“Dharma the Cat,” by David Lourie

Available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Cartoons and commentary that blend humour with philosophy,”on the rocky road to nirvana with a Buddhist cat, a novice monk and a mouse hell-bent on cheese.”

There aren’t that many Buddhist humorists and so it’s a relief to welcome David Lourie to the fold. Lourie’s cartoons feature the interactions between Bodhi, a rather naive young monk; Dharma, an anything-but-naive cat; and Siam, a mouse who “goes with the flow” (he’s often in cahoots with the cat).

I didn’t find the humor laugh-out-loud funny, although it should also be noted that it takes a lot to get me laugh out loud and a friend sitting beside me at a viewing of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” — a movie I found hilarious — asked me during the movie if I was feeling OK. But even I find these cartoons pleasing, and that can be taken as high praise!

The cartoon strip, Dharma The Cat, runs in small monthly magazines in 20 countries, and is translated into 10 languages. The web site has won the “10 Best On The Web” Award in the Humor Category, and it is on the BBC Online’s list of best educational sites.