Owly finally finds a permanent home in the first Owly trade paperback from Top Shelf.  This 160 page volume offers newcomers a chance to find out what buyers of the self-published (and Top Shelf distributed) Owly minis have been discovering over the last year:  Owly is one of the cutest and most endearing characters existing in that ephemeral reality constructed in lines on paper.  The two Owly adventures herein collected -- The Way Home and The Bittersweet Summer -- are related entirely in pictures; but while the characters that populate the similarly pantomimic work of Jason and Kriek (see below) tend to delve a bit into the shadows of the human psyche, Runton's Owly -- ironically, considering the animal that is his name sake -- is of an indefatigably bright disposition and never fails to direct his feet to the sunny side of the street.  This is one strip that is guaranteed to chase those blues away.  It's only a matter of time until the Owly plush dolls start rolling off the production lines.   Hmm,  wonder where we'll put ours...