Comic books can become so monotonous and predictable. Villain commits a terrible crime. Hero finds criminal. Criminal escapes. Hero refinds criminal. Fight scene. A little reveleation. Climax. Hero captures villain. Boom. Throw in some art, special effects, good color, and a mutant/zombie if your're Marvel.

Not so for "Many Happy Returns". Aptly titled, the book is delightful. While Licensable Bear (TM) is a great host through the book and adds a measure of education/frivolity to the book, the real stars are Crossfire and Clawface. Bill-Messner Loebs returns to comics in a frontier tale with a literary bent. Crossfire is awesome! Evanier and Spiegle haven't missed a beat! Jay and the gang should be honored to have Evanier and Spiegle in their comic, and are probably giggling gleefully in their stacks of four colour dreams. The other stories in the book add different looks and truly make this an anthology book worth looking at.

Look for it. Buy it. Give copies to your friends. Quality like this is meant to be shared.