The Neighborhood

I loved the Neighborhood cartoons for years and years....this book brought back all the joyous laughter again for us....we love it!

Jerry Van Amerongen's "The Neighborhood" and "Ballard Street" comics are the funniest things I have ever seen. Jerry combines bizarre single-panel drawings with strange captions which use everyday expressions to push humor to the limits. Frankly, many people don't understand the humor employed, but the popularity of his books and daily strips show that enough people are intelligent enough to bust a gut over them. I'll give you a couple of examples from this book, which was his first: In the first, we see a number of snapshots of a dog apparently running in terror. The caption states: "Lyle Biggs uses his dog's innate fear of flash photography to exercise his pet". Another has a man standing behind a door leading to the floor of the Stock Exchange. He is wearing a clown's outfit covered with stars, wearing a hat with a propellor on it and he is standing on roller skates. The caption reads "Glenn Trotter, just before he lost his clout as a high-powered Wall Street analyst". The last example shows an old car with a bird that looks like a turkey tied on to the hood, but most of the feathers are off the bird, with some of this covering the windshield. The caption is "While stuffed birds make striking hood ornaments, they become impractical at speeds above 55 m.p.h". After you stop laughing, go out and get all of his books. As you go through you daily life and encounter the every-day expressions that he uses, you will always be reminded of these cartoons. Things will never be the same again!