Dear Tiny Sepuku : One Little Cartoon's Bold and Bewildering Love Advise

"Dear Tiny: My boyfriend always gets me bad gifts and I'm too nice to tell him he has bad taste." "Dear Tiny: My girlfriend gets so jealous of my female friends that I can't hang out with them without a drama." "Dear Tiny: How do I stop attracting the same losers into my life time after time?"The questions are simple enough, but the answers are downright hilarious. In panel after panel, Ken Cursoe has created an advice column/cartoon that attacks the insecurities and tames the uncertainties of everyday life. Whether it's addressing topics like dating or unrequited love or breaking up, Tiny Sepuku tackles them head on, finding hilariously absurd solutions for readers who write in.The name "Sepuku" is based on the Japanese word seppuku, which roughly translates to "sacrifice for the benefit of others." Relationships tend to be just that, says the author, thus the unusual name made sense for this type of comic. The advice column aspect allows people to interact directly with the strip. Says Cursoe, "If it helps someone take their problems a little less seriously by seeking advice from a cartoon, then I think I did my job." More important, Tiny Sepuku is completely entertaining. Cursoe's take on the world of work and relationships adds a refreshing perspective to the comics page.

Ken Cursoe lives on the Pacific coast and isn't sure if he's the author of this strip-or if Tiny is. Either way, he feels lucky to be associated with the cartoon he's been drawing since 1997. Created as a parody of Hello Kitty for a small monthly publication, Tiny Sepuku launched a new, more cynical approach to relationships a year later, and thus the cartoon advice column was born.