BAGEL’S LUCKY HAT

Writing under a pseudonym, Dave Cooper offers a departure from his erotic and disturbing graphic novels with this tale of a dog who reconstructs his day in an effort to track down a missing hat. It’s not an average day, as it involves being swept downstream, carried by birds to the entrance of an underground laboratory, flying off in a giant robot suit to the planet Zorgonogon 14 and then being returned to Earth by friendly aliens Norb and Gilletspo. The digitally painted illustrations, done in a style best described as the comic-strip “Mutts” on speed, place a hugely popeyed, Chihuahua-like dog and his skeptical feline listener, Becky, in off-kilter settings that range from a bedroom festooned with staring toys to equally otherworld-looking terrestrial and alien landscapes. In the end, Becky’s doubts turn out to be unfounded, as Norb and buddy stroll in to return the battered hat. The sensibility’s definitely older than the reading level here, but fans of Berke Breathed’s non–Bloom County work may be drawn in. (Picture book. 7-9)