"I hope you enjoy <I>Cul de Sac</i> as much as I do. I think you're in for a real treat." --Bill Watterson, creator of <I>Calvin and Hobbes, 2008</i><P>"One of the five best features in any newspaper, period." --The Comics Reporter<P>"One of the few strips around where nearly every individual panel is stand-alone delight." --The Onion<P>"...it really seems like the inheritor of 'Calvin and Hobbes.'" --Art Spiegelman<P>"I can't say enough in his favor, so much is my admiration for his work." --Pat Oliphant<P>More than half of our nation's population resides in the 'burbs. Knowingly, Richard Thompson's <I>Cul de Sac</i> follows the antics of four-year-old Alice Otterloop as she navigates her way through life at Blisshaven Preschool, "the scene of [her] daily toil." Suburbanites across the nation will easily recognize the quirks and conundrums associated with house-lined streets, sidewalk canvases, and magnetified refrigerator art.<P>Instructed by the proper Miss Bliss, Alice regularly has issues with taking a nap, speaking out of turn, and remembering what a triangle looks like. Helping her through life's ups and downs are her eight-year-old brother Petey, Dad (a.k.a. Peter), and Mom (a.k.a. Madeline), as well as Mr. Danders, the preschool's pompously pedantic guinea pig.<P>This is the strip's first book collection incorporating more than a year's worth of strips dating back to the cartoon's 2007 debut. Thompson has received critical praise for doing a masterful job of commenting on social issues while entertaining in a freshly amusing and unexpected way.