And not the good kind of hot. The rashy kind of hot.

I’ve never been one for standing in lines, to audition for stuff or otherwise. I feel like a piece of meat (and not the good kind of meat. The rashy kind). I especially wouldn’t line up in the dead of winter for hours on end for, well, anything. I figure if it’s meant to me, it’ll come to me. That goes for auditions, sales, and other such things that lining up is required for (and not the good kind of things. The rashy kind).

I got a sweet package in the mail today! It came all the way from that distant land known as Montreal, courtesy of our friends and mentors over at Blind Ferret Entertainment. About a year ago, Sohmer and Lar pushed their strip, Least I Could Do to 7 days a week, adding a Sunday-sized strip on, well, Sundays. It’s a great Calvin & Hobbes-style thing featuring a child-sized Rayne called LICD: Beginnings.

Well, the package I mentioned contained a copy of the very first Beginnings collection, entitled “Look At Me.” It’s a really cool book, published in a hardcover kids-book style that fits perfectly with the tone of the strip.

Lar’s art absolultlely jumps off the page in a different way than the other LICD collections. I can’t really put my finger on it in terms of what exactly is different, but it really does leap out at you. Sohmer’s one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met, and it’s clear in these strips that he’s writing from a place of love. It’s impossible to not smile while reading, or even holding this book.

It’s not unlike The Ramones. I have long maintained that it’s impossible to be in a bad mood while listening to The Ramones. LICD: Beginnings gives the same sideways grin.

So if you see them at all during the rapidly approaching convention season, try and grab a copy of this book. And hug Lar. And punch Sohmer. He knows why…