Macanudo

Argentinean cartoonist Liniers made his English-language debut last fall with his acclaimed children’s book, The Big Wet Balloon. This first collection of his daily adult-aimed comic strip (which is hugely popular in Argentina) to be released in the U.S. offers a wider look at his work. The strip, which has run for the past decade in Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper, has recurring characters that are only apparently unrelated. The most amusing strips feature Henrietta, a smart little girl, and either Mandelbaum, her frustratingly nonresponsive teddy bear, or Fellini, her cat. The huge cast plays out observational jokes based on Liniers’s multifaceted interests that are ably captured by his wispy art, which would look right at home in the New Yorker. At its heart, this is a gag-humor strip, but the intellectual undertone mixes the sweetness of Calvin and Hobbes and the surrealism of the Far Side. It’s an impressive sampling. (June)