Bizarro Trading Cards AT LAST!

That's right, you read that correctly! No longer do you have to waste money on trading cards with pictures of people and events that you don't really care about. Now you can get trading cards with cartoons on them! Funny cartoons that were not created while on steroids!

Imagine finding just the right cartoon to lampoon your boss and leaving it anonymously on his/her door at lunchtime. Imagine the thrill you will experience when someone calls and thanks you for sending them a delightful little full-color comic in the mail! Imagine sharing them with your kids and teaching them to be sarcastic and cynical, just like DAN PIRARO! Is this much fun legal? Only one way to find out!

Go to http://bizarrotradingcards.com/ and pre-order yours now. Save the first few packages UNOPENED for thirty years and sell them for TWICE the cover price! No need to thank me, it's the least I can do!


All Bizarro trading cards come with my personal guarantee: If you're not satisfied beyond your wildest expectations, you can just give them away!

P.S.Don't you just LOVE exclamation points?!!!

Me and Bill Maher

As you can see from the picture, Bill Maher and I are close. Really close. Less than two feet away. If you're jealous, I don't blame you. Being BFF with Bill is a dream come true for so many Americans and I just feel so darned fortunate to be the one he chose. Can life get any better?

Maybe, but it could also get a lot worse. Like if Bill Maher saw this post and demanded I remove it because I lied about being his BFF. That would be worse.

So I'll come clean. My Crazy Half-Nekked Wife and I were at the annual Humane Society's Genesis Awards last weekend in Beverly Hills and sat next to Maher at our banquet table. It was just as exciting as you might imagine, but without the excitement.

We're big fans of his, but in a situation like this, in order to be cool you have to act like you're not. Even saying "big fan, Bill" seems kind of cheesy. Like something a Rush Limbaugh listener from Topeka would do if he met that pumpkin-headed, lying blowhard just before he raised his shirt up and asked him to sign his beer gut. So you try to make casual conversation and pretend to be interested in other people at the table, too. Our table was actually pretty cool, (thanks to Karen Dawn, author of the soon-to-be-published "Thanking the Monkey") so it was easy to do, but I didn't find a way to gracefully tell him I think his show is genius. And I didn't find a casual way to explain that I think his imput is essential to political awareness in America. And I wasn't able to mention that I'd let him spend the weekend with my Crazy Half-Nekked Wife if he'd invite me to be a guest on his show. And what a terrific guest I'd make, don't you agree?

I'm far above asking my friends and readers to write in to Real Time With Bill Maher (http://www.hbo.com/corpinfo/faq.shtml)and ask them to consider me as a guest, but if they did, boy, that would be a special thing that I would remember for as long as I could.

Lots of cool celebs are animal rights folks and many were in attendance that night, as they are every year. Among those I've met at Genesis Awards shows are Alicia Silverstone, Daryl Hannah, James Cromwell, Persia White("Girlfriends"), Debra Skelton (Debra Wilson of "Mad TV"), Loretta Swit, Alec Baldwin, Ed Asner, Ed Begley Jr., Elayne Boosler, Tippi Hedren, Rue McClanahan, Mary Tyler Moore, Ally Sheedy, Heather Mills, Linda Blair, Emil Deschanel ("Bones"), Steve Valentine ("Crossing Jordan"), Rory Freedman (author of "Skinny Bitch," good friend of mine and CHNWife, and total babe!), Kyle MacLachlan, Ben Stein, Nellie McKay, Carol Leifer, Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes") and some others I can't remember right now. It's a great party every year! Here's more info if you care: http://www.hsus.org/about_us/offices_and_affiliates/hsus_hollywood_office/the_genesis_awards/22nd-genesis-awards/


King of the after-party dancefloor busts a move with Rory Freedman. (I told you she's a babe!)

Where was Crazy Half-Nekked Wife while I was booty shaking with Rory? Dirty dancing with Bob Zmuda, of Andy Kaufman fame. Not all vegans are buzzkills, my peeps.

Borders Educators' Sale

Through April 8, your local Borders store is offering all educators—including librarians—25% off all books, CDs & DVDs. This of course includes graphic novels and manga, so if you're looking to pick something up and you're an educator, this would be a good weekend to do so!

Ladies and Gentlemen: Mr. Todd Snider

BTW, if you ever get a chance to see Todd Snider live, do so: he does a great show.

Light Children Preview

Kyle T. Webster, artist and co-creator of the upcoming self-published graphic novel Light Children, dropped me an email and asked me to stop by their Website to give a look at the sample chapters they've made available. I don't as a rule review incomplete samples, but I will say that the art is very attractive and the story looks interesting. I'll be keeping an eye out for it when it comes out.

Variant Covers

I don't normally mind the fact that there are variant covers on comics; as long as I get one issue to read, that's fine. I order most of my comics from DCBS, and sometimes they'll throw in a variant cover edition—which is usually good except when it's a photo cover; I'd rather have a nice piece of comic art than a re-used stock photograph.

Recently I loaned some of my Buffy season 8 & Angel season 6 comics to some friends who are only occasional comic readers but are fans of the shows. They had previously borrowed some of the Buffy comics from another friend. In looking through mine to see which issues they needed they got a bit confused due to the fact that some of mine had different covers from the ones they had seen. I explained about the multiple covers which they then grokked easily enough but thought was kind of strange.

I wonder what sort of general effect multiple covers have for those not used to the hobby aspect of comics? Do Buffy fans coming into comic stores looking for the latest issue try to buy a variant cover of a comic they already have?

Webcomic Product Placement

One of my favorite Webcomics, the library-themed Unshelved, is doing something that I don't particularly like. This week's entire run of strips is basically a running ad for a sponsor, with the characters extolling the virtues of the sponsor's service.

Unshelved has long had weekly sponsors, with ads running in the feed above the strips, but until now the editorial content of the strips has seemed to be independent.

I understand that it's a tough world out there, and that when creators are trying to make a living at producing a free Webcomic it must be tempting to grab at any source of revenue that comes along. Advertising, merchandise, and personal appearances are all accepted ways of keeping the cash-flow coming; but selling out the actual content of the strip seems like, well, selling out.

Worse, it calls into question the integrity of the rest of the strip. One of Unshelved's most popular features is the Sunday "Book Club" strips, wherein one of the characters of the strip will "book talk" a recommended book. How long until these "Book Club" strips become paid-for by publishers?

Hopefully the Unshelved creators will see that the long-term negatives for doing such a deal outweigh any short-term financial gain.