nanmourinho

Explainers

, the first of four volumes that will collect the strip, covers itsfirst decade. Feiffer spent a few months nailing down the look hewanted (figures built out of disjointed, wobbly lines drawn withsharpened wooden dowels), but before long he had worked out hisfavorite gags: a couple doing a pas de deux of emotional abuse, arepresentative of what the cartoonist called the "RadicalMiddle" resolutely failing to take a stand, a yam-facedpolitician summarizing the government's position in a frenzy ofdoubletalk. The only two real regulars are Bernard Mergendeiler, anebbishy wannabe hipster who's slowly becoming a prototypical Manin a Gray Flannel Suit, and his acquaintance Huey, a callowmeathead whose boorish self-assurance makes him irresistible towomen.

A lot of Feiffer's topical humor has lost its sting, although it'sstill an amusing barometer of bohemian America's concerns in the'50s and '60s (it's particularly fun to see

John F. Kennedy

 satirized from the left). He's more enduringly witty when hechannels the voices of little kids caught in the baffling stream ofmodernity, and his swipes at the way women and men treat each other(which evolved into his "Carnal Knowledge" screenplay)are still scathing. In one strip, a man catalogues his date'sbeauty and wit while she winces at his touch and silently refuteshim, point by point. "I love