Benjamin Nugent takes a semi-serious scientist's approach to "American Nerd: The Story of My People" (Scribner, 224 pages, $20).

I'd write more on "American Nerd," but it's time to play "Dungeons & Dragons."

If you haven't already read Ian Frazier's comic classic "Coyote v. Acme," get thee to a bookstore immediately. And while you're there, pick up a copy of his latest collection, "Lamentations of the Father" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 194 pages, $22). The 30-plus essays from the New Yorker's master of mirth are a treat; Frazier can take the tiniest subject and run for the gold. A taste, from "How to Operate the Shower Curtain:"

"We are happy to have you as our guest. There are many choices you could have made, but you are here, and we appreciate it. Operating the shower is kind of tricky. Nobody is denying that. If you do not wish to deal with it, or if you would rather skip the whole subject for reasons you do not care to reveal, we accept your decision. You did not ask to be born. There is no need to ever touch the shower curtain again. If you would like to receive assistance, pound on the door, weep inconsolably, and someone will be along."

Rick Shenkman didn't heed my warning: Don't get me started! Reading "Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter" (Basis Books, 210 pages, $25) is like listening to me yell at CNN every night (ask my wife) about the idiocracy electorate.

Shenkman rightfully takes Americans to task for voting based on feelings, impressions and myths; this is a provocative work. Walt Kelly was right: We have met the enemy and it is us.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and so Robert Scheer finds himself making pillow talk with Dwight D. Eisenhower in "The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America" (Twelve Books, 250 pages, $24.99). Scheer, a lefty, is righteously angry about the failure of political leaders of all stripes to take on the metastasizing military-industrial complex that Big Ike warned us about in his farewell address many years ago.

"The one thing they know how to do is spend money. For those who run the federal government, tragedy can be opportunity, and none so fortuitous than that represented by a frightful threat from abroad. ... (But) the norm is to begin to line the pockets of those who claim to defend us from the enemy at the gates with few questions asked about where the money is going."

Scheer skewers many in power, past (Bush I and Clinton come off comparatively well) and present, particularly the current administration. He's ham-handed at times, but makes his points.

"Batman: Murder at Wayne Manor" (Quirk, 68-plus pages — "Level Six Access" is required to break the seal and read the last 10 or so pages, and I am not worthy — $24.95) takes the graphic novel a step forward.

Author Duane Swiercznski and illustrator David Lapham added a twist to an original story about Batman solving a cold case: The book is packed with interactive clues tucked into sleeves on pages. There are news clippings, police reports, family photos, maps and Batman pere's journal. It's all good fun. When you reach Level Six Access, please let me know what you find.

Bluenose alert: "Erotic Comics: A Graphic History From Tijuana Bibles to Underground Comix" (Harry N. Abrams, 192 pages, $29.95) is, well, graphic — and not in the graphic novel sense.

Author Tim Pilcher "with Gene Kannenberg, Jr." delivers an academically heavy text in this chronological look at erotic art from antiquity to the counterculture comix of the 1960s. Yes, there is text, a lot of it. There's also a foreword by comix star Aline Kominsky-Crumb.

But, no doubt about it, the pictures carry the day. Sexy? Yes. Erotic? Yes. Prurient? Well, yes. And your point? We're all adults here, and this reading material is a delight.

To find out more about Martin Zimmerman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.