A Day at the Beach

Sherman's Lagoon #9

by Jim Toomey

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.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Comic Strips, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Jim Toomey is an internationally published humor writer and syndicated cartoonist best known as the creator of the popular comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon, published daily in over 150 newspapers including The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. Jim has produced 28 Sherman’s Lagoon books, published by Andrews McMeel, and most recently a travel memoir, entitled Family Afloat, about his two years sailing the world’s oceans with his wife and family.

Sherman's Lagoon combines two of his lifelong interests: art and the sea. In addition to drawing his comic strip, Jim is active in ocean conservation and serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Jim has given talks at a variety of venues, including the Royal Society in London, Harvard University and twice at TED. The conservation message in his comic strip earned him the Environmental Hero Award in 2000, presented by NOAA “for using art and humor to conserve and protect our marine heritage.” Jim won the award again in 2010.

Jim holds degrees from Duke and Stanford. He currently lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and two children, where he tries to get his family back on a sailboat as frequently as possible but can rarely make it happen.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed a comic relief and this one fit the bill.

[Rex Libris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am on vacation and binging on Sherman's Lagoon. Among the tidbits in this volume we meet Thornton's girlfriend. True to the convention, we know she is a female polar bear because she wears a string of pearls. We also meet penguins who think Sherman and Ernest are from Satan.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the shark!