Friday Night Fights: Lady Blackhawk vs. Drunken Sailors

From Birds of Prey #112 (2008). Story by Tony Bedard. Art by David Cole & Doug Hazlewood. (click pic for larger)

Ladies night? Hawkaaaa!!!

Pay no attention to the fidgety guy in the green shirt

Apparently the Ann Arbor Book Festival has posted video of the first ten minutes of the interview I did with Paul Hornschemeier back in May. (Thanks to Dirk for pointing this out.)

For the rest of the interview (over an hour long!) I posted the audio of the entire thing w while back: Paul Hornschemeier Interview - Audio

Classic Album Art

A friend just sent this to me and I had to share it. No comments necessary, just good, clean fun.

Gorilla Suits

Bizarro is brought to you today by Johnny Steele. "That's just my name! I'm made of flesh and blood, just like you!"

I was in Oakland, Californy a couple weeks ago doing a show with my good buddy and far superior stand-up comic, Johnny Steele, and he agreed to let me turn one of his lines into a cartoon. Thanks, Johnny! Say hi to Allison for me.

This cartoon gives you another chance to fill the comment section of this blog with our thoughts about vegan vs. meat-eating lifestyles.

Here are some of my comments, based on the myriad comments on yesterday's blog post, "Chicken Chaser."
Some may not make sense without reading those comments first:

By "meant to eat" I did not mean to imply intent, as in creationism or intelligent design. I should have said "evolved to eat."

Though we are classified as omnivores, human anatomy is ill-suited to eat much meat at all and doesn't need any to be healthy. Consumption of animal products (meat, fish, eggs, dairy) is one huge reason why so many of us die of heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Length of intestines, type of digestive enzymes in our stomachs and saliva, shape of jaws and teeth, lack of physical hunting skills, strong aversion to the sight and smell of a dead animal, are all natural indicators that we are not well-suited to meat eating. True meat-eaters are attracted to that smell.

Someone mentioned the postition of our eyes (front-facing) as that of a predator, not prey (side-facing). Our eyes are that of a creature that needs depth perception for living in trees, not that of a predator. Few primates are true predators, but all have stereoscopic vision. Pandas have stereoscopic eyes but are completely herbivorous.

John Mayer's comments on yesterday's post (Chicken Chasers) best represent my beliefs and knowledge on this subject. Check them out, or go to his site: http://www.vset.net

"Personal choice" is a factor in whether or not you eat meat, of course, and some feel that we veg-heads should leave them alone. I never evangelize in person and try not to do too much of it here, but for those of us who do not believe that humans are inherently more valuable than members of other species, there is a "helpless victim of cruelty" issue that makes it difficult to keep our opinions completely to ourselves. We see animals like most people see human children: subject to the same emotions and needs as adults, but unable to procure them for themselves in all cases. So if I assail you for eating meat, it is born of the same impulse that you might experience toward someone abusing a human child. Our rights end where someone else's begin.

It bears noting that evolution takes millions of years for substantial changes to begin to show. Humans were undoubtedly 99% vegan for the vast majority of our early history, like chimps and gorillas, our closest relatives. It was relatively recently in our evolution that humans began to stray away from the tropics, developed tools and language, and began hunting big game. Recent enough that our bodies have not changed substantially since then. Except in this way.

Enough of the serious stuff. How about this?

Hi, Treason!

I know this is crass but it is also true and funny. A good friend of mine and fellow cartoonist, Michael Capozzola, thought up this gag and I created it in Photoshop from a campaign poster I found online.

Regardless of whether you are liberal or conservative, it is impossible to intentionally argue that Sarah Palin is qualified or in any way suitable to be in charge of the most powerful country on earth. Considering McCain's age and health, it is more than irresponsible to choose her for that office, it is treasonous.

Shiftless Whites

Chicken Chasers

Today's BIZARRO has BEEN brought TO you BY Inappropriate CAPITALIZATION of NORTH America.
I'm a pretty cynical person and don't believe in a lot of hocus pocus. I don't believe in anything "spiritual," the power of crystals, psychic phenomenon, karma, etc.

Nonetheless, I think that many western doctors think they know way more than they do and would be wise to be more open to things like acupuncture, herbal remedies, etc. (I've experienced amazing and permanent results from acupuncture, a process I once suspected was complete nonsense. Some herbal remedies, too.)

Long ago, I eschewed any doctor who does not talk to me like an equal (with an admittedly vastly inferior medical education), explain things to me in ways I can understand, and include me in the decision making process of my treatment.

When my eldest daughter was still less than a year old, a pediatrician told her mother and me that, "she should be eating meat by now." He meant baby food meat, of course, but still.

Our response was something along the lines of, "if she needed meat at this age, wouldn't nature have given her teeth?" He stared at us as though we were disobedient teens and moved on to the next subject.

Unprepared for such idiocy from the mouth of a person in a lab coat, we were dumbfounded and just made our way out of the office, never to return.

My baby's momma and I were not vegetarians or anything of the sort back then, but we were not stupid enough to miss the point that if human infants "needed" meat, they'd have long pointy teeth with which to eat it. Assuming that mechanical blending devices that turn meat into baby-food-like goo did not exist in prehistoric times, that is.

Decades later, I came to realize that if humans of any age "needed" meat, we'd be equipped with hunting tools like claws, fangs, night vision, speed, camouflage, etc. Slow, flat-toothed, stubby-fingered, hairless apes with poor vision and smell make pretty lousy hunters until they figure out tools and language.