Bill? (Gasp!) Monica? (Sigh!)

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Pictured here is the latest work of fiction inspired by the Clinton presidency. Monica's Story is the comic-book version of the Starr report; unlike the prosecutorial original, the 32-page graphic version sees not impeachable offenses but true love.

According to the publisher, Alternative Comics, the narrative "takes the reader from Bill and Monica's first stolen glances to the turmoil, tumult and tears of their breakup." The artwork "depicts the rather explicit subject matter in a tasteful R-rated fashion and lends the characters an unexpected innocence." The result is "something dramatic and rather touching."

Monica's Story is thus the first work of Clinton fiction that likes him. Primary Colors, the best-known work, presents him as, at best, a disappointment. Treason in the White House, an early novel, hangs him on the Mall. Premises of the Heart is alleged mistress Dolly Kyle Browning's revenge. Blood Trail tries to connect him to Canada's tainted-blood scandal. Wag the Dog has become a metaphor for his foreign policy.

Clinton is inspiring foreign artists too. Indian painter Mohsin Shaikh has recently completed a set of canvases based on Clinton's sex life. Shaikh says he's "piqued that a pervert and a liar like Clinton should question the propriety of India conducting nuclear tests," and has answered with art. "My paintings are not aimed at titillation," he told an Indian paper, "but at presenting the truth from an artistic perspective."