Decoys; Darryl Tollerud's Long Day; Hog Slaughter; Thanksgiving; The Royal FamilyWinter: Guys on Ice; James Lundeen's Christmas; The Christmas Story Re-told; New Year's from new York; Storm Home

    True Grit, that is. Bestselling humorist and philosopher Lewis Grizzard looked for other Americans with true grit. What he found will make you laugh and perhaps even wipe away a tear. True Grit. The people in this book have it. And so does Lewis Grizzard.

    Oscar spends the summer with his inventor cousin traveling around the United States in a Picklemobile eating chicken in the bag to win a contest, while being pursued by an angry woman with mystical powers, who is also determined to win the contest.

    Photographs.

    The most detailed and accurate account of the team's career, based on exclusive interviews with their friends and associates, original shooting scripts, studio publicity material and production logs, family scrapbooks and legal depositions. Includes a who's who of supporting players and technical crew members, details on newly rediscovered films, lost footage and a resource guide.

    If you need a fresh breath of joy in your life, this book is just the prescription for you.With the wit of an Erma Bombeck, Barbara Johnson helps you to look for "life's little sparkles," even in the midst of your most crippling sorrows. No stranger to suffering herself, Barbara's experiences have equipped her with the credentials to help others work through their own suffering. In spite of her difficulties, Barbara has learned that while pain is inevitable to us all, we can choose to pick the flowers instead of the weeds.Barbara will teach you how to release that bubble of joy within you?to claim God's promise to "fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy." ?Job 8:21 (TLB)

    

    He tells enormous lies. He picks fights with girls. No one likes him—except Carla, the new school counselor. She thinks Bradley is sensitive and generous, and knows that Bradley could change, if only he weren't afraid to try. But when you feel like the most-hated kid in the whole school, believing in yourself can be the hardest thing in the world...

    With over 500 daily strips and 80 full-color Sunday pages, this is satire, and Doonesbury, at its best.

    Man's garden, Brer Rabbit is always teaching a valuable lesson. These classic tales are full of wit, humor, and creativity, and Julius Lester brings an added contemporary sense to these forty-eight timeless stories.

    He's learned a few almost surefire spells from his scaly, green partner, Aahz, and he has Mob bodyguards, an apprentice magician, a troll, a trollop and a baby dragon ready to back him up if and when he blunders. He's also very lucky. And in this trio of action-packed novels, Skeeve finds out just how far he can push his luck. Myth-ing Persons. When thieves use Skeeve's back door to escape into another dimension, he and Aahz have to pursue the fugitives and bring them back for Bazaar justice. Unfortunately, the door opens on Limbo, where vampires and werewolves enjoy a unique nightlife. Stuck in a perilous realm where the magic lines are so weak that a wizard has to hide behind makeup. Skeeve had better have something up his sleeve. Little Myth Marker. When Skeeve has the bad luck to win at dragon poker, he's saddled with a prize he never wanted — a little troublemaker named Markie, whose spell-weaking tantrums soon have the whole Bazaar pounding down Skeeve's door demanding reparations. And just when he thinks things can't get any worse, the local magicians hire a Character Assassin to destroy what little of his reputation is still intact! M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link. While Skeeve, now President of the M.Y.T.H. Inc. Corp., struggles top get the hang of his new desk job, the others go off adventuring on their own. Guido, the Mob bodyguard, is hired by a Deveel named Bane to find out why his successful magic factory is losing money. Chumley the troll and his sister, the trollop Tananda, head for a pleasant dimension called Arcadia, working on what starts out as a simple collection job. The flamboyant and oversized Massha tries her hand at jazzing up a failing hotel. Aahz goes to the aid of an old friend, a demon hunter turned magician. And Gleep the dragon, guarding a valuable cargo with Nunzio, has ample time to think about Skeeve, whom he regards as his personal pet.

    A bright, witty assessment of football in the 1950s.

    In 65 drawings, including 16 in mixed media and full color, Sempe's whimsical music-makers play all the time, anywhere-practicing, performing, alone or together, at recitals, sessions, and concerts, with audiences or without: a small boy takes on Mozart, an elderly woman struggles with "Echo of Harlem." They are caught in an overwhelming culture, but-like the speck-sized cellist of the last page-they move "towards a simpler world" through the music they make. This is a book that the New York Times praised as "A delicious, evocative album of caricature. . . . Sempe's line becomes music." Said Leonard Bernstein, "Sempe is a comedic genius, who gives all of us musicians the invaluable gift of redeeming our solemnity with the grace of humor."

    Who can forget Howland Owl, Porky Pine, Albert the Alligator, Churchy La Femme the Turtle, and of course, Pogo Possum? Take a delightful inside look at one of the funniest, most popular and literate comic strips of all time. The Best of Pogo features Walt Kelly's landmark cartoons in a marvelous scrapbook of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories. From Kelly's earliest cartoon creations to his legendary stories in pictures and words syndicated across the country, it's a warm and witty tribute to the man and his magical menagerie of lovable swamp 'critters.' You get the whole wonderful story, including Rare pre-syndicated Pogo comics; The immortal Whirled Series of Baseball; All the lyrics to 'Deck Us All with Boston Charlie'; And Pogo's real-life presidential campaigns, with first-hand reports on the wild victory parties that followed. Plus, a special feature: 'MAD goes Pogo,' a reprint of Pogo Possum parodies from MAD magazine. All this and much more, as you relive the life and times of the Okefenokee Swamp -- its timeless humor, its mischief, satire and political controversy."

    

    Nothing is sacred, not even himself: "I figure I have spent five minutes every morning for the past five years blow-drying my hair. That is six days of my life spent with Flash Gordon's ray gun pointed at my brain, which probably has windburn by now!" Whether he is commenting on politics, women or sports, bemoaning technology or mocking Southerners who try to talk like Northerners, Grizzard, "the Faulkner for just plain folks," has never been funnier.Other Lewis Grizzard titles available on Sound Editions from Random House:My daddy was a pistol and I'm a son of a gun Elvis is dead and I don't feel so good myself if love were oil, I'd be about a quart low don't bend over in the garden, Granny, you know them taters got eyes.

    Christmas greetings, gift giving, good things to eat, all the joy and stupidities of the Yuletide season are humorously depicted.

    Whether you're home by yourself, or spending the night at a friend's house, try playing Vacation Fun Mad Libs® for kicks.

    

    Brilliant plays in attack and defence, devil's coups and smothers, squeezes and endplays, scissors and uppercuts, are all seen against a background of human follies and foibles. Psychology and imagination, no less than science and technique, light up the scene. In this, the fifth title in the Menagerie series, you meet again the Rueful Rabbit, luckiest of mortals; Karapet, the unluckiest player since job; and Walter the Walrus, the point-count specialist. With Papa's arrogance, the Toucan's humility, the secretary Bird's pedantry and Molly the Mule's rampant feminism, they make every deal vibrate and sparkle. The Hideous Hog remains all but insufferable as he clashes daily with destiny, and in the final episode confronts the prince of darkness himself.

    SnarfQuest (TM) The BookA comic quest for wealth, power, and all that other good stuff....The COMPLETE adventure of THE QUEST FOR THE CROWN, from DRAGON (R) magaine.Includes New Full-Color, Never-Before-Published Story!

    

    An excellent introduction Bill Griffith's popular comic strip. From his first appearance in Tales of the Toad, Zippy has lived a true American Success Story.

    Seuss; 20 essays and articles, 60 cartoon essays, and 30 full-page fantasies, all collected here in book form for the first time ever.

    He is starved of human companionship; instead he has running conversations with trees and plants. Then love, or a peculiar version of it, comes to Aloysius in the form of a solidly built German lady, Inga Schmidt, who has come to Jamaica to photograph the flora and fauna.

    More than 1,000 outrageously irreverent quotations, anecdotes, and interviews on a vast array of subjects, from an illustrious list of world class grouches."If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me."--Alice Roosevelt Longworth

    Readers will find all the popular features of the original--articles, sex quizzes, a sizzling book digest, glitzy ads and more--plus a captivating cast of fascinating felines. 48 pages of full-color photographs.

    Stevenson's expressive, comically suggestive line keeps the story rollicking along.

    

    Renowned bridge expert Victor Mollo has another card up his sleeve!  Advance technique and simple bridge psychology, closely linked, are the salient features of the many brilliant plays described in Victor Mollo's Bridge Club.

    Book is in unused condition

    

    . . illustrated epigrams that will inspire your personal quest for telling communication. Fresh, funny, wistful, bright; they may well reflect some of your own deep or whimsical thoughts. Ashleigh's Pot Shots are acclaimed, told and re-told, by young and old, secular and religious, mainstream and offbeat they speak to everyone. What they say: Clifton Fadiman: Most enjoyable; Isaac Asimov: Good one-liners; Richard Armour: Wise, and witty; People magazine: Artistic trailblazer, Ashleigh Brilliant coins epigrams that would drive Oscar wild. Ashleigh's Pot Shots are copyrighted and the names Pot Shots and Brilliant Thoughts are registered trademarks.

    

    Thus begins The Swan Prince, an affectionate, humorous takeoff of classical ballet conceived by none other than classical ballet's greatest living dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov. 80 pages of photographs. (Performing Arts)

    Bridgit is an apprentice witch and an aspiring writer. Daddy is a magician. Pat is a wizard-to-be. And then there’s Frankie, the new baby, who turns into a griffin seven hours after birth. Bridgit and Frankie are always in the thick of the family’s adventures, which range from a small-town Halloween carnival to the rescue of Pat from an unexpected trip to the moon. Stewart Daniel’s imaginative illustrations conjure up the griffins , wizards, magicians, and witches that populate a small Midwestern town and a place called Magic. A wholesome, fun-filled story of a closely-knit family that puts magic to good use, Frankie! will satisfy the adventurous urges of any middle-grade reader.

    His 1982 Gun in Cheek was a wickedly humorous collection of unbelievable plots, poor characterization, unlikely language and just plain dumbness in his favorite genre; here he presents another collection, subtitled "an affectionate guide to more of the 'worst' in mystery fiction." Some writers (Harry Stephen Keeler, Michael Avallone) are roasted at length, and some are sideswiped, including even fine writers experiencing temporary lapses (Ed McBain, Joseph Wambaugh). Not perhaps for the general reader, this volume should appeal to addicts who, like Pronzini, will apparently read anything labeled "mystery." Sex, pulp mags, B-movies and "The Alternative Hall of Fame" are featured in wittily titled chapters with a postmortem, bibliography and index.

    

    When a witch boards the bus at Paddington Station, wonderful, magical things happen to the tired and grumpy riders.

    

    The story combines three traditional Chinese folk tales by having Lee Foo make all three traditional mistakes.

    

    Share the laughs with Rose Gumbo, her zany husband Jimbo and son Pasquale in a book filled with...Light Moments

    The crafty underdog who outsmarts all the other folk in Hominy Grove will charm and delight readers of all ages.Brer Rabbit, he's a good fisherman -- The wonderful tar-baby story -- How Brer Weasel was caught -- Brer Rabbit and the mosquitoes -- Brer Rabbit's courtship -- Song: In love for a day.

    An elephant who loves to take baths gets stuck in the tub, and it takes all the wiles of his animal friends to get him out.

    

    A collection of down-home farm recipes and reminiscences of Central Texas in the 1930's.

    An illustrated collection of riddles, such as What did the mayonnaise say to the refrigerator? Close the door, I'm dressing!

    

    Cartoons of ri

    

    

    

    As a result of years of rereading and teaching Aristophanes, he realized that the Clouds could not be defended in an analysis of that play in isolation. A better approach, he decided, would be to define a comic perspective within which Aristophanes' comedies in general as well as the Clouds in particular could be appreciated.This first volume of Reckford's defense examines the comedies as a whole in a series of defining essays, each with its own dominant concern and method of approach. The author begins by exploring not the usual questions of Aristophanes' political attitudes and his place in the development of comedy, but rather the festive, celebratory, and Dionysian nature of Old Comedy. Here and throughout the book Reckford illustrates Aristophanes' form of comedy with analogies to Rabelais, Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.In the remaining essays Reckford goes beyond the usual Freudian approaches, reinterpreting the comic catharsis as a clarification of wishing and hoping. He also explores the growth of plays from comic idea to comic performance, in ways reflected in Tom Stoppard's plays today. Only then are Aristophanes' basic political loyalties described, as well as the place of his old- and-new comedy within the history of the genre.In a book that is as much about comedy generally as it is about Aristophanes specifically, some plays are treated more fully than others. Reckford discusses the Wasps at length, comparing the symbolic transformations and comic recognitions in the play with dream experience and dream interpretation. He also analyzes the Peace, the Acharians, the Birds, and the Frogs. Reckford's vindication of the Clouds will appear in the second volume of his defense, Clouds of Glory.Reckford's playful translations preserve the puns and anachronisms of Aristophanes, maintaining the playwright's comic feeling and tone. Combining traditional classical scholarship with a variety of literary, psychological, and anthropological approaches, he has written a study that will appeal to both the academic audience and the general reader who cares about comedy.Originally published in 1987.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

    Gene Shalit has selected nearly 200 entries from virtually every field of humor--written, drawn, and performed.

    When the old woman's shoes sing and dance all night and keep her awake, she goes to the scary Willy Nilly Man for help.

    Foxley who becomes convinced that the hat is magical.

    Then two lovely young ladies enter his life: Ichikun "Ichi Koo" Ichinohei, heir to a ninja clan, and Princess Asrial of Salusia. Both are intent on marrying him for their own benefit. Can Jeremy survive their affections and weaponry long enough to take that Steamology exam on Friday?

    Full-color illustrations.

    When Charlie Brown decides to make Snoopy earn his keep by giving him a job, Snoopy packs his bag and heads out west to live with Brother Spike in the desert.