Patrick Chappatte’s third collection of cartoons from the International Herald Tribune is hot from the press just in time for Christmas. In a beautifully presented format, it even feels and smells good. Chappatte lives in Geneva – which perhaps partly explains why his cartoons speak so clearly to us, here in the heart of Europe.

You don’t need to be particularly politically aware to appreciate the cartoons that Chappatte produces twice a week. Partly Cloudy would be a first-rate gift for Grandpa or for an alert teenager who would probably find his attitudes reflected in Chappatte’s liberal and enlightened views.

Partly Cloudy ranges from global warming and drug use in sport, through political problems in the Middle East, Africa, the Far East and the satellite states around Russia, to the current credit crunch and Obama electoral victory. On this two-year journey through the issues that have hit the headlines, almost all our attitudes are put under the spotlight, sometimes with very disturbing effect.

Americans abroad are certain to laugh wryly at themselves as electoral and environmental attitudes, American teenagers, Bush foreign and domestic policy – the list is endless – come under biting scrutiny.

What is astonishing is the multi-cultural appeal of Chappatte’s cartoons. The cartoons tease European pretensions and put the finger right on the spot. “Sorry, I’m busy saving the planet” says a massive, loutish, overfed man as he nonchalantly fills his gas-guzzler with ‘Bio Ethanol pure corn fuel’, rejecting the diminutive, famished, Eastern figures with their begging bowl.

The size of the people in Chappatte’s cartoons is telling. Over and over again, we find the underdogs and victims portrayed as minute figures in the background, while the thugs armed with nuclear weapons, tanks or machine guns loom large in the foreground. “Non-violence will not be tolerated”, booms the heavily armed Chinese soldier from his tank at the little, barefoot Tibetan monks who pray in the background. This is a history lesson for a modern teen as well as a pithy comment on current attitudes.

A striking feature is the familiarity of the caricatures. Sarkozy, Hillary Clinton, Putin and Castro are unmistakable and a confused little President Bush character appears throughout the text. The Obama caricature doesn’t come over quite so well – yet!  However, we can certainly look forward to progress on that front in the next two years as Obama is certain to figure large in Chappatte’s future output.

One really appreciated feature is the index. Is Chappatte unique in providing an index so that a history teacher, for example, could quickly find the cartoon that would so effectively echo the theme of his lesson?

Leafing through the volume produces a smile with every page, then the sudden hoot of laughter when Chappatte really hits home – a perfect antidote for too much Christmas pudding.

Partly Cloudy is published by Globe Cartoon, CH-1205 Geneva for International Herald Tribune, Paris €14.95/ $19.95. It can be purchased in bookstores or ordered directly online. Chappatte’s cartoons from the International Herald Tribune and some from Le Temps and the Ssunday NZZ (he publishes in three languages) have been carried by GenevaLunch since the middle of 2007.