A Cascade Of Comic Collections

By: Dave Astor "Suddenly Silver," a collection marking the 25th anniversary of the "For Better or For Worse" comic by Lynn Johnston of Universal Press Syndicate, is being released next month by Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Other upcoming AMP collections include "Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic" by "Pearls Before Swine" creator Stephan Pastis of United Media; "It's Not Funny If I Have to Explain It" by "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams of United; "Talk to the Hand" by "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau of Universal; and "Road Rage in Beverly Hills" by "The Other Coast" cartoonist Adrian Raeside of Creators Syndicate. On the column side, "Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2005" by the Chicago Sun-Times/Universal writer, is also due out in October.

AMP comics collections published this month or last month include "La Cucaracha" by Lalo Alcaraz of Universal; "FoxTrotius Maximus" by Bill Amend of Universal; "Thrilling Tom the Dancing Bug Stories" by Ruben Bolling of Universal; "Dibs on His Clubs!" by "In the Bleachers" creator Steve Moore of Universal; "Character Matters" by "Ziggy" cartoonists Tom Wilson and Tom Wilson II of Universal; "Dates and Other Disasters" by "Luann" creator Greg Evans of United; "Peace, Love, and Lattes" by "Rudy Park" cartoonists Darrin Bell and Theron Heir of United; "Dog-Eared" by "Mutts" creator Patrick McDonnell of King Features Syndicate; "Catch of the Day" by "Sherman's Lagoon" creator Jim Toomey of King; "Random Zits" by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman of King; "Playdate: Category 5" by "Baby Blues" cartoonists Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott of King; "Housebroken: There's a New Dawg in Town" by Steve Watkins of Tribune Media Services; "27 Years of Jeff MacNelly's Shoe" edited by Chris Cassatt and Susie MacNelly of TMS; and "Rugrats: It's a Jungle Gym Out There" -- which consists of Creators-distributed strips based on the TV show.

And a new non-AMP collection is "America Gone Bonkers" by "Slowpoke" creator Jen Sorensen (http://www.slowpokecomics.com).