Phantom Women

Bizarro is brought to you today by Necropolis Beauty Products. "You'll think you've died and gone to heaven."

I'm not sure where this idea came from, and it probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I love it to death. I find the idea that someone would go to the trouble to act out the old urban legend about the hitchhiking girl in a wet prom dress hysterical. Seems like this activity could catch on with goth girls.

For those who haven't heard the story: a girl of the type described above is picked up on a country road late at night, preferably near a body of water, and gives the driver the address of her home. When the driver arrives, she has vanished from the car. He goes to the door to investigate and the old woman who answers tells him her daughter drowned thirty years ago on prom night as a result of a car crash or whatever. The story is usually told as though it actually happened to a "friend of a friend" and includes local landmarks to make it scarier.

I love urban legends, except when someone tells me one that they believe to be true. It is uncomfortable to be given the choice of either acting impressed by a preposterous story (which makes me feel like a complete idiot) or telling them the story is false, effectively calling them an idiot.

I usually just smile and say I've suddenly remembered I forgot to feed my weasel before I left the house and am afraid he'll chew his way out of the attic.

A Name By Any Other Rose

This Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by Friendship, Inc. "Being there at the right time with the right solution."

A good friend of mine from my old stomping grounds of Dallas, Taxes, asked me a while back if I would put his good buddy's name in my cartoon. He knows I use names on rare occasion and he convinced me this guy was a huge fan and would get a giant kick out of.

Unable to resist the opportunity to sell another color print, I acquiesced and here it is. Of course, I've been hearing from Kevin Baileys from all around the country all week. Having a syndicated cartoon is a great way to make new friends, if you don't mind them all having the same name.

With a name like mine, however, I've never experienced seeing it somewhere else so I have no idea what that must be like. I guess you get used to it. My wife has an incredibly common name, on top of which it is gender non-specific, so she meets both men and women with the same name. Of course, now she goes by CHNW, so that's all in the past.

Three to Read for Wednesday, June 25

* Pitchfork: Poptimist #16: Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (via Dirk)

* The Hurting: Strange Comic Reviews of the Damned: Ganges #1

* Comics Worth Reading: Josei Manga in the US

Wordle

I took the text of the posts on the front page of this blog and used Wordle to create a word cloud. (click pic for larger)

Cleaning Fanatic

Today's Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by Nature's Cleaning Tools.

When I drew this cartoon, I thought "mopologist" was just one of those funny, overly-professional-sounding words for a minimum -wage labor position. The idea of a janitor getting all Mission Impossible with his job seemed amusing, so I drew it up. When it published last week, I got an email from a reader who informed me that the word is real, although it means "an apologist for the Mormon Church." WTF?

Which begs the question, when is one of them going to apologize to me? And what would they apologize for?

In light of the actual meaning of the word, this cartoon takes on a surreal tone.

New Library Comics: Week of June 16, 2008

Here's a list of the comics we added to our library collection last week:


Hewetson, Alan. The complete illustrated history of the Skywald Horror-Mood / Manchester : Headpress, 2004.

Maynard, Craig. Leatherboy / Seattle, WA : Eros Comix, 1994. nos. 1-2

Nishimori, Hiroyuki. Cheeky angel / San Francisco, CA : VIZ, c2004- vol. 1

Umezu, Kazuo. The drifting classroom / San Francisco : Viz Media, 2006- vol. 1


This listing is available as an RSS Feed!

Christian Chicks

(click image to enlargenize)

This Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by Merry Myths for Misguided Monkies.

I often do cartoons about Christian mythology because, like most Americans, I was raised with Bible stories. Common knowledge, especially mythology, is tremendously fertile ground for humor.

But aside from the Sunday School side of this, I'd like nothing more than to be able to fly on my own power. I have dreams about it frequently. Forget about harps, the glory of god's presence, eternal bliss, 72 virgins, cheap gas – what I'd really love to get when I die is a big, honking, fully-functional set of wings! Even if they came with scaly bird feet. I'd even put up with feathers and a beak–it wouldn't be that different from the ample proboscis I now proudly display.