Since its inception in a suburban Chicago newspaper in 1978, Nicole Hollander's comic strip, Sylvia, has evolved to become a leading expression of postmodern feminism in satiric form. Appearing daily in newspapers coast-to-coast, Hollander's popular strip has also been reprinted in many books, including such titles as I'm in Training to be Tall and Blonde, and Ma, Can I Be a Feminist and Still Like Men?

If the title character in Cathy Guisewite's Cathy strip represents the relationship struggles—romantic, parental, and inter-office—of a neurotic, thirtysomething working woman, Sylvia portrays a somewhat older, stouter, work-at-home woman comfortable with herself but at war with the foibles of contemporary society. Actually, Sylvia herself does not always appear in the strip that bears her name, a sly, surrealistic stream-of-consciousness in which Hollander applies her own witty touch to subjects both slight and substantial, from such comedy staples as pets and airlines...