From toddler antics to doctor appointments, Keiler Roberts breathes humour and life into the fleeting present Keiler Roberts affirms her status as one of the best autobiographical cartoonists working today with The Joy of Quitting , a work encompassing 8 years of hilarious moments in the author's life, mined from the universal. It spans her frantic child-rearing, misfires in the workplace, and frustrating experiences with the medical system. In one strip, the author and her daughter Xia have itchy scalps. Roberts asks her husband to check her hair and all she gets is the cursory remark that he just sees a bunch of bugs." In another, Xia describes her oddly shaped poop in precise detail. We then see Xia sitting at the breakfast table telling the family that she recently learned the word "nuisance" and everyone agrees it's a good word for her to know. As Xia grows from toddler to big kid, the family evolves and its dynamics shift in subtle ways, changes that pass all too suddenly in real life captured forever with Roberts's keen observational humour. The Joy of Quitting is Roberts' magnum opus of domestic comedy, highlighting how she continues to work within and expand the rich tradition of autobiographical comics. Again and again, Roberts shows us that most meaningful moments or gestures often don't have any meaning at all.

This fully-illustrated history of the world's best comic strip art, including Hy Eisman's The Katzenjammer Kids, which debuted in 1897, Charles Schultz's Peanuts (1950), Peyo's Smurfs (1958), Steve Ditko's Spiderman (1962), Jack Kirby's Black Panther (1966) or Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes (1985), or Chris Ware and his ACME Novelty Library (1993). The comics presented here have imagined fantastical worlds that have attracted generation after generation of devoted fans. A critical reference, this book is also a nostalgic celebration of the characters that have accompanied readers from their first forays into reading, through adolescence and throughout adulthood-from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to Tintin and Little Nemo, from the superhero franchises to postmodern works such as Art Speigelman's Maus or the underground comics of Robert Crumb. Featuring 125 American and European artists, this is a gorgeous retrospective on one of the most richly creative forms of reading pleasure.