Rating: 
Summary: Hallmarks of Felinity
Review: "9 Chickweed Lane" is often the funniest -- and always the most beautiful -- comic strip in the daily paper. It's the first thing I look for every morning. This tiny, tiny book is disappointing not for what it includes, but for what it leaves out. I want a collection that adequately represents the remarkable depth, beauty, grace, and wit of McEldowney's work. "Hallmarks of Felinity", with its small handful of Solange strips, simply fails to deliver.
Rating:
Summary: Rather a disappointment.
Review: "Chickweed Lane" is a great comic strip. Ubfortunately, the "cat" filler strips are the leadst amusing part of the strip.
So, why did they make a book filled entirely with them?
I'm disappointed. :(
Rating: 
Summary: Amusing, but...
Review: ... what I really want is an actual 9 Chickweed Lane book, with a continuous run of the strips, not a book of excerpts of the strips on a particular topic.
Rating: 
Summary: Great strips, OK book
Review: 9 Chickweed Lane has been a favorite comic strip for some time. Brooke McEldowney uses heavy lines and negative spaces to capture a unique atmosphere. These strips about Solange, the family cat, and her feline quirks are some of the best and emphasize McEldowny's graphic skills over dialogue.Unfortunately, the book's addition of heavily using pink to highlight the otherwise black and white comics detracts greatly from his artwork. A book in the same format as Mutts, Fox Trot, or Calvin & Hobbes would have been much preferred over this special-format book. And I hope that 9 Chickweed eventually gets such a collection.
Rating:
Summary: Great strips, OK book
Review: 9 Chickweed Lane has been a favorite comic strip for some time. Brooke McEldowney uses heavy lines and negative spaces to capture a unique atmosphere. These strips about the family cat, Solange, and her feline quirks are some of the best. Unfortunately, the book's addition of pink to the otherwise black and white comics detracts greatly from his artwork. A book in the same format as Mutts or Calvin & Hobbes would have been much preferred over this "special" book. And I hope that 9 Chickweed eventually gets such a collection.
Rating:
Summary: One piece of the puzzle
Review: Brooke McEldowney is one of those rare daily strip artists who can actually draw. As I did with Murray Ball's Footrot Flats, I marvel at the amount of effort McEldowney puts into every panel...including, recently in 9 Chickweed Lane, the occasional use of airbrushed highlights. His characters are real, his angles cinematic (sometimes experimentally so), his line remarkably fluid (reminding me of Norman McLaren's landmark short film PAX DE DEUS, for the National Film Board of Canada), his knowledge of music a bonus joy, and most important of all, he's funny. He's also a genuine romantic, a true rarity in comics.
While 9 Chickweed Lane (and Pibgorn) collections are long overdue (are you listening, Andrews & McNeel?), in the interim we must make do with Hallmarks of Felinity. Both graphically and content-wise the opposite of Gilbert Shelton's Fat Freddy's Cat (Solange the cat is pure Boston, Fat Freddy's is pure Berkeley), both share their creators' love of all things feline. Enjoy
Rating: 
Summary: Close encounters of the feline kind
Review: Brought memories of many wonderful, frustrating, charming, infuriating cat friends. Be warned, I rate this book at between 2 and 3 Depends. Very funny, and sometimes very touching. Have ordered several for other cat care-givers.
Rating:
Summary: Love this strip!
Review: I love the parent strip, 9 CHICKWEED LANE. However, this
particular book restricts itself to the cat (Solange). I would
have enjoyed it more if it included the other characters.
Rating:
Summary: Covers the silly and serious nature of the feline
Review: I'm a fan of 9 Chickweed Lane, and of the "Hallmarks of Felinity" especially, and this book is funny stuff, especially if you live with cats. However, this book has a few shortcomings. I think that regular paper would have been nicer than the glossy stuff they used. Also, the two color (black and a kind of pinkish) halftone (with rather large dots) detracts from the enjoyment of the book somewhat. Still, these are minor gripes, and some may prefer the glossy paper and unorthodox reproduction. In any case Hallmarks of Felinity is funny stuff, and well worth reading. It's a pity there aren't any other 9 Chickweed Lane books out though.
Rating:
Summary: Funny Stuff, but...
Review: I'm a fan of 9 Chickweed Lane, and of the "Hallmarks of Felinity" especially, and this book is funny stuff, especially if you live with cats. However, this book has a few shortcomings. I think that regular paper would have been nicer than the glossy stuff they used. Also, the two color (black and a kind of pinkish) halftone (with rather large dots) detracts from the enjoyment of the book somewhat. Still, these are minor gripes, and some may prefer the glossy paper and unorthodox reproduction. In any case Hallmarks of Felinity is funny stuff, and well worth reading. It's a pity there aren't any other 9 Chickweed Lane books out though.
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