Never Bite Anything That Bites Back

Book excerpt: Sherman’s Lagoon is a comic strip that combines the upbeat tone of under-the-sea fun with a real-life look at our environment and oceans. Collecting more than 42 weeks of Jim Toomey's Sherman's Lagoon, Never Bite Anything That Bites Back transports readers to an imaginary lagoon near the South Pacific island of Kapupu where a cast of coral reef critters battles the encroachment of the hairless beach apes (a.k.a. humans). Commenting on such timely issues as rising sea levels, the Gulf oil spill, and social media, inhabitants of Toomey's nautical neighborhood include Sherman, an always-hungry, but otherwise typical kind of great white shark; his witty pearl-wearing wife, Megan; friendly Fillmore the turtle; geeky fish Ernest; macho hermit crab Hawthorne; and salty old Captain Quigley. Inside Never Bite Anything That Bites Back, these bottom-dwelling denizens offer under-the-sea hilarity, along with a real-life call-to-action in relation to our environment and oceans.