New Geraniums & Bacon

One of my fave mini-comics creators, Cathy Leamy, just dropped a line that she'll have a new issue of Geraniums & Bacon—issue #5—at MoCCA this weekend. If you're there, look for it! If like me you won't be there, she should soon have it available for sale at her Website.

(I previously reviewed the first two issues of G&B.)

Electric Chair Religion

This cartoon has never appeared in Bizarro, of course, it's a little too controversial for the funny pages of the daily paper. I included it in my retrospective book, however, and have shown it at many of my comedy shows and it never fails to get heaping wads of positive comments. What I saw as a simple observation, something I actually thought of as a child of 11 or so, apparently resonates with a lot of people.

There is no editorial comment to be implied here, it's just a depiction of what the world would look like "if." How many of you reading this would have a tiny metal electric chair hanging around your neck or dangling from your ears right now? After a natural disaster you'd be getting blankets and drinking water from the American Red Chair. You might even be looking forward to this weekend's New York Times Chairword Puzzle.

Tooth Blindness

Today's Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by Vapid Pursuits Plastic Surgery Partnership. "Making millions from poor self esteem since 1976."

This idea was donated by my friend and fellow cartoonist, Michael Capozzola of Cheap City.

I like it because I dislike this current trend of making one's teeth as white as the underwear on a Tide commercial. In contrast, my teeth, which are a fairly normal color, look like rotting Cheetos. I'm afraid to smile around the luminous-mouthed people I know, for fear they will think I'm homeless, or British, or worse.

I can't afford to use an overly large pulpit on this point, however, as I did recently endure five years of adult braces. I'm ashamed now that I was vain enough to go through with it.

I had learned to live with my slightly crooked teeth until my new girlfriend at the time (1998) convinced me they were unattractive and I should get them fixed. I began to feel self-conscious and gave in, not fully realizing the physical pain, constant irritation and inconvenience that lay ahead. It was five long years of complete misery, not to mention thousands of dollars out of my own pocket for the honor. CHNW would never have even thought of making such a suggestion.

Now that they are gone and my teeth are fairly straight (I had them removed before the orthodontist recommended because I was just flat sick of them) I suppose it is fine, but if I had it to do all over again I would have skipped it. Girlfriend be damned, it's not like I was a snaggletoothed hillbilly or anything.

I won't get my teeth whitened, either, so deal with it.

Dave's New Blog

I started up a new blog today:

Eaten by a Grue is a blog devoted to video games in libraries.

Why am I blogging on such a topic? The introductory post may give you a clue...

Don't worry, I'll continue to blog about comics here at YACB. (I may take a short break though to recuperate after Free Comic Book Month...)

Dead Funny

One of our Bizarro Blog Buddies, Eric H., sent me the pic at right, which he took in Troy, NY back around 1980. He submitted it to National Lampoon and they printed it in their "True Facts".

If it's still around when I kick the cartoon bucket, I'm going to have my funeral there. I'd probably even do that if I didn't have a cartoon by a similar name, because how do you resist a funeral home called "Bizzarro"? Unless you find one called "Dead Meat," then it would be a tossup.

Pie Homage

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by The Center for the Study of Hitchcock Homages.

I've seen a lot of graphic caption balloon puns over the years, have even done some myself, so I tend to shy away from them. But when "my friend, Derek, gave me the idea for this joke," I liked it and decided the addition of the pie chunks made it worth doing. That's me and CHNW (note the monogram), in case you have some kind of rare vision disorder that prevents you from spotting the friggin' obvious.

And yes, that's vegan pie. Duh.

Insult to Salvation

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by the U.S. Army. "Be all that you can be, for much longer than we promised."

I sometimes do cartoons about controversial themes and expect to get letters from disgruntled readers. This was not one of those cartoons, to my mind, but I got not one, but TWO letters from people who thought I was disparaging the Salvation Army. One person believed I was insinuating that the SA would steal from you.

I politely explained that I have supported the SA for decades, with donations of a lot of valuable stuff that I'm just too lazy to put on Craig's List, and that I was simply exploring the humorous possibilities of combing the Salvation Army with the U.S. Army.

Regarding the U.S. Army, servicemen and women have typically supported Republicans, deeming them stronger on defense, and when the Iraq War first started, Bush's competency wasn't even up for discussion. Any implication that the war might go badly was met with accusations of treason. But it is good to see many veterans are coming around to a more reasonable opinion. The fact that someone is your commander in chief, does not mean he knows what he's doing or that he has honorable intentions.

A famous guy with a funny wig and short pants once said something like, "A patriot is one who questions his government, not follows it blindly." That's not even close to the right quote but it is past my nap time and I don't have the energy to look it up right now. I'm sure one of you fine readers will correct me. I count on you for these things.