Naturally, after reading several tomes about our worsening environmental predicament -- and finding himself utterly depressed and horrified -- Boyle didn't go downtown in a white robe to tell passersby the end is near. Instead, he used his timber-size sense of humor to pen his brand-new fiction, "A Friend of the Earth."

Boyle laughs often, even while we discuss environmental degradation. But he also tends to fix on me a dead-on, apocalyptic stare (look at the book jacket photos) as soon as he finishes answering a question. Not only does the chilling look signal the termination of an answer, it resonates with its own interrogation: "These issues I'm examining within myself, what kind of thought have you given them? Where are your moral boundaries fixed?"

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We know Steadman for his splattered inkings, which punctuate the off-the-wall antics in books of Thompson's such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "The Curse of Lono," as well as the writer's occasional Rolling Stone articles. Steadman has also written and illustrated books on wine ("The Grapes of Ralph"), whiskey, da Vinci, Freud and God ("The Big I Am"). Throw a few children's stories into the merry mix, too. His Charlie Chaplin stamp has traveled the U.K. via the British postal system, and many a tippler has admired the graphics he has done for wine and beer labels.

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