Happy as a Clam

Sherman's Lagoon #21

by Jim Toomey

Join Sherman, the lovable shark, and his aquatic cohorts in the comfy environs of Sherman's Lagoon.

Sharks have always fascinated Jim Toomey. “I was the only one rooting for the shark in Jaws,” he says. Sherman’s Lagoon fans don’t just root for the dim-witted Sherman, they devour his books by the net-full.

This is the latest collection of the popular strip, which takes a satirical, sea-floor look at modern culture through the eyes of Sherman , his sidekick sea turtle friend Fillmore, and schools of other coral reef critters in their remote tropical paradise.

Genres: Humor, Comics

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2016

About the author

Jim Toomey is an internationally published humor writer and syndicated cartoonist best known as the creator of the popular comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon, published daily in over 150 newspapers including The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. Jim has produced 28 Sherman’s Lagoon books, published by Andrews McMeel, and most recently a travel memoir, entitled Family Afloat, about his two years sailing the world’s oceans with his wife and family.

Sherman's Lagoon combines two of his lifelong interests: art and the sea. In addition to drawing his comic strip, Jim is active in ocean conservation and serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Jim has given talks at a variety of venues, including the Royal Society in London, Harvard University and twice at TED. The conservation message in his comic strip earned him the Environmental Hero Award in 2000, presented by NOAA “for using art and humor to conserve and protect our marine heritage.” Jim won the award again in 2010.

Jim holds degrees from Duke and Stanford. He currently lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and two children, where he tries to get his family back on a sailboat as frequently as possible but can rarely make it happen.

Reviews

[Lexxi Kitty]

I rarely read hard-copy/physical books for various reasons (eye-sight, how easy it is to get ebooks, etc), so when I was asked (or when it was demanded of me) to give a list of things people could give me as gifts, I included one of the few things I still read in physical book form: collections of comic-strips books. And this book here is one of the five books I got from the Sherman’s Lagoon series.

I read four of the five Sherman books in quick gulps so it would be hard to write a review for each one. Overall they are good solid stories with things here or there that caused me to laugh. There are certain reoccurring story templates (so to speak): Hawthorne’s started a new business (occasionally, to mix things up, it’s not the crab who starts a new business); Sherman and one or more others go on ‘road trips’ to other places in the ocean; new types of fish are discovered; comic-strip stories that stress how the impact of humans on the oceans is causing issues in the ocean; Sherman and one or more others are turned into humans and let loose on land (though there’s also one wherein Sherman was turned into a human and Hawthorne the crab was turned into a dog – to attempt win a dog competition, not this book though for that specific dog story).

Good solid books.

Rating: 4

January 7 2020

[Alan Lampe]

Jim Toomey's cast of underwater characters makes you want to go diving in the lagoon. The loveable Sherman, the always looking for a buck Hawthorne and the lovelorn Fillmore will keep you, a hairless beach ape, laughing all day long. Read all in the series and catch up with Megan, Ernest, and the Great Kahuna. Who knows, he may just turn you into a fish so you can swim with 'em.

[Ted Cartier]

great fun

[Sarah]

Hee hee Sherman you silly funny shark!!

For just straight up funny comic with the occasional PSA story you are my favourite. I would totally go live in the lagoon but only if I could be Megan or Filmore, though I could be Hawthorne just for his evil genius plans.