Chocolate Cheeks (Yikes!)

Hilarious, frightening, mysterious, adorable and utterly bleak, Chocolate Cheeks has arrived to disgust and delight comic-book readers of all ages. "Sweet" Chubby Cheeks and the Pullapart Boy (a twenty-first century Frankenstein's monster for kids) are driving each other crazy. Forced together by their dating parents, these two bitter enemies have alienated -- or otherwise disposed of -- most of their social circle, leaving them with plenty of quality-time for each other. They go camping, start a business, form a band, join a team, try to make some new friends and engage in a "holy war." Things go from worse to worst, though, when the two boys find a cat -- or is it a bird? -- one hot, summer day.Steven Weissman, modern master of light tragedy, is at his most horrible with Chocolate Cheeks, the next great "Yikes" book from Fantagraphics. Juxtaposing gag-driven, newspaper-fashioned strips with a sprawling, Western comic aesthetic, the book is just gross enough to delight the children.