MUSTACHE BABY MEETS HIS MATCH

Has Mustache Baby met a buddy...or a rival?

Baby Billy was born with a mustache that’s usually a good-guy mustache but on occasion curls up into a bad-guy mustache. When readers last saw him, he'd met bearded Baby Javier. Billy decides to show Javier how he's the “sharpest shooter in the west” (shooting hoops) and can "work on the railroad all the livelong day" (lay toy train tracks). But Javier knows a thing or two, like how to "wrassle a bear" (a teddy) and catch fish with his bare hands (goldfish crackers). Baby Billy won't be bested, so he challenges Javier to a duel. Javier beats him at magic, math, art...and even in the final showdown (a tricycle race). This, of course, prompts the return of the bad-guy mustache. When Javier produces a bad-guy beard, a wrestling match ensues—and ends in timeout. Billy wanted Javier as a sidekick, but he became a bitter rival; can Baby Billy figure out how to salvage the situation? Heos and Ang's sequel to Mustache Baby (2013) is more arch cuteness. A couple highfalutin references (Dali vs. Van Gogh in the art contest) and big words ("competitiveness") may miss the target audience, but kids will see themselves and their less-successful play dates in Billy and Javier's first meeting. Ang’s cinematic cartoon illustrations are again a joy.

More a Mustache Toddler now but still getting into hairy situations, Baby Billy's still good fun.