In Shark Years I'm Dead: Sherman's Lagoon Turns Fifteen [Paperback]

Jim Toomey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

In an imaginary lagoon near the island of Kapupu in the South Pacific lives a group of nutty but sophisticated underwater creatures-complete with neuroses that rival those of humans (also known as "hairless beach apes"). Their wet world, oddly enough, is not so different from our own.

Sherman, a great white shark, is a typical guy, and Megan is his ruthless but nurturing wife. Rounding out the aquatic crew are Fillmore the turtle, geeky fish Ernest, and macho hermit crab Hawthorne. Salty old Captain Quigley, who lost his leg to Sherman years ago, is hell-bent on seeking revenge against the shark.

Sherman and friends effectively reflect human behavior and occasionally must confront humans' encroachment on their unspoiled habitat. Activist groups have applauded this comic strip with a social conscience for promoting marine conservation.

Sherman's Lagoon has been syndicated since 1991, currently by King Features, and has a circulation of more than 200 daily newspapers on five continents.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jim Toomey was born and raised in Alexandria, Va. Following family tradition, he studied mechanical engineering at Duke University, but he left that career to become a political cartoonist. Jim launched Sherman's Lagoon in 1991 and was picked up by Creators Syndicate later that year. A philosopher, surfer, scuba diver, and sailor, Jim lives in Maryland with his wife, daughter, and son.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740757024
• ISBN-13: 978-0740757020
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #719,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For the past 13 years Jim Toomey has been creating the daily comic strip Sherman's Lagoon, which appears in over 250 newspapers in North America, including the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle. It also appears in over 30 foreign countries, in French, Portugese, Spanish, Norwegian and Swedish. Jim has just completed his tenth book, entitled "A Day at the Beach," published by Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Sherman's Lagoon is a combination of his two life-long passions: drawing and the sea. Jim's been engaged in the former activity since he could hold a crayon, and his love affair with the sea dates back to his early childhood. The inspiration for the comic strip can be traced back to a family vacation in the Bahamas where he saw a real shark swimming in a remote lagoon. Jim became a certified diver at the age of twelve, and, as an adult, has logged dives all over the world, including Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America, and extensively in the kelp forests of California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fifteen Years Underwater, May 18, 2006

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Shark Years I'm Dead: Sherman's Lagoon Turns Fifteen (Paperback)

Sherman's Lagoon has been around for fifteen years and this giant treasury brings the latest strips and some reprints with Sundays in full color. Sherman and they gang are up to their usual tricks and some of the various story arcs include:

The speed reading contest
The trip to the Ganges
Hawthorne's Lagoon tour, coffe shop, health club, casino, bakery
The mystery of dead Roscoe
Sherman's talk show
Megan's baby
The Scotland trip
Barnacle the purple arthropod

And many more. So join the sharks, turtles, crabs and polar bear in a tropical paradise where walk on characters seem to get eaten very often.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughs on every page!, July 3, 2006

By 

Naomi J. Reed (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Shark Years I'm Dead: Sherman's Lagoon Turns Fifteen (Paperback)

I'm a Sherman's Lagoon fan, so I may be a bit biased, but I found this Treasury hilarious!! They've certainly put the best bits in, I was laughing on every page! I also found it really good value for money - over 200 pages of top quality comic strips (Sunday strips were also in colour which was great!). Fantastic buy all round!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cute humor book, October 26, 2009

By 

FloridaSunshine "FloridaSunshine" (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In Shark Years I'm Dead: Sherman's Lagoon Turns Fifteen (Paperback)

I keep several of the Sherman's Lagoon books in my guest rooms for the enjoyment of my visitors. They think it is great to have a book to look at that doesn't require getting involved in a plot line and a book you can easily look at for a few minutes and put down for another day. I like that the cartoons are relevant to our beach lifestyle here in Florida. The books contain cute clean humor that is best appreciated by adults and older children.