The “Burly Boys” is not quite a description of my pals Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs, the creators of The Trouble With Girls and writers of multiple books and comics, together and separately. But it is the title of one of their new projects. Jones you might know from his stints at DC and Dark Horse, or you might know him as the author of Eisner Award-winning Men of Tomorrow, the critically acclaimed history of the early days of comic books. Together with Jacobs, they’ve written for The National Lampoon and wrote the books, The Beaver Papers and The Comic Book Heroes.

They’re at it again with The Burly Boys, the adventures of Flint and Chip Burly, junior detectives, innocent and naive junior detectives, who find themselves in San Francisco during 1967’s famed Summer Of Love, where they’re investigating the disappearance of their old school chum Lucy Diamond. Here’s a little taste:

“Everyone we showed the picture to looked suspiciously at us, and just like at that campfire I described in my previous letter, a few of them asked us if we were ‘pigs.’ Some of them even started making fun of our clothes! But how can anyone make fun of corduroy slacks, oxford shirts, and v-neck sweaters? How can you make fun of what’s normal? Especially since the one who was making the most fun of us was dressed like an early 19th century pioneer in a fringed buckskin jacket, with a bunch of mysterious buttons pinned to it. ‘Make Love, Not War.’ ‘Haight is Love.’ ‘Stamp out Reality!’ What does it all mean?”

As you might have guessed, it’s a little bit of a mash-up of Hardy Boys and their modern day counterparts, Hank and Dean Venture (The Venture Brothers) slipped into the world of 1960s counterculture, back when Hendrix was still trippin’, “Peace” and “Love” were just getting trademarked, and Jerry Garcia hadn’t started making ties.

Will and Gerard have posted the first eight chapters on the Burly Boys website for free-reading. The writers admit that they don’t know how this is going to turn out yet. “The book publishing business is still in the midst of its biggest recession since forever, and offbeat humor fiction isn’t at the top of every editor’s ‘Must Have’ list.”

But it’s at the top of mine - funny stuff is still funny and who doesn’t need a laugh right about now? Have a go at the first eight chapters and see what you think.

[Artwork: Why that’s Frank and Joe Hardy, The Hardy Boys]