HUGE Contest News!

Tomorrow is my usual Thursday Bizarro Puzzle Game Contest Seek-n-Find Competition Thing but this week something will be different!

Assuming some of you are tired of competing for Bizarro Trading Cards (perish the thought!) I figured it might be fun to give away a REAL prize worth ACTUAL money. Accordingly, a company has agreed to award this Cuisinart machine object to the winner of tomorrow's contest!

Check out the price, dudes and dudettes! It's worth over a hundred bucks! That's class!

They sell tons of stuff online, like this thing, counter stools, and some of my favorite modern furniture. Check them out and get all purchasy. By the way, if you want to give something nice to your favorite cartoonist, this would be an excellent choice. (Note the free shipping!)

Meanwhile, spread the word that tomorrow's contest is for REAL! I'm so excited, I'm going to drink the pink stuff in this blender I'm giving away.

BY THE WAY, THIS IS NOT A JOKE, I REALLY AM GIVING AWAY THIS BLENDER.

Playing With Your Food

Bizarro is brought to you today by Bill Maher.

As a lot of you know, like my friend Bill Maher, I'm an ethical vegan. (As opposed to someone who is vegan purely for his own health.) I occasionally think of cartoons that have to do with this topic and its related issues – nutrition, cruelty, health, the environment – and I toss them into the mix. I have been guilty of being pretty preachy about it in the past, it is difficult not to be when you are fighting against the suffering of those unable to speak for themselves, but I try very hard not to be and I hope I'm getting better.

I think this is a fairly successful cartoon in that regard. It evokes the subject of food choices without being overt. To me, there is something inherently funny about a little girl expected to slaughter a live chicken at her school lunch table.

Lots of people are concerned about environmental issues these days, so they choose local foods to save the pollution caused by shipping foods across country. If you're doing this but still buying meat, you're undoing your efforts many times over. Animal agriculture is responsible for far more greenhouse gases than all transportation combined.

Many people insist on organic meats to protect their family from harmful chemicals. Animal protein, in and of itself, feeds cancer and heart disease as fast as the hormones and chemicals you fear. Organic meat is a bit like organic bullets. It misses the larger point.

Many people become angry and defensive when they hear these things and I understand that. Attacking a person's diet is like attacking their religion, ethnicity, traditions, and family. Sorry about that. I'm the sort of person who is more than willing to toss a tradition overboard if it serves no purpose, harms me, or depends on the victimization of someone else. Like cheap sneakers made by orphans, I can do without them. It's just how I roll, homey.

Christmas Covers - December 9

The Frog finds an unwelcome gift in his Christmas stocking on Otto Feuer's cover for Funny Stuff #30 (1948).

For each day of December until Christmas I'm featuring a Holiday-related comic book cover. (Click on the image to get a larger version.)

Come back tomorrow, and every day this month, for a new Christmas cover.


Just 16 more 'get-ups' until Santa!

(2008: March of Comics #77)
(2007: Spaceman Discovers Christmas)
(2006: All-American Comics #10)
(2005: Roy Rogers Comics #49)
(2004: Pogo Possum #11)

(Polite Dissent's 2009 Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar)
(2009 Comics Should Be Good Advent Calendar)