Rocky is a brilliantly cheeky and unflinching chronicle of urban European twenty-something slackers, firmly in the tradition of Fritz the Cat and Clerks. The daily strip is the mostly autobiographical work of Swedish cartoonist Martin Kellerman, and details the rudely hilarious travails of a young cartoonist and his circle of layabout pals and neurotic, indignant girlfriends. Rocky: The One and Only is an action-packed English-language volume, collecting the entire first year of the smash-hit strip, in which Rocky gets tossed out of his apartment; flies to New York to visit a friend in Harlem; makes a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to trade in his girlfriend for her younger, more buxom sister; gets a bowel inflammation and a colonoscopy; camps out at a rock festival; drinks and fornicates (or tries to) his way through Stockholm and New York, with hangover following drunken binge and mortification following faux pas as night follows day. What will probably be amazing to American readers is how similar the day-to-day experiences of Seinfeld-watching, Big Mac-eating, hip-hop-listening Swedes are to theirs. Rocky is a reminder as to how utterly global our culture has become – and a reminder that laughter is truly universal. Rocky: The One and Only can be pre-ordered now and will be available in U.S. bookstores on November 30.For more information: www.fantagraphics.comImage: © Martin Kellerman