MEANWHILE

Ignoring his mother's increasingly irritated summonses, and noting that a boxed ``meanwhile'' in his comic books always signals a change of scene, Raymond tries writing the word on his bedroom wall—and drops into an exciting pirate adventure. Forced to walk the plank, he uses the trick again, and this time he's being chased by a posse. Things begin to spiral out of control; in the next ``meanwhile,'' his spacecraft is blown apart by Martians, then he's back on the plank, then facing a cougar . . . where will it end? Excitedly, he shouts, ``THE END!'' and then hurries out of his room to do whatever his mother bids. Feiffer (A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears, 1995, etc.) uses a watercolor comic-strip style for the illustrations, which are more simply drawn than his cartoons for adults; with few large panels per page, Raymond has ample space to express pop-eyed dismay in the face of flying bullets, toothy sharks, and other menaces. Children will chortle. (Picture book. 6-8)