I don’t remember how old I was when I first picked up the first volume of The Cartoon History of the Universe—probably about 11 or 12—but I remember thinking that it was the first time I’d ...

Norton, $21.95 (300pp) ISBN 978-0-393-32403-7 The second volume of Gonick's deeply researched, lucid and hilarious overview of history was published eight years ago. Good things take time, evidently.

Neil Degrasse Tyson’s remake of the 1980s series tries to explain how early-modern thinkers began to discover the wonders of the universe. Its history is as cartoonish as its graphics.