Sportsfrog.com

You’ve been there. You see a buddy walk up to a girl in a club to strike up a conversation with the hotter than damnit brunette, only for two of her friends to close ranks and block his way to his target. The comic strip above, Girls & Sports, might refer to this as the “Cover 2″ defense.

The strip takes sport’s euphemisms and moves them into the single life/dating culture. It also re-introduces us to the characters you’re likely to meet as you make your way as a single. We’ve all seen “the face is OK but she has a good body” girl or made fun of the orange hue of “fake tan” girl. Now the strip has moved from newsprint to glossy pages in the form of the book, Opening Lines, Pinky Probes and L-Bombs.

As the title suggests, the book takes you from opening lines to the “L-bomb,” which doesn’t mean she’s switching teams. The singles scene is covered, and it seems that the creators Justin Borus and Andrew Feinstein have spent more than their share of time in dark bars “researching.” Here’s hoping that their personal experiences have been more fruitful than those of their cartoon leads Marshall and Bradley. From the singles scene you move to first dates to breakups or if you can make it past those stages, to “Getting out of the Game.” (Hint: that involves buying the championship ring, not having one given to you.)

The book expands on all the subjects, but the strength is in the comics themselves. Reading and getting to punch lines such as “I’m the Cal Ripken, Jr. of watching TV every Saturday” and “I asked Louise out but she can’t go…It’s her Bye-Week,” is where Girls & Sports creators let loose. There are some nice additions that flesh out the story, however. For example, you will see that “Tears are a woman’s most effective biological weapon.” and what goes on inside a woman’s head on the off chance she actually calls you.

The first effort by Borus and Feinstein is a fun, quick read (142pp). It’s a solid effort that is out of scope for typical comic strip compilation books, which is a good thing. The authors give their characters a bit more depth by having them explain things outside the panels, then the comics illustrate their points. Even with all the extras, the comics are still the main course and are sure to draw a few laughs.

If you read it and don’t thing to yourself “Yeah, I remember that” or “Oh man, I did that, too!” then you spent your dating years playing “Doom.”