30,000 Comics!

It may not surprise you to know that I keep track of which comics I have (and how many) in a couple of database files. It may surprise you to find out—as it certainly did me—that a couple of weeks ago I passed the 30,000 mark in the number of comics I own!

Also interesting is that with a week of passing that milestone I also hit round-number counts on three publishers:

• 12,000 DC Comics
• 6,000 Marvel Comics
• 1,000 Dark Horse Comics

I should note that it took 28 years of comic book collecting to reach that number. It is surely too many. I'd like to cut that number down at least in half, but I can never find the time to go through the many boxes to figure out which to divest from the collection.

Bike to Work

I'm told today is Bike To Work Day. I'm an avid cyclist and ride several times each week around my 'hood of Brooklyn, NY. I live in a two-story apartment with my bedroom downstairs and my work space upstairs. I thought about riding to work today but was daunted by the stairs. (Right, me and my Pedersen)

Riding a bike is good for your health, for the environment, for traffic reduction, for everything. Do it regularly for short errands, going to work, hitting the pool hall, anything where you don't have to carry a whole lot of stuff with you. You'll be glad you did. If you have to drag your kids around with you everywhere, get them a trailer or teach them to ride. If you're worried about getting hit by a car, get a shovel and some asphalt and build bike trails all over your town. If you're worried about getting wet when it rains, build a giant transparent bubble around your bike.

With good old-fashioned American ingenuity, we can do this.

Chess Gangsters

Bizarro appears today courtesy of Paramount Studios. Soon to be (satirizing) a major motion picture starring Jim Carrey or Keanu Reeves or somebody like that.

If you're one of the millions of Americans who cannot decide which is more riveting, playing chess or watching gangster movies, this cartoon is probably already clipped out and on your fridge. For those of you unacquainted with either, these two chess pieces – called a "knight" and a "bishop"– are reenacting an iconic scene from Francis Ford Coppola's classic, "The Godfather."

Seriously, if you needed me to tell you that, you might need a tutor or something.

FCBM4 Day 15

It's day fifteen of the fourth annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Steven Zacks, who listed his five comics as:

1. Criminal
2. Kick-Ass
3. The Boys
4. Iron Man
5. Batman

Steven seems like the right person to appreciate the first issue of Terror, Inc., the recent MAX series by David Lapham & Patrick Zircher.

For Steven's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Iron Man ashcan.

Steven's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
39 entries
30 free comics sent so far
16 days remaining

Theological Humor

Bizarro is made possible in part by a grant from the E. Madge Anarie Foundation for Religious Studies.

When I wrote this cartoon, I wasn't certain how people would interpret it. When I write a cartoon, I have no way of knowing for sure whether most people will get the joke, of course, and I suspected this one would be open to various interpretations.

Surprisingly, I got no mail about this from "believers," but a number of emails from atheists who loved it and were happy to see their point of view presented in the mainstream media.

However you take this cartoon, I think it's an interesting idea. If God is only in the minds of humans, how is he looking at the sign? If He actually exists and someone did this to Him as a joke, why does it make Him mad?

Because I frequently use traditional Bible themes in my cartoons like Heaven, Hell, the Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, etc., people often ask me what my beliefs are. Some Christians suspect I am one of them, while others have chided me for making fun of their faith. Atheists have assailed me for using mainstream media to promote Christian mythology, others have assumed I'm in their camp.

My own beliefs or lack thereof aside, the reason I use Bible themes so much is simply because humor often comes from common knowledge. Bible stories are a veritable library of common knowledge, most of which has to do with human nature, and is therefore an incredibly rich vein from which to mine humor.

Even though I don't go out of my way to piss people off, I've always thought that as long as I'm making somebody mad, I must be doing something right. My 7th grade art teacher, Judith Miller of Tulsa, Oklahoma, told me on the first day of school that the worst reaction you can give an artist is none.

New Library Comics: Week of May 5, 2008

Here's a list of the comics we added to our library collection last week:


Baltazar, Art. The cray-baby adventures / Chicago, Ill. : Electric Milk Comics, 1993- no. 1

Barrett, John. Gold digger : edge guard / San Antonio, Tex. : Radio Comix, 2001-2002. nos. 1-7

Bonzer : Australian comics 1900-1990s / Redhill South, Vic. : Elgua Media, 1998.

Marcy, Jason. Jay's days : my life as a cartoon / Frederick, Md. : Landwaster Books, c2001- vols. 1-2

La porte de l'amour. / Bruxelles : Siréas, 2004. nos. 1-2

Porte de l'amour. English. La porte de l'amour. / Bruxelles : Siréas, 2006. no. 3

Sensation comics. / New York, N.Y. : National Periodical Publications ; Secaucus, N.J. : Distributed by Lyle Stuart, c1974. No. 1. (Famous 1st edition : limited collectors’ bronze mint series ; no. C-30)

Spider-Man and Power Pack. / New York, N.Y. : Marvel Comics Group, 1984.

Suburban high life. / San Jose, Ca. : Slave Labor Graphics no. 1

Supina, Bob. Monster boy comics / San Jose, CA : Slave Labor Graphics, 1997- no. 1

Williams, J. R. Crap / Seattle, WA : Fantagraphics Books, 1993- no. 1

Yambar, Chris. Chris Yambar's Mr. Beat adventures. / Youngstown, Ohio : Moordam Comics, 1997- no. 1

This listing is available as an RSS Feed!

FCBM4 Day 14

It's day fourteen of the fourth annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Zach McMechan, who listed his five comics as:

1. Green Lantern
2. Walking Dead
3. Invincible
4. Avengers
5. X-Men

Since Zach likes both horror & super-hero comics, I'll be sending him the first issue of Simon Dark, the dark super-hero comic by Steve Niles & Scott Hampton.

For Zach's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Iron Man ashcan.

Zach's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
38 entries
28 free comics sent so far
17 days remaining