Peace, Love & Lattes

by Darrin Bell and Theron Heir

Book Overview

When people read the strip over breakfast, we want them to laugh. If they're eating cereal, we want them to giggle so hard that milk will run out of their nose. If they're not eating cereal, the milk-nose thing may be tough to achieve, but we will remain optimistic."

Rudy Park and the other regulars and misfits who hang out at the House of Java coffeehouse form a modern nuclear family, drawn together by something much more powerful than blood-caffeine. Just as cavemen once hung out around a campfire, our regulars gather around the espresso machine discussing issues of the day, coping with modern life, and engaging in the occasional violent dispute over the bathroom key. The cafe also serves as a crossroads for current events and a watering hole for celebrities and politicians, such as J-Lo and Ben Affleck (contemplating a joint run for governor), Dick Cheney (doling out dating advice), and the gang from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (making sure everyone is dressed suitably for the comics page).

So sit down with a warm cup of joe and enjoy Peace, Love, and Lattes, the second collection of Rudy Park, which Newsweek has named as one of the top three contenders for new strip of the decade. Rudy Park offers social and cultural commentary that is both insightful and hilarious. With Rudy at the forefront, this technocentric strip lampoons the fast pace of our technology-driven world, our obsession with material possessions, and the folly of our cultural and political icons. Since bursting onto the comics page in 2001, the strip has grown in syndication to nearly 100 newspapers and Web sites, including the Seattle Times, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit Free Press, and Denver's Rocky Mountain News.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0740746626
• ISBN13: 9780740746628
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great social commentary with just the right amount of satire

While I may have encountered it on occasion, until I read this book I was unfamiliar with the Rudy Park comic strip. The primary characters are overstated, as cartoon characters generally have to be, but in a good and relevant way. Darlene is a woman that is so organized that she even schedules her time down to the minute during her vacations. To her, someone that could enrich and change her life is a potential client. Rudy is the male that is largely incompetent at everything except acting like an overspending consumer and Sadie is a bitter old woman that yells at everybody for just about everything. Rudy tries to get Darlene to go out with him but all attempts are miserable failures. There are cameo appearances by Saddam Hussein look-alikes, John Ashcroft as a spy operating out of a pastry box and a potted plant and Dick Cheney moonlights as a relationship counselor. The humor is biting, topical for the administration of George W. Bush and contains just the right amount of sarcasm, at least for people on the liberal side. I enjoyed it immensely.