There Goes the Neighborhood

This is Jerry van Amerongen's final collection of "The Neighborhood" cartoons (don't worry, he continued with his "Ballard Street" but it is not quite the same). Jerry is absolutely unique. He uses everyday expressions combined with bizarre drawings to show the absurdities of both our language and our lives. I am constantly reminded of his cartoons as I go about my daily routine, so you keep laughing even after you put the book down. Here is a few samples from this collection: (1) We see a drawing of those noisy power blowers gardners use to clear the sidewalk and driveway. It has a little notice stuck to its side that says "Warning-This equipment has no noise restraint and may only be used during the tranquil, early-morning hour, or during the reverie of twilight" (2) We see a patient on a couch on a psychiatrist's couch, and we are are looking over the shrink's shoulder and looking at his notepad on which he is writing . All we see on the notepad is "sick, sick, sick, sick, sick!" (3) We see a man with his arm outstretched with a baseball catcher's glove on his hand, and an arrow piercing the glove in the middle. The caption reads "Another failure to thoroughly synchronize athletic activities. (4) We see a gigantic chicken with a man standing in front of it holding an egg in his outstreched arm. The man says "one more step and I drop it!". The caption reads: "Is there anything Mr Alexander isn't prepared for?" (5) I am not sure this one is in this collection or another, but I have to relate it---we see a man sitting in diner with a dumpy waitress dropping soup in his lap. The caption reads : "The aliens are beginning their invasion by disguising themselves as service personnel" This last one in particular is so funny I can't stop laughing. Get his books and be prepared for the biggest laughs of your life!

Van Amerongen's zany cast of characters may at first strike the reader as so far out there as to be slightly beyond the horizon, but I defy you to read through the entire book without laughing out loud. This collection of single panel comics features the bored, "Glenn is pulled along in the slipstream of Beverly's life", and the overboard, "The encroachment of adhesives on the fabric of the family", as well as tanatalizing drawings that portend the intrusion of the latter into the lives of the former.