Samson Drugs Teabagger

Bizarro is brought to you today by Elections.

We've all had a good time the last few days discussing our various beliefs about science, diet and cancer, but now it's time to get down to something serious: comedy.

What could be more blissful and relaxing than living in a pharmaceutical ad? You feel no anxiety, you don't have to pee, you can get an erection any time the mood strikes and you can eat like a pig without worrying about your cholesterol. Of course, there are encyclopedias of terrifying side effects to consider, but those are only represented in the dulcet tones of the voice over. Nothing bad ever happens in a pharmaceutical ad. Count me in!

Less euphoric is the world of luggage transportation. Even with the unbelievably recent addition of wheels (we've had luggage and the wheel for tens of thousands of years and it was the late 20th century before anyone thought to combine them!) one still has to schlep one's luggage up and down stairs, into cars, over curbs, onto the scales at the airport, etc. If I'm traveling with the full 49.9 lbs suitcase, I always return with a backache. One would think the legendary strongman, Samson, would be immune to such human weakness, but along comes Samsonite.

Speaking of catastrophe, I'm trying hard not to worry about the elections in a couple of weeks. I know that Americans will just hand the country back over to the party that took eight years to ruin it because the current party couldn't fix it in two years. It's a done deal. So I'm telling myself ahead of time that it's already happened, things will get worse, humans are a deeply flawed species, someday I'll die and none of it will matter.

Maybe I'll be surprised and American voters in sufficient numbers will just say no to Fox News, but I think that's unlikely so we might as well have some fun with it and elect a Mr. T impersonator or a masturbation-opposing witch. As long as you're destined to listen to morons on the news for x number of years, you might as well go for the craziest ones possible. That's entertainment!

Another comedy post tomorrow, I hope to see your eyes peering through the computer screen again then, except for those of you who are big fans of Fox News and swear me off for good.

Cancer Fuss

Yesterday's post garnered some criticism about my assertion that there would be less cancer if people ate vegan diets. I don't want to start a never-ending war of comments and I normally would answer this kind of thing in the comments section itself, but this seemed important enough to post about. As requested, here is a link to one of many articles that supports my comment:

http://www.pcrm.org/resch/edresources/nutr_curr/nutr_curr_2.html

There are many other studies cited on that site, which is run by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, not fringe animal rights activists. I just wanted respond to the accusation that I am spouting off irresponsibly or without evidence. Each person's ethical code is their own business, of course, but mine does not allow the intentional victimization of another for my own benefit, except in cases of self defense against that other being. So I don't believe in torturing others to cure ourselves. That's just me, your results may vary and objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

In short, according to medical information I've read: yes, cancer has numerous causes, susceptibility is genetic, and diet can strongly affect your chances of getting it and recovering from it.

Cuss Bus Pink

Bizarro is brought to you today by Intimacy.

I was at the Ohio State University Festival of Cartoon Art over the weekend and my oh my what a dandy it was. They do this thing every three years, there are only about 250 tickets sold, and the majority of attendees are cartoonists and serious collectors and aficionados. Also in attendance were Matt Groening, Art Spiegelman, Bill Griffith, Roz Chast, Patrick McDonnell, James Sturm, Jen Sorensen, Jan Eliot, Dave Kellett, Tom Gammill, Tony Cochran, and Steve Breen. I'm sure I forgot someone, please forgive me. It was a great honor to be able to tipple with some of my heroes, particularly Groening, Spiegelman, Griffith and Chast – all four are legends of intelligent humor, something that is always in danger of extinction in this reality-show, increasingly lowbrow world.

About this passel of cartoons I've posted today to catch up: "Adult Spelling Bee" is an idea I originally published in the 90s, I think. I came across it in my archives while looking for something else and thought it was a good idea and could be done better with a little tweaking, so I rewrote it a bit and redrew it.

Because I'm compiling cartoons for my super hero collection coming out in the spring, I'm still writing super hero gags. The one about the bus is a fantasy I've had many times. I loathe sitting next to strangers on public transportation, especially talkative ones, and will do almost anything to avoid it. I'm a friendly guy, but I can't stand small talk and think few things are worse than sitting next to a chatty traveler on a long flight.





The Mothman cartoon was a collaboration with my young teenage friend, Victor. It's colored that sickening pink because it was part of a breast cancer awareness project that King Features sponsored. All of King's cartoonists were asked to color their comics pink on Sunday, October 10. They asked me to do the poster for it. I'm not a fan of cancer research and don't like supporting it monetarily because a lot of that money goes toward torturing lab animals. If humans ate vegan diets there would be substantially less cancer, but rather than inconvenience ourselves or stop doing something we enjoy, we torture and kill millions of innocent beings every year in an attempt to find ways to survive eating the wrong foods. In spite of my objections, I participated in this project because it doesn't give money to the cause directly, but mostly reminds people to get screenings so they can catch it early. Just my take on it, whatever.

Thanks to Victor for his help on Mothman, I may recolor it for the book. The pink kind of turns my stomach.

Thanks for Another Great APE!

Hey Everyone,

These shows really leave me exhausted so I'm going to konk out for a little bit after this post but I just wanted to thank all the people who came by to check out our book...we sold a whole bunch more than we expected. We also sold a bunch of Kayli Boob Mousepads and the APE attendees have spoken! Based on overall sales...Sweet is better than Savory. =)

Super special thanks to our awesome table neighbors, Anthony, Debbie, Sherwin, Yen, and Mei Mei. More super special thanks go to Emily Martin at Megamoth for always being so supportive of us and Cliff at Deleter for coming by and demoing a bunch of Neopiko pens for us.

Finally, to all our new readers and past readers who came by with pitchforks and torches demanding the next book...thanks for being patient with Genevieve and I and we promise we'll do our best to deliver.

P.S. We were pretty slack this year on the picture taking of our customers...probably only getting about 33% of everyone but once Genevieve sends me the pics, I'll put them up here!

UPDATE: I put up the pics...sorry to all the folks we failed to snap a picture of...just based on how many mousepads and magnet sets we sold, I know we musta missed a bunch of you. Oh well, next time! =)

- Joseph

Amazon Top 50

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


1 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5: The Ugly Truth *
2 (+2). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
3 (+3). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
4 (-1). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
5 (-3). Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
6 (-1). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
7 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
8 (+6). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 7: Twilight
9 (-1). Odd Is on Our Side *
10 (+3). Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale *
11 (N). Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts
12 (-1). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
13 (+11). The Walking Dead, Book 6 *
14 (-2). Parker: The Outfit
15 (+7). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books
16 (+19). Big Nate: From the Top *
17 (+14). Walking Dead Volume 13 *
18 (+12). Walking Dead Volume 12
19 (+2). American Vampire Vol. 1
20 (-5). X-Men: Second Coming
21 (+5). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
22 (+17). Kick-Ass
23 (+20). Superman: Earth One *
24 (+5). Witch & Wizard: Battle for Shadowland
25 (-2). Naruto, Vol. 49
26 (-7). The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future
27 (N). Bloom County: The Complete Library Volume 3 *
28 (R). The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear The Hunters
29 (+5). The Cloud Searchers (Amulet)
30 (R). Lost at Sea
31 (N). Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Volume 2
32 (-15). Dork Diaries 2: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl
33 (-6). Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life
34 (+10). Dark Tower: The Battle of Jericho Hill
35 (-7). Batman: The Killing Joke
36 (R). The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become
37 (+4). Watchmen
38 (R). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
39 (-19). The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1975-1978 (Vol. 13-14)
40 (R). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
41 (R). Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows
42 (-17). Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s *
43 (-25). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
44 (R). The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain
45 (R). The Walking Dead Book 5
46 (R). Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes
47 (+3). V for Vendetta
48 (N). X'ed Out *
49 (N). Incorruptible Vol 2
50 (-8). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb


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:

* The upcoming Wimpy Kid volume moves up to #2 on the overall list. With still a few weeks to go until it releases in early November, can it inch its way up to #1 overall?

* The Scott Pilgrim volumes rearrange the deck chairs in slots #2-6, and clock in at #91, 95, 96, 102, & 107. The previous Wimpy Kid volume is at #157 overall.

* Two Joss Whedon-related volumes crack into the top ten this week, the latest Buffy collection and a Serenity OGN.

* The highest debut this week is the two volume slipcased Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts. A bit surprising, but it is edited by Art Spiegelman and the Amazon 42% discount offers a quite significant savings.

* Also new this week are the third Bloom County collection; an OGN based on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 video game; Charles Burns's upcoming X'ed Out; and the second collection of Mark Waid's Incorruptible.

* Anticipation for AMC's Walking Dead television series continues to build, pulling many Walking Dead volumes up on the list.

* The basement (#50) level this week—The Book of Genesis by R. Crumb—is at #2,726 on the overall list.

It's quiet...TOO quiet.

Hey IITS Readers,

Sorry for the looooooong silence. Genevieve has been very busy at work and I've been busy working on my own thing. Well, it totally snuck up on us but APE is here (this Saturday and Sunday) and we're, yeah...I think we're ready. Comics, check. Prints, check. Kayli Boob Mousepads, check and check. Yep, we're ready! Wish us luck at the show and if you're from the Bay Area, come up and see us!

- Joseph

Retro Shrink Arms Nerd Speaker

Bizarro is brought to you today by Adult Speakers.

Gosh, it's good to be back at blogging. I've been busy as a very busy person this past week, out of town, suffering from inoperable hair loss, you name it. But now I'm back and blogging like a mofo, as the kids say.

Clifford, the retro caveman is a suggestion from my good friend, Cliff, so I named the character after him. He doesn't look anything like this, he looks more like this.

This cartoon with the doggy at the shrink was popular among shrinks. Several wrote to me about it which led to long email exchanges about my early childhood and feelings of inadequacy.

The long-armed doctor cartoon is one of those jokes that I wrote just to have a chance to draw a funny picture of a guy with very long arms. Every now and then that happens. Over the many years of my career, since the late 1900s, I've drawn an exaggerated version of just about every body part you can imagine. Except the naughty ones that god did not mean for us to acknowledge in public, of course. If we were not meant to be ashamed of parts of our bodies we wouldn't have been born into this word wearing underwear, I always say.

My last cartoon today is about a super hero calling himself "The Nerd." After this was published I thought I should have had a funnier line as a response. Something like, "I fill the inboxes of criminals with lame jokes." I'll likely change it to something like that for the book of super hero cartoons I have coming out in the spring.

Must get back to deadlines now, dear reader, for I am off to Columbus on Friday for Ohio State University's Festival of Cartoon Art at which I am a speaker.


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