Elvis Lives: And Other Anagrams

A Clever Cartoonist Explores The Rearrangement Of Letters

Jon Agee, a picture-book author and illustrator whose cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, is not new to wordplay. Three previous collections of palindromes bear his name, so it was only a matter of time before he departed from merely reading words backward and forward. Now he has taken words and phrases and tossed their letters in the air, and when they land, their new formations are often uncannily related to the originals--or at least they are after Agee is done with them. From the simple (Poetry/Try Poe) to the slightly more complex (Halitosis/Lois Has It) to the sublimely ridiculous (The Best Things In Life Are Free/Nail-Biting Refreshes The Feet), Agee manages to make perfect sense out of these anagrams and more than sixty others by pairing them with his deftly funny pictures. Like all truly great cartoons, his are ones that demand frequent visits and laughter.