A Day at the Beach: The Ninth Sherman's Lagoon Collection, Paperback

The popularity of Sherman's Lagoon continues to swell like the perfect wave. The strip's rather slow namesake shark is back with more urbane wit and capricious creatures in his famous lagoon. While the imagery and setting appeal to a younger generation, Sherman and his pals' clever dialogue and outlandish hang-ups appeal to their parents and grandparents as well.

Sherman the dim-witted shark and his cast of characters in Sherman's Lagoon provide enough laughs for a barrel of monkeys, not that they've ever seen any. The Lagoonies, as they're known to regular comic strip readers, are a motley crew-mostly of sea life-known for their acerbic humor. There's Megan, Sherman's wife (a soft-touch despite the tough exterior). Fillmore the sea turtle makes up for Sherman's lack of intellect. Hawthorne the hermit crab resides in a beer can and is always in a ""crabby"" mood. Ernest the fish is a computer whiz, and Thornton the polar bear stumbled upon the island while floating by on an iceberg. Captain Quigley is the only human (or ""beach ape"") who resides in Sherman's Lagoon. He lost his leg to Sherman and is now out for revenge, but never quite gets close enough. To round out the cast there's Bob the bottom dweller. Enough said.

Readers love Sherman and his friends for their hilarious reflections of human behavior as seen through a seawater lens. Jim balances the lighthearted antics of this quirky group by promoting the importance of marine conservation. Sherman's Lagoon is quite a catch

Sherman's Lagoon has been in syndication since 1991, and boasts a circulation of more than 200 daily newspapers on five continents.