Christmas Music Mix 2009

It's time once again for our incredibly awesome 2009 Christmas Mix!

If you're reading this on the blog, you should be able to use the embedded players below.

If you're reading this on a feed or Facebook or somesuch, use these links: Christmas 2009 (part 1), Christmas 2009 (part 2)

Civil War

(To make it a bigger picture, click the right femur of the character in the red shirt.)

Bizarro is brought to you today by Smatmobile.

I loved the Smart car the very first time I saw one in Europe in the late 90s. I tend to like small, unusual vehicles of any kind , so it's pretty much made for people like me. I haven't owned a car since I moved to NYC, but if I did, this would be one I would consider. Although I should say I know nothing about the quality of the car, I just like the size and look of it. It may be crap, for all I know. (And in any case, I prefer motorcycles and scooters over cars.)

I think one of the most interesting things about the Smart car is, however, that it evokes anger in certain people. I have personally heard several say they would like to crush them or flip them over. I have felt similar hatred for SUVs, but it is because they are a kind of blight on the earth. They use more gas than necessary and so help to keep us dependent on Middle East oil, they tear the roads up faster because of their weight, they are a traffic hazard because you can't see around them, they contribute to traffic congestion because they take up so much more space, same with parking. Hating Smart cars, on the other hand, seems to be simply a symptom of the growing culture war in the U.S.

I think about this culture war all the time and can think of no reasonable end to it. Could be we are headed for another civil war. Progressives wouldn't have a chance in such a war, we don't already have stockpiles of weapons and we are less brutal by nature. If it comes to that, I guess we'll all move to a more civilized place and leave the country to the Glenn Becks. Perish the thought.

Christmas Covers - December 12

Jay & Silent Bob get in the holiday spirit on Art Adams's cover to the Clerks Holiday Special (1998).

For each day of December until Christmas I'm featuring a Holiday-related comic book cover. (Click on the image to get a larger version.)

Come back tomorrow, and every day this month, for a new Christmas cover.

Just 13 more 'get-ups' until Santa!

(2008: Eternal Romance #3)
(2007: Liberty Meadows #24)
(2006: Veronica #6)
(2005: Dell Movie Classic #725)
(2004: Treasure Chest vol. 23 #8)

(Polite Dissent's 2009 Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar)
(2009 Comics Should Be Good Advent Calendar)
(Brendan McKillip's Comic Advent Calendar 2009)

Creating a Kids' Comic Section the Simple & Easy Way

Over at Blog@Newsarama, Egg Embry posts:

Yesterday I spoke to Galactic Quest store owner Kyle Puttkammer... and he laid a little comic shop science on me: How can retailers be expected to have a Kid’s Comic Section in their store if Diamond will not put a Kid’s Section in Previews? It is a point I had not considered before…

My response:

1. Look for the ‘Kid Friendly’ logo next to items in Previews; order those things.

2. Order Archie stuff.

3. Order One Piece & Naruto.

4. Order Bone collections.

5. Order Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.

6. Order the items listed on School Library Journal’s Best Comics for Kids: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/540000654/post/1340051134.html

7. Order the Johnny DC & Marvel Adventures titles.

Rack all of the above together on the shelf. Enjoy sales to kids & their parents!

Amazon Top 50

Here are the Top 50 Graphic Novels on Amazon this evening. All the previous caveats apply.


1 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
2 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
3 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
4 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid
5 (+1). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
6 (-1). Dilbert: 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar
7 (+2). The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
8 (-). Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
9 (-2). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
10 (+1). Marvel Encyclopedia
11 (+4). Asterios Polyp
12 (+1). Bloom County Complete Library Volume 1
13 (-1). Watchmen
14 (+4). Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years
15 (-1). The Complete Peanuts 1971-1974 (Box Set) (Vol. 11-12)
16 (+6). Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink': A Calvin and Hobbes Collection
17 (+3). Stitches: A Memoir
18 (+1). Simon's Cat
19 (+9). Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume
20 (-4). Warriors: Ravenpaw's Path #1: Shattered Peace
21 (+4). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
22 (+9). The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book
23 (-13). Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert
24 (R). Tales from the Crypt #8: Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid
25 (-1). V for Vendetta
26 (+7). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
27 (R). Wrapped-Up FoxTrot: A Treasury with the Final Daily Strips
28 (+17). The Indispensable Calvin And Hobbes
29 (-8). Predators and Prey (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Vol. 5)
30 (R). Masterpiece Comics
31 (+7). 14 Years of Loyal Service in a Fabric-Covered Box: A Dilbert Book
32 (+18). My Bad: A Zits Treasury
33 (+1). Batman: The Killing Joke
34 (+7). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
35 (-18). The Complete Far Side 1980-1994
36 (+13). The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics
37 (-7). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
38 (-3). The DC Comics Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded Edition
39 (+8). It's A Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection
40 (+2). Garfield Will Eat for Food: His 48th Book
41 (N). The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book
42 (-5). Batman: Year One
43 (R). Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation
44 (R). The Arrival
45 (R). R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country
46 (R). The Best American Comics 2009
47 (R). Dilbert: 2010 Wall Calendar
48 (-22). Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
49 (R). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
50 (R). Maximum Ride: The Manga, Vol. 2


Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items.

N = New listing appearing on list for first time
R = Item returning to the list after having been off for 1 or more weeks


Commentary:

* Comic strip collections continue to dominate for the holiday season.

* Only one new title on the list this week, and that's actually a C&H strip collectino that is many years old.

* For those who like to keep track of such things: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is at #6 on the overall bestsellers list, with the other WK volumes at 14, 27 & 32. Crumb's Genesis is at #63

The God Box

Bizarro is brought to you today by Circular Thinking.

I recently saw Julia Sweeney's ("Pat" on SNL years ago) one-woman show "Letting Go of God," and was very impressed. Like me, she was raised Catholic in a pretty seriously Catholic family. Being indoctrinated from infancy into any religion is a powerful thing and can affect the rest of your life. Julia's show is about how seriously she takes matters of spirituality and her journey to discover the meaning of it all. I recommend it if the subject interests you. It got rave reviews, which are well deserved.

I met Julia once in the greenroom of a small theater in NYC in which we were both performing in the same variety/comedy show. I think we are about the same age and I now know that our spiritual journeys have been remarkably similar. We both were raised to take religion seriously, which we did, then spent years of our adulthood educating ourselves in an attempt to make sense of it all.

This cartoon has nothing to do with her show or that journey, I just wanted to mention it. This cartoon is simply a humorous take on confessional booths, which, for those unfamiliar with the peculiarities of Catholicism, are small wooden booths in which you speak to a priest through a tiny window. The idea is that you tell him your sins and he gets god to forgive you.

My first trip to one of these booths was in the first grade. We were taught what to say and do and led into the booth to kneel before a screened window and tell a stranger (the priest on the other side of the wall) our "sins." Most six-year-olds have very few sins, of course, so the exercise is primarily meant to teach you submission and instill in you a deep-seated sense of guilt and self loathing. This sort of ritualistic Big Brother mentality can screw up a person for life. And it does, as I can attest and Julia explains so articulately in her show.

The good news is that you can find release from these ghosts if you work at it. Eventually, you can get out of the box.

Christmas Covers - December 11

Santa's elves go on strike on Will Eisner's cover to P.S. Magazine: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly #157 (1965).

For each day of December until Christmas I'm featuring a Holiday-related comic book cover. (Click on the image to get a larger version.)

Come back tomorrow, and every day this month, for a new Christmas cover.


Just 14 more 'get-ups' until Santa!

(2008: More Fun Comics #39)
(2007: The Tick: Big Red-N-Green Christmas Spectacle #1)
(2006: The Best of DC #58)
(2005: Batman #27)
(2004: The Brave and the Bold #148)

(Polite Dissent's 2009 Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar)
(2009 Comics Should Be Good Advent Calendar)
(Brendan McKillip's Comic Advent Calendar 2009)