Practicing People Skills on Ballard Street. Jerry Van Amerongen.Syren Book Company (2007)

Middle-aged suburbanites have been a carton staple for a very long time, usually a satiric one, used to exploit their pretensions or the gap between their aspirations and the grim reality of their lives. In the daily newspaper , single panel cartoon, Ballard Street, Jerry Van Ameongen manages to be affectionate, very funny and truthful all at the same time. This collection is not an examination of the comic virtues of desperation, it is full of people happily and fully living out their dreams. While the dreams may be building a somewhat haphazard replica of the Great Sphinx in your back garden or being a bus enthusiast they are being pursued with whole hearted commitment and passion. There is an tremendous pleasure in the cartoons at the sheer absurdity of life and the truly ridiculous nature of it. The cast of the characters are frequently baffled by their own actions or wondering how to cope. They are never treated with a sarcastic edge by Jerry Van Ameongen, they are presented to the world with care and attention.
One of the most distinctive elements in the very funny collection is that there are no children among the cast, there are dogs but no cats. The dogs are fully fledged characters in the cartons, some of the best explore the relationships between people and their pets. Each panel is a snapshot of a life that strongly suggests the rest of the life beyond the panel. This collection is proof that amiable humour is neither weak-kneed nor stupid, these are clever, carefully crafted cartoons that cast an angled glance at life and capture the extraordinary that lies hidden out in the open.