4 out of 5

Michael T. Gilbert!  Kaz!  Weing!  Jaffee!  Freakin’ Jason Shiga!  …All alongside our usual guilty parties of Derek Drymon, David Lewman, and more.

With this run of six issues, we seem to have finally progressed into the golden years of Spongy publishing, in which almost every strip works on levels of kid-friendly chuckles and slightly more self-aware and challenging ‘adult’ humor.  The series has shaken free of structural shackles, with every issue bringing free-ranging strip lengths, styles, or tones; even Kochalka starts to get into more fourth wall breaking goodness.

Alas, I’m knocking off a star for two reasons, both in the same issue: the “interactive” issue (#42) is a great idea, but you can make a boy crazy with spot the difference puzzles when you don’t offer the solutions – does that count as a difference or not??? – but more directly, in a run of incredibly readable material, T. Motley gives us a couple of “fold A to B” pages (in which the folds reveal a new image) that make absolutely NO visual or conceptual sense when unfolded.  These pages are a waste, and a pain to try to read through; it’s not clever if only the unfolded or folded view makes sense.

Yes: those pages were obnoxious enough to knock off a star, despite everyone else’s great work.  SO GOOD JOB, MOTLEY.