Watercolor Wednesday

It's been a while since I've posted a Watercolor Wednesday, so I thought I'd show this drawing I was commissioned to create for a Mythfits fan. Apparently, there are people out there that identify with Robot OR Unicorn :)

I really enjoy the gender differences between these two. Somehow, they balance each other out. Which one do you identify with? Or which supporting character? Robot will be analyzing the results.

Dead Like Me

Bizarro is brought to you today by a Man With A Big Heart.

This gag was given to me by my good friend and fellow cartoonist, Michael Capozzola, author of Surveillance Caricatures in the San Francisco Chronicle, stand-up comedian, actor, play-on-words expert.

The older I get the less I like going to doctors. I've never enjoyed it, lord knows, but lately I've begun thinking what is really the point at all?

I've never been one to run to the doc for a cold or flu, they can't do anything for you anyway, it's just a needless expense. I have found over the years that if I fight my way through the occasional sickness with ibuprofen and good nutrition, I get sick much less often than my friends who are hooked on antibiotics. The fact that I eat a healthy vegan diet (as opposed to an unhealthy vegan diet full of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup and fried foods) and exercise moderately leaves me much less vulnerable to most "big" diseases, but even if I come down with one, chances are I won't be able to pay for the treatment.

I don't have health insurance because the insurance industry's number one job is to find a way not to pay back the tens of thousands that you've paid them over the years. It is quite literally their business model. I used to have it but came to see it as a false sense of security: even if you get sick or injured, chances are they will find a way to disqualify you. Then you're sick and frustrated with the unmistakable feeling that you've been screwed. Since I'm self employed there is no one to pay for part of mine, so it's like another mortgage payment each month to carry even bare-bones catastrophic.

So I've gotten used to the idea that as long as I live in the U.S. if I get really sick, I'll just die. I won't care after I'm dead, any more than I care what I'm missing when I'm asleep. Quality of life is more important to me than quantity, so I do what I can to keep myself healthy and if I get unlucky anyway, so be it. I'd rather die at home (or at my own hands if it gets too painful) than in a hospital hooked to machinery and leaving my family bankrupt or with a huge insurance company battle on their hands.

I know this isn't conventional and doesn't make sense to most people, but it's my choice. To hell with doctors, insurance companies and our corrupt health care system; I'm tired of buying yachts for others. We've known it sucks for a long time and we refuse to fix it.

For now, my motto: Eat right, exercise, die like a human. Of course, my tune might change if I get diagnosed with something wicked. It's easy to talk this way when you're still healthy.

New This Week: July 14, 2010

Here's a look at what will be hitting the shelves of your friendly neighborhood comic store tomorrow:

The sixth and final volume in the Scott Pilgrim series, Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, is due to arrive. Maybe you've heard about it? Just in time for the movie, which hits theaters next month. It's a rare example of perfect timing in the comics-to-movies publishing schedule, as interest in the graphic novels in the series has been high ever since the first trailer debuted a few months ago, and the pre-order for the final volume was at the top of the Amazon comics & graphic novels chart last week.

Edit: Oops. While SPFH shipped to retailers this week, it doesn't go on sale until Tuesday (the same day as bookstores). So put it on your list for next week.

Also hitting stores this week is Fractured Fables, a kid-friendly anthology with stories by some top talents, including Jill Thompson, Bryan Talbot, Terry Moore, Mike Allred, Larry Marder, Ted McKeever, and many others.

Do you like vikings? DC have Viking Prince by Joe Kubert, a hardcover collection of the classic back-up series.

And Marvel bring us Agents of Atlas Vs., a hardcover collection of the Atlas vs. X-Men and Atlas vs. Avengers mini-series that bridged the gap between the former and current Atlas series. If you missed out before (and given the sales figures, chances are you did) you now have a second chance to read these fine stories.

Offspring

Bizarro is brought to you today by How To Use Your Nose To Impress The Ladies.
Here's a fun story. The color cartoon shown here is what appeared in my client newspapers but it is not the way I originally wrote or drew it. The black and white cartoon below was my first attempt.

My editors at the syndicate didn't understand the original cartoon (I don't blame them) and thought that it might be seen as racist, and they were undoubtedly right. As those of you who have read my blog regularly know, people will complain about racism if given even a sliver of an opportunity. Complaints to newspapers are bad for business, so I changed the gag to a ventriloquist theme, which is a better cartoon anyway.

The original gag was supposed to be that a couple of white ladies see a middle-aged black lady walking a blond baby in a stroller and think she has adopted him. Their comment is meant to imply that they see this sort of thing all the time. What they are actually seeing are nannies, of course. I don't know about other parts of the country, but here in NYC one regularly sees middle-aged women-of-color walking white kids. Evidently, lots of rich white folks don't raise their own kids and who can blame them? Making babies is so much more fun than making sure they don't grow up to be scourges on society.*

*This statement is sarcasm.

What's That Noise?

Last week's poll was interesting! According to the people, that little religious nut...

is brainwashed (57%)

has some nerve! (34%)

is like my family (24%)

is right! (7%)

Your opinions on the nut are fascinating. I'm glad most of you voted the nut was brainwashed... but I was surprised 7% of you thought he was right. Somewhat diverse readership here at MYTHFITS. Excellent. Don't forget to vote again...

Old Baggage

Bizarro is brought to you today by Well Grammar.

This cartoon are a take on a cartoon cliche, the one of the woman with her packed bags is leaving the house and says something funny to her husband about it. Their are lots of cartoons like that. I was thinking about cartoons to write and decided to make it the same kind of picture with a different funny line for the punchline. Instead of really leaving the husband of her, she is really only taking old suitcases out to their trash and the reader is suprised.

This caption I have changed before putting it here on the blogs because I had the word "bring" instead of the word "take." A reader wrote me an email and said that bring is for when you are coming toward and take is for when they are going away. Since the wife is going away from where she now is, I had the wrong word---bring--- and changed it now to be correct---take. I always forget that rule about bring and take I was raised in Oklahoma and most people there use those words as the same meaning. Old habits dye hard I guess.

Baby Manty

Hey Guys!

I went to my friend Emmy's house to try out felting for the first time. If you aren't familiar with the process, all you do is grab a bunch of fluffy colored wool and stab the heck out of it with a sharp needle equipped with a barb at the tip, which weaves the wool into a tight mass. You can make other shapes of different colors and stick it anywhere as long as you stabbity-stab it good. I decided to make our little Manty mascot. It took a few hours or so to finish him but I had a lot of fun! You can't see it from these photos but I even gave him a white belly. I definitely want to do another felting project again! ^__^

~Genevieve