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Around the Neighborhood

Comic strips! Since the newspapers seem to be shutting down one by one (and the comics section is always the first to go, way before they actually shut down), you don’t see them as much in the local alternative papers. And the ones in the regular papers are the same strips from 50 years ago, so where can you get indie comic strips? Seems to be just down to mini comics at this point. Yep, you guessed it: this is a collection of Rachel’s comics, mostly single page strips with a few longer ones thrown in. She’s a relatively recent transplant to Seattle, so most of these deal in one way or another with her new surroundings. Subjects include the various thought bubbles going around while somebody else is singing karaoke, too many totes, some people who stopped by the yard sale, the joy of not getting hit on at the bar, the reactions she got from friends and family when she moved to a different side of the country, hats, what she did on her snow day, how to tell if the local sports team has won without watching the game, quick excuses when you want to avoid a conversation, baby’s first eclipse, getting back to the “good” air quality, and tales of bad haircuts. Plus more stories, but I’m obviously going to leave some as a surprise. Rachel’s pretty great with the observational humor, and since strips are as compact as stories can get, this is a more dense book than you might think. Check it out, and you can’t really go wrong just ordering a few books from her while you’re at it… $4