Sherman's Lagoon

Sherman's Lagoon
File:Shermans Lagoon.gif "Sherman's Lagoon" title bar. From left to right: Hawthorne, Sherman, Fillmore.
Author(s)	Jim Toomey
Current status/schedule	Running
Launch date	May 13, 1991 (on Escondido Times-Advocate)
Syndicate(s)	Pacific Press Features (1991) Creators Syndicate (1991-1997) King Features Syndicate (1997-present)
Genre(s)	Humor

Sherman's Lagoon is a cartoon strip by Jim Toomey that is syndicated daily in over 150 newspapers worldwide. It first appeared in the Escondido Times-Advocate on May 13, 1991.

The strip takes place at the fictional Kapupu Lagoon by the island of Kapupu in the North Pacific Ocean, west of the Elabaob Islands in the Palauan archipelago of Micronesia.[1]

The strip is centered on the misadventures of an overweight, lazy shark named Sherman, his controlling, hot-tempered wife Megan, and the friends and foes they share their tropical home with.

Characters

Sherman - The main character of the strip, Sherman is overweight, lazy and an eating-machine. Although not the most intelligent of all the characters, Sherman is a good-hearted great white shark, and often tries to please his friends and family, but most of the time falls short because of his low IQ. On rare occasions, he has been shown bringing Megan gifts for no special reason and acting romantic; however, these instances are few and far between and most of thew time he's obnoxious, lazy and hopelessly out of touch with his wife. He often baits "hairless beach apes" with a variety of items attached to the end of a fishing rod, including beer bottles, wallets, and other props. In addition, Sherman likes to fight giant squid, sometimes for dinner, sometimes just for fun, and at least once over a loan. Dolphins and giant squids are his two sea-borne enemies. One recurring storyline is the 'roadtrips' he takes with his best friend Ernest to places like the Ganges River, the Nile, the Amazon, and various other places. In a serial published in 2004, he and his wife Megan had a baby shark, whom they named "Herman". The strip has recently been focusing on Sherman and Megan's amusing attempts to care for their newborn child.

Megan - Sherman's controlling wife. She always wears a string of pearls around her neck. She quite possibly possesses the most fiery temper and personality of the comic strip, and easily intimidates other characters to get her own way. Fillmore is downright terrified of her. Her activities include cooking, shopping, caring for Herman, fishing for humans with Sherman, and often threatening Hawthorne for a number of practical jokes played on her. She almost always ends up coming to her husband's rescue, wether saving him from a swarm of tiger prawns or preventing Hawthorne from stealing all his money. Although she often expresses her frustration with Sherman (and has threatened him more than once) she does love him deep down. She is an avid follower of Martha Stewart, and has thrown parties in her honor in several strips. On one or more occasions, Megan has also fought the Giant Squid.

Fillmore - The lonely bachelor sea turtle of the comic strip. Fillmore's hobbies include reading (a lot), caring for his own son, and having as many conversations with the other sea creatures as possible. Most of the time he is seen simply leaning against a rock reading a novel, and acts as sort of a straight man for the other more outgoing characters. Once a year, Fillmore makes the long trip to Ascension Island in hopes of finding a permanent mate. However, he strikes out every year, either due to his hopeless nerdiness, his complete lack of ability to even engage in a simple conversation with a girl, or his overpowering cologne. However, he has come close on a few occasions, but the only female to ever fall completely in love with him was an enormous sea elephant, thanks to Ernest's 'pheromone cologne'. One serial even saw the turtle transform into a women for over a month of the comic's duration, because he hadn't had a mate for so long. During one such trip, he found a baby sea turtle and adopted him, naming him Clayton. He wishes his lagoon neighbors would act more sophisticated, and has been shown watching 'Masterpiece Theater' and operas through the strip's duration. He possesses a kind heart, and most of the time simply wants someone to talk to.

Hawthorne - The scheming hermit crab of the strip. He is rude, abrasive, insulting, stingy, and a borderline criminal. Hawthorne, unlike other hermit crabs, prefers a beer can rather than a "normal" shell. His interests include scamming the other members of the strip out of money or resources, cracking jokes and insults, and pinching hairless beach apes (and Sherman). A recurring storyline is Hawthorne's many get-rich-quick schemes and business ventures, usually tailored to rip his friends off. Some of his businesses have included a general store, a photo lab, an airline, a bank, a nuclear power plant, and a casino. His businesses usually flop, either due to bankruptcy, his own incompetence, or his losing interest in his own scheme. His ownership of the local newspaper, the Lagoon Tribune, appears to be the only business he has been able to manage through the course of the strip. He is also the Lagoon's mayor from time to time. Other ventures of his included using steroids on an oyster to get him to produce a pearl a day. In earlier strips, Hawthorne would shed his shell once a year and simply strut around naked. (Nothing but his rear-end is seen). He also enjoyed mooning scuba-divers and his friends, and running around singing "I feel pretty, so so pretty!" However, recently it seems that he has removed his can for good and walks around in the buff, and his friends don't show the disgust they did in earlier comics. His crab hole has been portrayed several different ways. Early on in the strip it was shown as a posh cave mansion with chandeliers, rugs, china cabinets, and luxurious furniture. Recently, it has been portrayed as the typical bachelor pad, housing a beat-up couch and socks and pizza crusts that move on their own. Although little is known about his past, he once revealed to Thorton that he was born in Las Vegas. He also hates Windows computers and therefore Bill Gates (he pinched him once).

Thornton - The sleepy, hibernating polar bear that occasionally shows up on the strip. He usually does not keep a good alarm clock, and always seems to find more reasons to delay going back to the north pole. He enjoys sleeping constantly on the beach of the lagoon.

Ernest - The brainy fish of the strip. His interests include going on long trips with Sherman to the ends of the ocean, hacking into government computer systems and launching missiles from military bases in Vermont to Canada. Ernest, possibly the youngest of the characters, is a good companion for Sherman.

Captain Quigley - The ever-persistent fisherman trying to hunt down Sherman. Their rivalry apparently goes back years. Sherman once states "My mother ate his mother." Quigley has used a number of different tools in his quest to catch Sherman, ranging from an ordinary fishing pole to a killer robot dolphin. He seems to be constantly outwitted by the shark and his friends, however.

Bob The Bottom Dweller - A bottom-feeding sea creature whose species is unspecified - though he might be a type of flounder, he's most often referred to as "One of those really ugly fish". He doesn't speak too often aside from belching, and has a habit of eating stuff found on the bottom such as a radio (before the Fillmore and Sherman discovered this, they thought he was singing opera). In one of the first comics featuring him, he was less ugly and could talk, even pulling a gun out on the other characters. Nowadays Bob is portrayed as a spotted, big-lipped fish with bulging, misshapen eyes and a belching habit.

Kahuna - An undersea statue-though technically a deity, as stated in one strip - reminiscent of the moai on Easter Island. The other characters come to Kahuna for wisdom, though Kahuna's logic cannot always be trusted. He's also known to have magic tiki powers, such as turning Sherman and Fillmore into humans so they could walk among them (as well as go to a rock concert).

Broderick - A past character who is not remembered. He is a seahorse, but his character wasn't developed much before he disappeared.

Herman Son of Megan and Sherman, named after one of Sherman's brothers. Was originally born with an eye disease that placed both eyeballs on the side of his head. Vision has since been fixed. His birth appeared in the 26 April 2004 daily strip, after a serialization on Megan's pregnancy that first appeared in the 25 January 2004 Sunday strip, with the pregnancy being announced by her to Sherman in the 18 February 2004 daily strip.

Herman (Sherman's brother) Sherman's annoying and obnoxious brother who takes up residence in Lake Erie. He is hated by Megan and not regarded fondly by his brother (who was given 'good-morning' swirlies by him as a child.) He met his death twice in the series. Once when Megan 'accidentally' harpooned him at the breakfast table, and again when he willingly donated his brain in lieu of Sherman's, who went brain dead from watching too much of the O.J. trial. When the other characters found Sherman's brain (which had been taken by a fish during surgery) they decided to freeze Herman's in tin foil rather than try to return it. He has not been seen in the strip since.

Style

The strip is drawn in great detail and appears in colour. Though the characters live under water, they are fully equipped with items like computers, lap tops, iPods and other items which are drawn as realistically as possible.

The strip is serialized with the story running for a week or more on some occasions.

The daily strip usually runs to four panels. The Sunday strip is in a two tiered format with a large logo panel appearing on the left of the strip.

The strip's humor is aimed more at late teens and adults, with frequent lampoons of famous pop culture icons, such as Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, Cher, Elvis, Barry Bonds, Dick Clark, and Pamela Anderson, to name a few. It occasionally takes jabs at politics, aiming at people such as Bill Clinton.

For the most part, the strip's characters respond to death with indifference or coldness, as much of the plot revolves around what Sherman and Megan are going to eat for dinner. For instance, one comic had Megan declaring she was in the mood for Italian, and the two sharks immediately sought to found an Italian swimming in the water. Also, a large group of tourists swimming in the lagoon is referred to as 'the buffet'. Poodles are regarded as a delicacy, and Sherman regularly eats smaller fish that swim by. One strip saw a fish committing suicide by swimming into Sherman's mouth while he yawned. Characters have also been seen going to shark-themed restaurants. ('Leg of Pam', 'Bloody Mary's, and 'Beans and Frank' have been named from the menu.) However, on one occasion Megan pulled a tourist under, then let him go unscathed, thus practicing her method of 'catch and release'.

Sherman's Lagoon Books

• Sherman's Lagoon: Ate That, What's Next?. Cartoons from 1996, published in 1997. ISBN 0-8362-3660-2
• Poodle: The Other White Meat - The Second Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Cartoons from 1998, published in 1999. ISBN 0-8362-8287-6
• An Illustrated Guide to Shark Etiquette: The Third Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Cartoons from 1999, published in 2000. ISBN 0-7407-1247-0
• Another Day in Paradise: The Fourth Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Cartoons from 1997, published in 2001. ISBN 0-7407-2012-0
• Greetings from Sherman's Lagoon: The 1992 to 1993 Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Published in 2002. ISBN 0-7407-2192-5
• Sherman's Lagoon 1991 to 2001: Greatest Hits & Near Misses. Published in 2002. ISBN 0-7407-2676-5
• Surf's Up: The Sixth Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Cartoons from 1994-95, published in 2003. ISBN 0-7407-3309-5
• The Shark Diaries: The Seventh Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Cartoons from 2002, published in 2003. ISBN 0-7407-3815-1
• Catch of the Day: The Eighth Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Cartoons from 2003, published in 2004. ISBN 0-7407-4670-7
• A Day at the Beach: The Ninth Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Cartoons from 2000 - 01, published in April 2005. ISBN 0-7407-5130-1
• Surfer Safari: The Tenth Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Published in August 2005. ISBN 0-7407-5452-1
• In Shark Years I'm Dead: Sherman's Lagoon Turns Fifteen. Published in March 2006. ISBN 0-7407-5702-4
• Planet of the Hairless Beach Apes: The Eleventh Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Published in August 2006. ISBN 0-7407-6056-4
• Yarns and Shanties (And Other Nautical Baloney): The Twelfth Sherman's Lagoon Collection. Published in August 2007. ISBN 0-7407-6557-4

External links

• Sherman's Lagoon Homepage
• IMNO Interview with Jim Toomey