HICKEE

If this anthology of humorous comics by a group of San Francisco-area young artists is any measure, the spirit of anti-mainstream cartooning is alive and well. The angry underground comix of a few decades ago, by creators like R. Crumb and Robert Williams, attacked any part of the American establishment within reach. The relatively lightweight pieces here are mellower, targeting any institution that looks prudish or pretentious. One such subject is mainstream comics, which Scott Campbell's "Caveman Ninja Meets Zombie Jogger" neatly boils down to four pages of casual hand-to-hand combat, junk food snacking and miniature golf playing. Popular entertainment in general is another butt: Vamberto Maduro condenses a Hollywood blockbuster into eight panels, suggesting how bloated the original movie was. Indeed, many of these pieces laugh at cherished attitudes, either by melodramatically inflating their self-absorption or by reducing them to inconsequential shaggy-dog stories. Since many of the contributors have animation backgrounds, their work tends to be more cartoony than the earlier rebels'; the little panels in Graham Annable's stories, for example, look as if they'd make a short film if they were cut out and rapidly flipped. Styles vary, naturally, but the art makes very little attempt at verisimilitude. These people know, and constantly remind readers, that they're playing with ink on paper. Of course, they're also encouraging readers to play with ideas and attitudes, including some that they may not be used to seeing from different angles. Humor is especially dangerous when it ambushes readers in cute, lively mini-stories like this. (Feb.)