AMAZING Animation

Here's something sent to me by Heather M. from Indianapolis. It's a truly amazing animation by an amazing artist and crew. Keep in mind this is not done with computers, all of it is stop-motion animation and actual paint. I can only imagine how long this took to produce. The concept and storyboards alone would take months.

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Amazon Top 50

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


1 (-). Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
2 (+5). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
3 (+5). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
4 (+2). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
5 (-). Troublemaker Book 1: Alex Barnaby Series 3
6 (-4). Blackest Night
7 (+2). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 *
8 (-5). Green Lantern: Blackest Night
9 (+1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
10 (-3). Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 1
11 (-7). Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps
12 (+5). Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 2
13 (+3). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
14 (N). The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide Volume 40 *
15 (-1). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
16 (+3). Odd Is on Our Side *
17 (N). Siege *
18 (N). Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below
19 (+3). Blackest Night: Rise of the Black Lanterns *
20 (+4). Absolute Planetary Book Two
21 (-6). Walking Dead Volume 12 *
22 (-10). Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes
23 (+2). Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1
24 (-13). Batwoman: Elegy
25 (+2). Irredeemable Vol 3
26 (+8). Watchmen
27 (N). Invincible Iron Man Vol. 4: Stark Disassembled *
28 (+2). Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps *
29 (+13). V for Vendetta
30 (-12). Star Wars: Legacy Volume 9 - Monster
31 (N). Lost at Sea
32 (-3). Absolute Planetary Book One
33 (-12). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
34 (+10). Prince Valiant: 1939-1940 (Vol. 2) *
35 (+4). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
36 (-1). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
37 (-11). The Walking Dead Book 5
38 (+2). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
39 (-11). Kick-Ass
40 (+1). The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1)
41 (-18). Blacksad
42 (-5). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
43 (R). The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
44 (-13). Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat
45 (-13). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
46 (R). No Future For You (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 2)
47 (R). The Flash: Rebirth
48 (N). Warriors: Ravenpaw's Path #3: The Heart of a Warrior *
49 (R). The Arrival
50 (-14). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes


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:

* It's a good week to be Brian Lee O'Malley. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, which presently sits at #9 on the Amazon overall chart, reached at least as high as #6 earlier in the week. I don't ever recall there being a comic book that had successful midnight release parties. Sales on par with pre-Watchmen movie levels; hype/excitement like a Harry Potter or Twilight novel. O'Malley's only other previous major work, Lost at Sea, even pops up onto the list.

* If you're wondering where Scott Pilgrim vols 4 & 5 are? It appears that a few weeks back Amazon decided to no longer classify them as Comics & Graphic Novels...! Just another indication about the size of the grain of salt with which you should be taking these charts.

* People still care about comic price guides? Apparently so, as the pre-order for the 40th Overstreet Guide is the highest debut of the week. Also debuting are pre-orders for two Marvel hardcovers: Siege and Iron Man; and the latest Penny Arcade and Warriors volumes.

* The Blackest Night hardcovers start to show a bit of softness in the face of the Scott Pilgrim onslaught, but they still occupy seven of the top thirty slots on the chart.

Mythfits featured in the San Diego Gay & Lesbian Times...

...just in time for Comic Con! If any of you followers are going to be there, I wish you the best weekend. I wish I could go. To read the article online, click here.

Devlish Pundit

Bizarro is brought to you today by The Face of Fear.

Although I admit that I think Glenn Beck is a dangerous lunatic, I didn't see this cartoon as particularly partisan. Mostly, it is just meant to describe Beck as someone who believes in The Devil and would debate him if he could. Both of which I'd guess are true. And most readers did not take offense or I would have gotten more complaints. As it is, I only received one comment on this cartoon and I'm not sure it was even a complaint, per se. It follows, in its entirety, minus the signature.

"I like Bizarro in my daily newspaper. I like Glenn Beck better."

I assume this person thought this cartoon was vaguely offensive to Beck, but I'm not sure in what way. If you're a follower of Beck's and believe him to be a sensible person in control of his mental faculties, what would be offensive about this? I can't see it. Perhaps it is the fact that this cartoon is only actually humorous to those of us who see him as insane and fans of his find this notion offensive in and of itself. Which I suppose I can understand.

For readers who like both Bizarro and Beck, I hope I haven't lost you on this. I've given up on hoping that anything I say or do will ever contribute to sensible politics on planet Earth, I'm just resigned to trying to make people laugh, make a living and sleep indoors. The overwhelming majority of my cartoons are not political so there's still plenty to enjoy.

We're Zombies Now

Here's a bit of fun from my friend, dc roberts. I sent him the photo at left of CHNW and me and he converted it into an animated zombie portrait that plays on a digital picture frame. Beleive me when I say it's the coolest, daddio.

To see what he did and find out how you can get him to do it to you, go to his page and click on the cartoon drawing that most resembles the image here. You'll be glad you burned the .005 calories it took to click that link!

CHNW and Piraro as zombies...


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What's Happening with DC's Kids Comics?

Those of us reading the DC October solicitations may have noticed (like Johanna did) that Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! are having their final issues. This follows on with Super Friends ending (the last issue came out this month, though I don't think it was ever formally announced); and Tiny Titans is not on the schedule for October either. Also, this month DC raised the price on their kids line to $2.99.

The cancellation of  Batman TBaTB, is somewhat surprising, as the show it is based on is still running on Cartoon Network and there is a video game due out in September. Billy Batson was originally meant to be a showcase for Mike Kunkel—based on the critically acclaimed Shazam! comic by Jeff Smith—but when it became obvious that Kunkel would not be able to stick to a monthly schedule (which really should have been obvious from the get go to everyone) it was turned over to Tiny Titans  writers Art Baltazar and Franco. They gave it their best, but the comic as established didn't really mess with their sensibilities, and a constantly changing art team didn't help matters (although Mike Norton seems to have finally settled in nicely). Super Friends, which replaced the excellent Justice League Unlimited title on the schedule, had a reputation of being 'too kiddy.'

(Outside of the super-hero books, Scooby-Doo is getting relaunched in September with a new subtitle and #1 issue; Cartoon Network Action Pack and Looney Tunes are still intact, at least for now...)

So its fairly obvious that the DC Kids books (formally Johnny DC) are the next target in the new DCE management overhaul. It's not terribly surprising. Despite being of fairly high quality (Especially Batman TBaTB, which I recently highlighted as one of DC's best titles) they haven't managed to capture much readership. It's been speculated that these titles survive on low sales in the direct market due to their being available on newsstands and via subscription, and that collected editions may sell in bookstores.  But I suspect that the new management looked at the overall sales figures for these titles and decided that they could and should do better.

I find it highly unlikely that DCE will stop their line of kids super-hero comics all together. Rather, I think that DCE is rethinking the entire line-up, with an aim towards increasing sales; their overall strategy is to emphasize their corporate-owned super-hero characters, and getting comics featuring those characters into the hand of kids only makes sense. A mini-series crossover with L'il Archie has already been announced for Tiny Titans. The DC Kids panel is scheduled for Sunday morning at SDCC where I suspect we'll see some announcements made. (I highly doubt they'd invite Mike Norton to be on the panel if they were simply canceling his title without there being something to replace it.)

Black Kansas City Tuesday

Bizarro is brought to you today by Roll Models.

A couple of readers just emailed me today to tell me that The Kansas City Star canceled Bizarro. This cuts me deep, my friends. If it's true, that is. Sometimes a paper will move my cartoon or change it from a panel to a strip, or vice versa, and readers just assume it is missing.

But if you're within arm's reach of a KC Star, please have a gander and see if Bizarro is absent and if so, write, email, or call them and express your loss of a reason to live. If you're calling from a payphone, threaten to take hostages – just make sure you get off the phone before they can trace the call and don't actually take any hostages.

I was born in Kansas City and my parents were born and raised there, as were many of my other relatives who still reside within its city limits. How can they do this to a native son? Was it something I said? Was it the atheist dog cartoon from yesterday? Was it my family's Mafia connections back in the 1920s?

I don't mean to put too much emphasis on this personal tragedy, but I shall wear black and refuse to cut my hair until Bizarro is reinstated in my hometown newspaper. Or until I get tired of wearing black and I begin to look like a homeless guy, whichever comes first. I encourage all of you across the globe to do the same. If we show our solidarity, we can beat this thing. Or at least start a Cure tribute band.