I'm Ink, Therefore I Am!: Farley's San Francisco Chronicles

This is the twin to his "Going Local" -- local topical cartoons about San Francisco. Even though I live near SF rather than in it, I find them hilarious and read them every day at sfgate.com. Thank you, Mr Frank for so much relief from all the troubles of the world!

Phil Frank has been drawing a daily cartoon for the San Francisco Chronicle for about 10 years or so. While I lived there his strip had always been the first thing I read in the morning, and I am rather happy that finally there is a collection of selected strips from '90 - '96. I guess I must have seen most of them before, but aside from a lot of fond memories I also got a lot of laughs out of this collection. But it certainly isn't one of the "you-had-to-be-there-to-get-it" things - I have loaned my copy to a couple of people her in Germany, and they also were rather amused by it. There is a fair amount of local politics that serves as a background for the jokes, but there are also many stories about the affairs of the heart of the hero of the strip, Farley, and his on-going realtionship with Irene the metermaid who makes parking such sweet sorrow for him, about the four bears who run the Fog City Dumpster for the four-legged gourmets of San Francisco, and ab! out Orwell T. Cat's carreer as a fall-cat in the White House. So just go ahead and buy it - it's really, really funny, and it's a lot cheaper than going to San Francisco yourself.