This Is Your First Rock Garden, Isn't It?

By Adrian Raeside

It's different "over there." Everybody east of Washington, Oregon, and California knows it. But defining the West Coast as "not like the East Coast" leaves way too much of the story untold. No, far better to turn to Adrian Raeside's This Is Your First Rock Garden, Isn't It?, perhaps one of the most informative —and certainly funniest—explanations to ever depict the westernmost portion of our country. Raeside represents the perfect comic commentator on what makes "Other Coasters" tick. He was born a Kiwi, lived in England, and now resides in British —close enough for a good view without having to get mixed up in the muddle that passes for the West Coast lifestyle and its many subcultures. Instead, the cartoonist accurately sheds light and humor on residents who put their own unique spin on everything from cars and coffee to extreme sports and the latest out-there technology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449437480

Book preview

Also by Adrian Raeside

The Other Coast: Road Rage in Beverly Hills

Introduction

The Other Coast was born in 1990 as Toulose, a color Sunday-only feature in the Victoria Times Colonist. The cartoon initially revolved around the life of Toulose, an appallingly bad painter who bears a vague resemblance to the pint-sized hero in the pages that follow. Over the next few years, Toulose evolved into The Other Coast, the cartoon strip you know today that now appears in more than 150 newspapers worldwide.

Who lives on The Other Coast? Talentless television scriptwriters, rabid environmentalists (as long as what they’re saving can’t be turned into luggage), gluttons, finicky vegans, convicted embezzlers, mind-numbing bands, and assorted paranoid wackos. Along with whales, dogs, and other offbeat inhabitants of the animal kingdom, these characters bring utter absurdness to The Other Coast on a daily basis.

What exactly is The Other Coast? It’s a place where dogs get hooked on nicotine gum, oilmen drill for coffee, and environmentalists do their bit to save the depleted oceans by sharing the shark fin soup.

It’s a parody of life . . . sort of.

Adrian Raeside

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