Baby blues

Keep this cartoon book with Dr. Spock and all the other baby-care tomes. It collects the first year's worth of a daily strip that takes a potentially icky, sentimental subject--that first parenting bout--and manages to be more funny than precious. That's because Kirkman and Scott draw pretty rudimentarily--basically in ovals and waves--and they're pretty good smart alecks. For instance, Darryl and Wanda are up at four with unquenchably squawling Zoe. Quoth Darryl, "Tomorrow we'll look back on this and laugh." Quoth Wanda, "Eat diapers and die." Like that, and you'll like the whole book. ~--Ray Olson