Tatoo it on your chest for easy reference. Men are advised, “Nothing piques the curiosity of a woman like an evocative nickname. “Woman From Mars” (one of “The 9 Types of Girlfriends”) announces, “I believe this interpretive dance will explain how I feel about our relationship.” He mercilessly lampoons the follies and pretentions and psychobabble of his contemporaries in these devastatingly funny cartoons. Groening’s ear for the catch phrases and cliches of the Baby Boomer generation is matched only by Garry Trudeau (“Doonesbury”). These characters have little personality in their own right, but serve as spokesmen for the artist’s acerbic wit. The cast of “Life In Hell” consists of three rabbits: alienated, buck-toothed Binky his girlfriend, Sheba, and his one-eared illegitimate son, Bongo, plus the human twins/lovers, Akbar and Jeff. Groening is an indifferent draftsman at best, but unlike other cartoonists who draw badly-Kevin Fagin (“Drabble”) or Cathy Guisewite (“Cathy”)-he uses the limited visuals skillfully, making them an effective vehicle for the sharply focused writing.

Although “Life In Hell” now appears in about 50 newspapers, the publication of “Love Is Hell” marks its long overdue exposure to a national audience. In 1980, the strip moved to the Los Angeles Reader where it ran until this spring. “Life In Hell” has had a devoted following in Southern California since 1978, when it debuted in Wet Magazine. But Groening expands and updates that shopworn genre, discarding its facile political radicalism and advocacy of drug abuse. The roots of its sardonic tone and gleeful anarchism lie in the underground “comix” of the late ‘60s. Unlike the mild, sanitized humor of most newspaper strips, the satire in “Love Is Hell” is razor-sharp and outrageous. These telling examinations of modern relationships are far more accurate-and entertaining-than the old husband-and-wife-at-the-table cartoons. Romance in the contemporary world provides the principle target for his mordant humor in this first anthology of his work. Matt Groening, the creator of the “Life In Hell” strip in the Los Angeles Weekly, is one of the funniest and most original cartoonists working in the comics today.

Love Is Hell by Matt Groening