Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection

The cover and title of this book play on 19th-century cartoons depicting velocipeding women as shocking and inappropriate, but we'd say "AWESOME" declares Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant; The Princess and the Pony). This new collection from her popular webcomic of affectionate satire digs deeper and more savagely into gender politics (ersatz "feminists" who want to kill men; Wonder Woman's problems), racial/ethnicity issues (obstacles confronting African American journalist Ida B. Wells and Native American runner Tom Longboat), classic literature about stupid people (the Lady of Shalott espies Lancelot—and he's relieving himself), and fairy tales (Cinderella gets a makeover complete with muscles from her fairy godmother, and she and Prince Charming work out together). Old favorites such as Peasant Comics and nutty interpretations of book covers reappear with new lunacies. The black-and-white drawings in ink and wash vary from cartoony to semirealism but always with elastic élan.