alien ship and parking it in the backyard. On the other hand, one day when the boy came home from school dejected because a drawing he created had horrified the faculty, Dad proudly hung up the piece of art on the refrigerator, giving his son much-needed comfort and joy. Quite often, father and son prove that they really love each other, no matter what. Liō has at least five companion animals: Fido, a spider who has helped him cheat on tests. Cybil, a white cat who has unique methods for getting Liō to feed her. She looks sweet and innocent but is not. She also has an affinity for gin. Frank, a cobra who sometimes sleeps in Liō's bed. Ishmael, a giant squid, mainly identified as a cephalopod. Mittens, a lobster rescued from his father's planned dinner. There are several frequently recurring characters: Liō's hunchbacked assistant. His grade-school teacher Mrs. Gatchi. A group of school bullies. Assorted mythical monsters (both alive and undead). Assorted aliens. Various lab creations (some alive, some robots). Eva Rose, a violent girl with bangs that cover her eyes and an interest in surgeries and autopsies. Liō has a crush on her. She does not return the feeling and is often quite violent towards him or his expressions of love. This does not sway Liō in the slightest, except maybe to make him even more determined in his quest to win her love. Bubbles, Liō's wide-eyed infant cousin who is scared of nothing and comes up with devious plots. The monsters under the bed. Hunters. Archie, Liō's psychopathic ventriloquist's dummy. Liō's grandmom. Style While it may seem that all the strips are from Liō's imagination, Tatulli has stated that all events in the strip actually happen to Liō (although on the back cover of an AMP! Kids Liō book, Liō: There's a Monster in My Socks, they say all the monsters and robots are from his imagination), though most of the time others turn a blind eye to it, unlike the other-worldly situations in Calvin and Hobbes. Another notable aspect of Liō (reminiscent of such strips as The Little King, Henry and Ferd'nand) is its general lack of dialogue, though there are occasional vocalizations (such as "Eeck!" or "Aggh!") and there are labels on certain objects to make the gags more obvious. One-time characters have sometimes spoken, and characters in some of the parodies have had