Amazon Top 50

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


1 (-). Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 *
2 (+1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
3 (+1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
4 (+2). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
5 (+2). Diary of a Wimpy Kid
6 (-1). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
7 (+2). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
8 (-). Watchmen
9 (-7). The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear The Hunters
10 (+2). The Complete Persepolis
11 (+25). Batman: The Killing Joke
12 (-1). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
13 (+6). Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
14 (-4). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
15 (-1). Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead *
16 (-3). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
17 (-1). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
18 (-3). Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
19 (+22). Batman: Year One
20 (R). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
21 (+10). The Walking Dead Book 5 *
22 (N). Naruto, Vol. 47 *
23 (-1). American Born Chinese
24 (+18). Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover *
25 (-7). Asterios Polyp
26 (N). AOZORA Finder Rock
27 (-1). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat *
28 (-4). Stitches: A Memoir
29 (-6). Stephen King's The Stand Vol. 2: American Nightmares
30 (+16). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
31 (N). Bone Handbook *
32 (N). Vampire Knight, Vol. 9 *
33 (-6). Thor, Vol. 3 *
34 (R). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
35 (N). Tsubasa 25
36 (N). Black Bird, Vol. 3 *
37 (-7). Predators and Prey (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Vol. 5)
38 (R). Dark Tower: Treachery
39 (-6). V for Vendetta
40 (N). Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Volume 8 - Destroyer
41 (R). Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days
42 (-21). The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
43 (R). Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert
44 (-15). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
45 (-13). The Cartoon Introduction to Economics: Volume One: Microeconomics
46 (+1). Stephen King's The Stand Vol. 1: Captain Trips
47 (R). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
48 (-8). The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1)
49 (R). Simon's Cat


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:

* Twilight: The Graphic Novel as a pre-order has slipped to #21 on the overall chart, but that's still good enough for it to rule the roost on the comics chart.

* Last week's Walking Dead euphoria—anchored by a tv series green-lighting and a rave review of vol. 11 on BoingBoing—has slipped off somewhat, but vol. 11 remains in the top ten.

* A relatively big week for manga: Naruto pops in as the highest debut, and a kindle manga, AOZORA Finder Rock, debuts just a couple of slots lower. Three other manga titles debut on the list as well.

Challenges of the Musically Challenged

Bizarro is brought to you today by Educational Literature.

I have a good friend back in Texas who has run a recording studio for decades. Every now and then he'll share some of the more "noteworthy" music that he has recorded for clients there and I often wonder how he survives. As we know from the popular TV show, "American Idol," (which I am proud to say I've never watched a moment of, the commercials are plenty) not everyone who thinks they can be a rock star has a single iota of talent.

For reasons unclear to me, I'm particularly sensitive to music. I literally cannot tolerate listening to music that I don't like. I become instantly irritable, my heart rate rises, my teeth turn into fangs and I am not satisfied until someone is dead. I don't mean to say that I'm a public *sshole about it, but I will quietly leave a store or restaurant if the music is offensive to me, whether I've finished my business there or not. This is perhaps the biggest reason I dislike the Xmas season so much, the offensive music is ubiquitous.

It wouldn't be such a curse if I liked most popular music, but I don't. I'm very picky. Any single song from any recording of such popular bands as Eagles, Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, Abba, Billy Joel, Metallica, Rush, all hip hop (yes, I know that is a very general statement, but I can't stand 'rhyme talking' of any kind,) drives me over a cliff. And that's just a fraction of the bands I can't stand. I wish I wasn't this way, but there's nothing I can do about it.

That being said, I've been learning to play the guitar and have been writing songs and recording them on my computer. One day I'm going to record them in a "real" studio and sell a CD through my website and this blog. So I may be the guy behind the glass in the cartoon above soon enough (though it's a cinch my music will ever be popular enough to drive shoppers from stores.)

Until tomorrow, be well, earth travelers.

CONTEST UPDATE

The Mysterious anonymous winner of Contest #16 did, in fact, write back to me in the comments and successfully claim his/her submission. But he/she did not leave his/her email address once again, this time saying that because he/she (tired of this lack of an appropriate non-gender specific pronoun for this situation?) did not enter correctly, the prize should go to the second place winner.

Okay, that's fine but I just want to say that not leaving your email address does not disqualify you from winning. I'm happy to send you some cards. If you want to leave your email in the comments section, I'll write it down and delete the comment immediately. If you're not comfortable with it, no problem, I understand. I promise not to use your info against you, or even keep it on file if it worries you.

"Nuff said," as the sit-com characters say.

CONTEST #16 WINNERS!

Thanks to everyone who played our incredibly exciting Bizarro Puzzler Teaser Treasure Hunt Game Thing this week. We have our three winners, with a caveat.

1. First place goes to someone good at solving puzzles but not at reading instructions. It was submitted anonymously and had no email address. So who are you? Below, I have posted your winning list. If you can tell me what expletive you began your post with, then provide me with an email address, I'll send you your prize. Leave it in the comments section to any post, I'll see it when I moderate comments and not post your email address.

2. Second place goes to he who goes by "dcr". He's won second place before, and may win first place this week if I don't hear from our mysterious anonymous submitter.

3. Goes to Randy S. He, too, has won before too, taking top honors in contest #15.

A couple of submitters got in before any of you three, but neither had all 15 correct answers.
















Here's a new feature, click here if you want to see the 15 differences graphically circled. Cool.

CONTEST #16

RULES, ETC:
As usual, two images are posted below, one is the original cartoon, the warped image beneath it has been changed in 15 ways. Your mission, if you are the disco royalty that I think you are, is to find those differences.

1. There are 15 differences between the two cartoons.
2. NONE of the differences have to do with the warped nature of the second image.
3. ALL of the differences are something missing, added, or moved, not just "bent" from the distortion. The differences will not be too subtle, so once you spot one you should be relatively certain you've found it. (As opposed to something like, "Is the hat on this one is a shade lighter than the other one? Hmmm.")
4. FIRST PERSON to correctly list the 15 differences in the comments section of the post wins 4 packs of Bizarro Trading Cards, mailed by me personally from Bizarro International Headquarters in Brooklyn. I'll even lick the stamp, unless it's self adhesive. SECOND AND THIRD persons with correct answers will each get 2 packs of Bizarro Trading Cards!
5. Put your email address on your comment so I can contact you if you win. I won't post it or keep it or file it or sell it or mount a Broadway musical about it.
6. If you live outside the U.S., I may not be able to send you a prize. Depends. Canada is probably fine, Saudia Arabia, probably not.

Click on the image below to ENLARGE and PLAY!

The Apple iPad: Will It Save the Comics Industry? Or Destroy It?

Probably neither, at least right away.

Yesterday Apple finally unveiled their tablet computer, the iPad. Which means that after weeks of rampant speculation as to what it means for comics, there's finally something concrete that can be considered.

Apple has decided to use the open ebook standard EPUB for their new iBookstore and reader on the iPad. Which is great for mostly textual books, but not so good for highly graphical publications such as comic books. This means that it is highly unlikely that publishers will offer comics and/or graphic novels directly through iBookstore. Thus, comic distribution on the iPad will no doubt be tied to a number of different 3rd-party apps, such as comiXology and the like. So instead of there being one place on your iPad where you go for all your comics and other reading material, you'll need to fire up a bunch of different apps, each of which has a different interface, different agreements with different publishers, and different pricing schemes. In other words, kind of a mess that won't make it easy for the casual comics reader to decided to download the latest 'it' comic that they hear about on NPR or see a review of the the New York Times.

I could be wrong. Jobs casually mentioned textbooks being part of iBookstore, and in the case of many math- and science-related textbooks there are graphical challenges as well, so maybe there's a plan to support formats other than EPUB in the iBookstore at some point. In which case, we'll be headed down a different rabbit hole all together.

Notes on a Zebra

Bizarro is brought to you today by Betty's Secret.

I draw the vast majority of things in my cartoons from memory but now and then I like to get things especially right, which was the case with the zebras here. While researching pictures of zebras online for this cartoon, I was struck by how incredibly beautiful they are. You get used to looking at things all your life and tend to take them for granted, but I find that if I take a moment to step outside myself and imagine I'm seeing something for the first time, like many people before the invention of photography certainly did with animals like zebras, it is truly amazing. A white horse all covered with bold black stripes. It's like they were concieved by a talented gay designer. Unfortunately for the zebras, this has also led to a lot of arrogant disregard for their lives.

I feel this way about roosters, as well. We're so used to seeing them on cornflakes boxes that we forget what exotic birds they are. Roosters are among my favorite animals in the world. Here's another one.

A regular reader wrote to me this week and asked me if the face in the tail area was intentional. It was not, but I see something that looks a bit like a face so he's not totally crazy. Anybody else notice this or is LeRoy perhaps crazier than I think?

Come back later today for the contest. You will experience pleasure.