Thanks for Coming to See Us at Fanime!

Hey IITS Readers,

Thanks so much to all of you for coming out to see us, you guys always make the conventions better by cheering us on, showing us your support, and making us feeling guilty for not having issue two out. Nick, Chris B, Hamasuki, Ben, Tim and Callie, James, Patrick, Dave, Emil, Dread Lord CyberSkull, AJ, and Sparky...thank you! I'm sure there are a bunch of people I missed and I'm really sorry about that...I'm still recovering a from a pretty exhausting weekend. It was a great show for us...we were able to spread the word to lots of new folks and even Reuben Langdon dropped by our table to pick up a few things!

Special thanks to Jamie (I think I spelled it right this time) and her husband Mike for the Kayli sketch, the Prinny sticker, sharing snacks with us, and just being some of the most awesome table neighbors ever! Hope to see you at another show soon, Jamie. =)

This year, we snapped only a few pictures early on but Genevieve's camera was on the fritz on Friday and my phone battery kept dying so we just decided to skip the pictures this show. I know, WEAK...but that's the way it is. A few folks did snap pictures of us on the other hand and Ben sent us the one he snapped so this year, you just get a picture of Genevieve and I. How's that?

Sorry to all the folks who came by to pick up our Kayli Boob Mouse Pad...due to a major delay with the shipment, it missed the delivery date by several days and according to the shippers site, I should receive a big box of boobs either Tuesday or Wednesday. Hmm...it says here there was a "Customs Clearance Delay". Yeah, sure...more like "Customs Guys Can't Stop Playing With Kayli's Boobs". Anyway, the Kayli Boob Mouse Pads were a definitely a hit with the crowd. Now, instead of people dragging their friends over to see Kayli naked on the big piece of meat, they drag their friends over to see the Kayli Boob Mouse Pad and Kayli naked on the big piece of meat. It definitely brought a lot of folks over to our table. =)

Thanks to all our old friends from previous show and all our new customers...we hope you'll all continue to come see and support us. See you next show!

UPDATE: Some friends at the show sent us some more pics of us at the table...shared them below.

- Joseph

Hamasuki sent us this pic of Genevieve taking a break.

Here's Hamasuki's pic of Genevieve and I together.

And I thought I was being sorta pervy with the lip puckering.
I had no idea she was doing that opposite me, folks...haha.

FCBM6 Day 31

It's day thirty-one of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Dan Marco. The five comics that Dan likes are:

1. Incredible Hulk
2. Love & Capes
3. Ambush Bug
4. NextWave
5. The Boys

And his other thing of interest is Shakespeare.

For Dan I have Marvel Monsters: Devil Dinosaur #1 by Eric Powell & Tom Sniegoski.

For Dan's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

Dan's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!


Current FCBM Statistics:
35 entries
92 free comics sent so far
? days remaining

There are still a handful of entries I haven't gotten around to yet, so I'll be extending FCBM for a few days into June. Stay tuned...!

Robots, Statues, Music

Bizarro is brought to you today by The Big Ugly.

This was an eventful weekend in my area. The National Cartoonists Society had their annual convention and awards ceremony just across the river from NYC, someplace called Jersey City. I've never been there myself, but I hear it is gorgeous.

I am told I won their biggest award, "Cartoonist of the Year" and am grateful for the honor. (Yes, I was told I was grateful for the honor, and I actually was.) The statue, which I have come to affectionately call "The Big Ugly," was designed in the early 1900s by Rube Goldberg, and is named The Reuben after him. Pictured below the blue link above is the one with Al Jaffee's name on it, from a couple of years ago.

Instead of attending this year's convention, which I've been to almost yearly since 1995, I was at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in upstate NY for a benefit concert given by Chrissie Hynde and JP Jones. It was a phenomenal experience; beautiful scenery, terrific music and good friends in a very intimate setting out on the lawn.













The musicians set up on a deck overlooking a large lawn and played songs from their new album, set to be released in August. I love Hynde's voice and JP Jones' voice blends terrifically well with it. I haven't heard the album, but if it was a good as the set we heard, you'll want to pick it up. By the way, that isn't the head of a cow/giraffe hybrid in the background, that's a costume used at the recent Veggie Pride Parade in NYC a few weeks back.













From behind the musicians you can see what an intimate gathering it was. We were only allowed 250 guests because of local ordinances (any more than that and you have to hire cops and that seriously cramps my party style, dude) but we had many hundreds more inquire about the show. We could easily have sold 500 tickets. The guitarist at left is from Liverpool and an amazing player, I was jealous, wish I could remember his name. Patrick M-something. JP is in the middle. His legs aren't actually 14 inches long, it's just the way it looks in this picture. He's actually completely normal.

Thanks so much to all the people who have been leaving "congrats" messages on my Facebook page and the comments sections of my blog posts, and to all of you who've sent emails. I can't answer them all personally, but they are all read and appreciated.

My editor at King Features and good friend, Brendan Burford, accepted the award for me. He asked me for an acceptance speech to read but I'm not one to write a lot down in those situations, so I gave him this:

"Dan Piraro would have been here tonight except that he was killed this afternoon when he lit a cigar near an open bottle of scotch while having sex with Ashley on his motorcycle. At least he died doing the four things he loved most."

Brendan said it was well received.

Watercolor Wednesdays served on a Sunday (sorry)...

Wow! The people have spoken. According to the last poll, here's how Robot was judged:


Robot is...
an asshole (39%)
just hungry (32%)
the shit (28%)
greedy (20%)


Since Unicorn didn't get a cupcake I thought a fantasy scenario was only fair...

FCBM6 Day 30

It's day thirty of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Mat Dunham. The five comics that Mat likes are:

1. The Walking Dead
2. Preacher
3. Barry Ween
4. Wolverine
5. Crossed

And his other thing of interest is Quentin Tarantino movies.

For Mat I have Giant-Size Wolverine #1 by David Lapham & David Aja, plut the first issue of Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth.

For Mat's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

Mat's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!


Current FCBM Statistics:
35 entries
90 free comics sent so far
1 day remaining

Mistakes

("Make me bigger and clearer," said the little pig. "Click the wolf's nose!")

Bizarro is brought to you today by Charming Biker T-shirts.

No time for a lengthy hog blog this morning, I'm off on my own hog in a few minutes; my 1973 BMW R75/5, or, as I like to call it, "sweetheart." I'm heading up to Woodstock Sanctuary for the Chrissie Hynde concert tonight. Wish me good weather and safe driving and I'll wish you the same.

Have a dandy Memorial Day weekend, mis amigos, and party responsibly.
Asta Bastista, baby.

FCBM6 Day 29

It's day twenty-nine of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from ShoutScout. The five comics that ShoutScout likes are:

1. Warlord
2. Bone
3. Top Ten
4. Zippy the Pin-Head
5. Scalped

And his other thing of interest is playing guitar.

For ShoutScout I have the first issue of Scott Morse's Volcanic Revolver.

For ShoutScout's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

ShoutScout's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!


Current FCBM Statistics:
35 entries
87 free comics sent so far
2 days remaining

FCBM6 Day 28

It's day twenty-eight of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Isaac McKeithen. The five comics that Isaac likes are:

1. The Walking Dead
2. Green Lantern
3. Powers
4. Y, the Last Man
5. Batman and Robin

And his other thing of interest is the tv show Dexter.

For Isaac I have the first three issues of Paul Grist's Burglar Bill.

For Isaac's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Star Wars Halloween comic.

Isaac's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!


Current FCBM Statistics:
35 entries
85 free comics sent so far
3 days remaining

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: Dog Days
2 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 *
3 (-). Troublemaker Book 1: Alex Barnaby Series 3 *
4 (+46). Wednesday Comics *
5 (+1). Instructions
6 (+1). Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1
7 (-3). Kick-Ass
8 (+10). Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour *
9 (+10). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat
10 (-1). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
11 (+5). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
12 (+10). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
13 (-). Invincible: The Ultimate Collection Volume 5
14 (-3). The Walking Dead Book 5
15 (-). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
16 (+15). The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel *
17 (N). Hellsing Volume 10
18 (-6). Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol. 2: 1982-1984
19 (+4). The Flash: Rebirth
20 (N). Negima! 26
21 (N). Naruto, Vol. 48 *
22 (-12). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
23 (-15). Wilson
24 (-7). Watchmen
25 (+23). Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
26 (-5). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
27 (+5). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
28 (+16). Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days
29 (+10). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
30 (R). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
31 (-4). Walking Dead Volume 12 *
32 (+4). Batman and Robin, Vol. 1: Batman Reborn
33 (N). The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1975-1978 (Vol. 13-14) *
34 (R). Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe
35 (R). Treasury of the Lost Litter Box: A Get Fuzzy Treasury
36 (+3). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
37 (-32). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
38 (N). Scalped Vol. 6: The Gnawing
39 (R). Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead
40 (-7). Batman: Year One
41 (-17). Ex Machina, Vol. 9: Ring out the Old
42 (R). Marvel Encyclopedia
43 (-29). Batman: The Killing Joke
44 (R). Invincible Iron Man Omnibus, Vol. 1
45 (R). Meanwhile: Pick Any Path. 3,856 Story Possibilities
46 (-26). V for Vendetta
47 (-22). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
48 (-20). The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear The Hunters
49 (N). Angel, Vol. 6: Last Angel in Hell



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:

* Wednesday Comics vaults way up from #50 last week to #4 this week. Meanwhile, last week's inexplicable rise of Persepolis proves to be just a momentary blip (don't worry, it will likely be back up in the top 10 in September...)

* Both Wilson & Crumb's Genesis fall out of the top 10, and rather sharply at that.

* There's a lot of volatility in this weeks' chart in general.

* Three manga make their chart debuts this week, the latest volumes of Hellsing, Negima! and Naruto.

Androcles and the Text Message

Bizarro is brought to you today by Talking Laundry.

I'm sure a lot of readers don't remember the story of Androcles and the lion, or, if you went to an average American public school, never learned it, so here is a summary: A runaway slave removes a thorn from a lion's paw, then years later is not eaten by said lion because he remembered the favor.

Now, suddenly, the bartender joke becomes oh so poignant and humorous. Let us chuckle together, shall we?

The moral of the story is, if you want to be a super rich cartoonist, start drawing cartoons that anyone can immediately appreciate, even hillbillies. (Alas, will the parade of reasons I'm not rich never end?)

Here's one that any boob with a cell phone and a Facebook page can get. That includes just about ever boob in the country, including me. Let the riches begin!

FCBM6 Day 27

It's day twenty-seven of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Paul S. The five comics that Paul likes are:

1. Caricature
2. The Dorman Beast
3. Private Beach
4. Arkham Asylum
5. Death: The High Cost of Living

And his other thing of interest is heavy metal music.

For Paul I have the first issue of Faker by Mike Carey & Jock.

For Paul's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Star Wars Halloween comic.

Paul's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!


Current FCBM Statistics:
35 entries
81 free comics sent so far
4 days remaining

FCBM6 Day 26

It's day twenty-six of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Joseph Briggs. The five comics that Joseph likes are:

1. Batman & Robin
2. Marvel Two-in-One
3. Amazing Spider-Man
4. Daredevil
5. Maus

And his other thing of interest is wine.

For Joseph I have all four issues of Daredevil/Spider-Man by Paul Jenkins & Phil Winslade.

For Joseph's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

Joseph's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's less than a week left to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
35 entries
79 free comics sent so far
5 days remaining

Oh, I forgot to mention...

...the Kayli Boob Mouse Pads come in two flavors, "Salty Behemoth Intestines" and "Honey Sweet Kayli". You've already seen the the "Salty" flavor in my previous post...here's the "Sweet" flavor:

You might be wondering, "Has Kayli no shame?!"
The answer of course is, "No...no she doesn't."

You can tell when the manufacturer understands the needs
of their clients when they provide images like this one.

We had a few inquiries as to the pricing for the Kayli Boob Mouse Pads and after quite a bit thought, I believe that $40 is more than reasonable for such an awesome and functional bit of Genevieve's amazing art. However, for the Fanime 2010 show, we're offering it for the 'highway robbery' price of $35 each for all attendees. For readers of the blog, we're going to give one more discount...if you'd like to buy one of each, just tell us, "Hello, I'd like the Salty/Sweet Combo Meal, please," and you can get both flavors for the 'you're taking food from the mouths of my children' deal of $65!

P.S. We've received our table placement for Fanime...we'll be at T300/T301. See you all at the show!

- Joseph

Furless Snakes

Bizarro is brought to you today by The Dangers of Farsightedness.

Here's a pithy little cartoon about a homeless snake. The kind of snake I've drawn here is more like a constrictor, which I don't think actually care for pits, but drawing a tiny viper didn't seem right for the composition. I don't actually know much about snakes so feel free to educate me in the comments.

Also, I appear in the cartoon as the overly-hip hipster coming around the corner. Not my best (or most flattering) self portrait, but it works as another homage to Hitchcock.

Hey, here's something fun: I'm going to be doing some stage comedy and hosting at a movie premiere in LA soon. If you're in the area, come see me. The movie is a documentary about the cruelty of the fur industry, a subject I care a lot about, and both CHNW and I appear in the movie as interviewees. I haven't seen it yet, so I have no idea how we come off, but I'm hoping it is somewhere on the embarrassment scale below "devastating."

Below is the invitation poster. Read it, memorize it, print it out, then eat it. We can't afford to have this sort of thing fall into the wrong hands. Here's where all the cool kids are getting their tickets.

Click it to make it bigger and clearer. But then, you knew that.

The Problem With Shoes

FCBM6 Day 25

It's day twenty-five of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Francene Lewis, who enters on behalf of her son Eli. The five comics that Eli likes are:

1. Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures
2. Owly
3. Stinky
4. Mouse Guard
5. Magic Trixie

And his other thing of interest is Star Wars Legos.

For Eli I have all four issues of Lions, Tigers and Bears by Mike Bullock & Jack Lawrence.

For Eli's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Star Wars Halloween comic.

Eli's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's just one week left to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
35 entries
74 free comics sent so far
6 days remaining

What the CMX Shuttering May Tell Us About the Future of Comics Publishing at DC

Last week's abrupt ending to DC's CMX manga line really should come as no surprise. It was always the bastard stepchild of the DC publishing family; a sub-imprint of an imprint (WildStorm) that is headquartered across the country. One imagines that the manga line was originally developed because the powers-that-be at DC saw that manga was becoming popular, and so maybe they should dip their toes in the water and see what the what was.

The only surprises about CMX closing down are a) the suddenness of it all; and b) that it took so long to happen. Most likely once Diane Nelson found out about its existence and figured out that it wasn't making any money, it was very quickly axed.

CMX never really fit in with DC before the creation of DC Entertainment, and it certainly doesn't fit in now. I've made the point previously that DC (and for that matter Marvel) are not in the business of making money from publishing comic books. Nor for that matter are they in the business of trying to get comic books into the hands of underserved readers. No, DC are in the business of exploiting their intellectual property through movies, television, licensing, etc.

Viewed in this light, the decision to shutter CMX was a no-brainer for the DCE suits. Since these were properties that DC was licensing from other entities in order to publish them, there was no chance that they could make any money off of any other exploitations. Should a movie get made based on From Eroica with Love or Emma, DCE wouldn't see one thin dime. (Sure they may see some uptick in sales of the manga, but except in an exceptional case that would not result in much revenue.)

So given this new attitude, what other moves can we expect to see in the coming months?

Look for WildStorm to stop licensing properties from movies and tv to make comics. These sorts of comics rarely sell well these days, and they fall under the same non-exploitable category as manga. There may be an exception for Warner-owned properties like Supernatural. And it's likely that DC Kids will continue to publish comics based on Looney Tunes & the various Cartoon Network shows, if only to keep a nominal toe in the comics publishing waters for those Warner-owned items. First Wave? Sales are very soft, so if it makes it out of the year I'll be surprised. Certainly when the various licenses come up for renewal I doubt there will be much reason to maintain them.

In fact, I would wager that WildStorm itself will find its days numbered. I don't think it will fall right away; Jim Lee's position as co-publisher will protect it somewhat. (If Lee had been a champion of CMX, it might have had a more graceful exit...) But when it comes right down to it there's no good reason to have a separate west coast comics publishing arm. The traditional WildStorm properties (Wildcats, Gen13, The Authority, etc.) haven't been commercial or critical successes in a long time; licensed comics days are numbered; and outside of Ex Machina (whose ending is nigh) they haven't had a creator-owned success lately either.

Speaking of creator-owned properties, their days are probably numbered as well. While I believe that most creator-owned works published by DC/WildStorm/Vertigo do have some degree of profit participation for the publisher should the work end up being exploited in other media (and likely Warner has some sort of right of first refusal for producing such things), given DCE's new explicit focus I suspect that they will opt to concentrate on properties for which they would get full participation. So unless you happen to be a creator who is also working on their mainstream company-owned titles and they want to keep you happy (e.g. your name is Grant Morrison), don't expect WildStorm or Vertigo to be terribly welcoming for your creator-owned comics in the future.

And where does this leave Vertigo? I suspect that the imprint will remain for a while. I suspect that existing creator-owned comics will be allowed to stay as long as they aren't losing a lot of money (i.e. Fables is probably safe for the time being), but new creator-owned comics will be few. With creator-owned projects likely being phased out, look for Vertigo to concentrate on the other half of their imprint, which if revamping musty DC-owned properties for an adult (or at least adult-ish) audience. Such new projects will still be tried, but if they don't catch fire don't look for even many of those to last beyond two years. You only need a handful of collected editions to make a suitable pitch for a movie or television series. So for the future of Vertigo, look towards Unknown Soldier.

In the final analysis then, what will DC Comics be up to? Publishing comics based on their existing catalog of characters. Quality, it should be noted, doesn't really matter in the equation. As long as there are comics on the racks that feature Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, etc., then the comics are doing their job of keeping those properties in the comic-buying consumer's consciousness until the next movie or tv show comes out. Expect the comics to be increasingly driven by top-down editorial mandate.

We might still get some good comics. I enjoy Jonah Hex most months, even though its continued existence is mainly due to the upcoming movie (and to some extent Dan Didio's reported soft spot for the character). But unless your comic maintains a minimal sales level, or has a champion at the VP level, or has been optioned for a movie, don't expect it to last for long in its present form.

Prices? DC is quietly instituting the Marvel-esque $4 for a standard comic, or at least testing the waters. I'll have another post about that in the (near?) future...

Reality Sux

Bizarro is brought today to you by Colored People.

I was among the zagillions of people who saw the Fantasy Blue People World movie in 3-D and really enjoyed it. I can't say I enjoyed it so much I want to get my ears surgically altered, grow a ponytail and paint myself blue, but the world they created, when experienced in 3-D, was, as the kids say, awesome. I'm not sure how much I would have liked it in 2-D.

The story was nice, too, as I recall.

Which begs the question posed in this cartoon: why don't we have 2D glasses that make reality seem less real? I'd wear them while in line at the DMV. (For foreign readers of this blog, that's the Department of Motor Vehicles, where we stand in line for hours waiting for the person behind the counter to tell us we have forgotten one crucial element of the six forms of I.D. necessary to attain a driver's license.)

Of course, the subtext of this cartoon is that the sort of people who are most adamantly attracted to films such as this are those least attracted to reality. But god bless those kinds of fans, without them, there would be no comics conventions.

FCBM6 Day 24

It's day twenty-four of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Edgardo Ortiz. The five comics that Edgardo likes are:

1. Barry Ween
2. Scott Pilgrim
3. Persepolis
4. Alan's War
5. Quest for the Missing Girl

And his other thing of interest is The Matrix.

For Edgardo I have the first issue of John Layman & Dave Crosland's slightly sureal violent amusement park comedy Puffed.

For Edgardo's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

Edgardo's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's just one week left to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
35 entries
69 free comics sent so far
7 days remaining

Gaga for Gaga

(To view Lady Gaga's family in expanded glory, click on her belt buckle.)

Bizarro is brought to you today by Shrinking Violets.

If you don't know who Lady Gaga is you won't understand this cartoon. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I'm not sure why I know who Lady Gaga is, I'm not a fan, but I do and I saw an opportunity for a fun cartoon so I took it. In my career, I'm sort of required to know about relatively unsatisfying pop trends in the same way that I'm required to understand and use Facebook and Twitter. It's not necessarily how I prefer to spend my time, but it's part of my job.

Here's a bit of groovy news about my good friend and valued colleague, Wayno: he has an online art exhibit going that you might want to peruse. This is not a show of his single-panel cartoons, the ideas for which he occasionally shares with me for Bizarro, but some of his musician portraits. Check it out and buy some prints for your own bare nekked walls. It feels good to support the Friends of Bizarro and it might help Wayno move from his current domicile to a permanent abode.

And here's one last bit of dynamic news: I've been declared an American treasure and recommended for a Kennedy Center Honor! OMG, can this really be happening? Please leave a comment, so mine won't be so lonely.

Another delightful day in the beautiful relationship between Robot & Unicorn...

It's getting warmer out and I guess I'm ready for Summer. I was inspired by this when I created Unicorn's picturesque trailer fantasy you see below. Make sure you watch the video on the site. The cupcakes are topped with POO-shaped mounds of icing!

Enjoy the strip. I'm going to try to make Mondays new strip day. If it tickles your fancy, vote in the new poll to the right... :)

FCBM6 Day 23

It's day twenty-three of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Kristin Munson. The five comics that Kristin likes are:

1. NextWave
2. Daughters of the Dragon
3. Harley Quinn
4. The Plain Janes
5. The Preposterous Voyages of Ironhide Tom

And her other thing of interest is Greek Mythology.

For Kristin I have the first three issues of the Mean Girls-meets-Super Powers comic Bad Girls by Steve Vance, Jennifer Graves & Christine Norrie.

For Kristin's bonus comic, I'm sending her the Casper/Little Lulu Halloween comic.

Kristin's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
34 entries
67 free comics sent so far
8 days remaining

FCBM6 Day 22

It's day twenty-two of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Andrew Coulon. The five comics that Andrew likes are:

1. Cheval Noir
2. Neil the Horse
3. Keif Llama: Xeno-Tech
4. Astro City
5. Concrete

And his other thing of interest is 80s movies on VHS.

For Andrew I have two comics based on B-grade 80s horror movies: Fright Night #1 and subspecies #1. Hopefully Andrew will appreciate the kitchiness...

For Andrew's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

Andrew's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
34 entries
63 free comics sent so far
9 days remaining

FCBM6 Day 21

It's day twenty-one of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Jason Metcalfe. The five comics that Jason likes are:

1. Hellboy/BPRD
2. anything by Paul Pope
3. From Hell
4. Planetary
5. Batman: The Long Halloween

And his other thing of interest is the tv show Breaking Bad.

For Jason I have the first issue of Jonathan Lethem & Farel Dalrymple's trippy re-imagining of Omega the Unknown.

For Jason's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

Jason's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
32 entries
60 free comics sent so far
10 days remaining

Can't Miss This

ENTERTAINMENT ALERT!

If you're in the northeast, come to Woodstock Sanctuary next Saturday, May 29th for a concert on the farm with Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders) and Welsh songwriter, JP Jones.

It will be fun and cool and awesome and all the money goes to the sanctuary. I'll be there along with CHNW and my whole posse of closest pals. We can chat and pretend to be friends and in such an intimate setting, you might also get to meet Chrissie, because, let's face it, you always wanted to!

If you do drop by, be sure to introduce yourself and say you read my blog. I'll fawn over you real good!

Tickets and info.

Gay Cowboys

Bizarro is brought to you today by Flamenco Segway.

Here's a fun little ditty about a topic I've discussed here before. Among groups known for being homophobic are "cowboy types," whatever that means exactly. I was raised in Oklahoma and Texas and can vouch for the accuracy of this stereotype. In fact, when I was a teenager in Tulsa, I was often accused by strangers of being gay simply because I did not dress like a local hick. (I leaned more toward the British punk rockers at the time.)

But viewed objectively, one can't argue that cowboy clothing is unusually feminine: pearl buttons, embroidered shirts (frequently of flowers), fringe, scarves, pants with the butt and crotch cut out (chaps), high heel boots with pointy toes (often with embossed flowers and swirls), big shiny belt buckles with more flowers and swirls on belts with yet more embossed flowers and swirls and dangling handguns (the ultimate phallic symbol), flamboyant hats that make Truman Capote's seem macho by comparison.

Perhaps getting in touch with my own feminine side, I wear a lot of western shirts, though not the rest of the garb. I'm a fan of fancy, vintage cowboy shirts and have a collection of about two dozen. As a matter of fact, I'd really love to get hold of one of those outlandish suits that country western performers used to wear at the Grand Ole Opry, but I'm not holding my breath. I can't afford a new one and finding an old one that fits and is in good shape is a long shot at best. It's not the sort of thing you come across on Craigslist.

It is a common belief that those who complain most about gays are most likely to be closeted gays themselves, just as those who champion family values are the most likely to be caught with an underage prostitute. Maybe Brokeback Mountain is more common than we know.

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: Dog Days
2 (+3). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 *
3 (N). Troublemaker Book 1: Alex Barnaby Series 3 *
4 (-2). Kick-Ass
5 (+24). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
6 (+3). Instructions
7 (-). Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1
8 (-5). Wilson
9 (+16). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
10 (+4). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
11 (-7). The Walking Dead Book 5
12 (-6). Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol. 2: 1982-1984
13 (-5). Invincible: The Ultimate Collection Volume 5
14 (+25). Batman: The Killing Joke
15 (+7). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
16 (+10). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
17 (+3). Watchmen
18 (-6). Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour *
19 (-3). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat
20 (+7). V for Vendetta
21 (-2). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
22 (-11). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
23 (-13). The Flash: Rebirth
24 (N). Ex Machina, Vol. 9: Ring out the Old
25 (R). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
26 (R). Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
27 (+15). Walking Dead Volume 12 *
28 (N). The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko's Story
29 (N). Kill Shakespeare Volume 1 *
30 (-13). The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear The Hunters
31 (-3). The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel *
32 (+5). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
33 (+8). Batman: Year One
34 (-). Y: The Last Man, Vol. 3 (Deluxe Edition)
35 (R). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
36 (R). Batman and Robin, Vol. 1: Batman Reborn
37 (+7). The Boys Volume 6 SC
38 (R). Predators and Prey (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Vol. 5)
39 (-3). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
40 (R). No Future For You (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 2)
41 (R). American Born Chinese
42 (R). Wolves at the Gate (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 3)
43 (+2). The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1)
44 (+4). Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days
45 (+1). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
46 (N). Bloom County: The Complete Library Volume 3 *
47 (-15). Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume
48 (-33). Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
49 (R). The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 (Vol. 13)
50 (N). Wednesday Comics *



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:

* Highest debut this week is Troublemaker Book 1, a new graphic novel based on Janet Evanovich's Alex Barnaby mystery novels. It should probably have been on the list earlier, but it wasn't clear to me before that this was a graphic novel and not prose. Mea culpa, and a good reminder to take these list compilations with the appropriate levels of Skepticism and Salt.

* It's a big week for perennials, leading me to believe that overall GN sales on Amazon were down this week; Assuming that demand for these backlist items stays fairly steady, they will rise and fall on the Top 50 list based on how other items are performing.

* Although there's probably a good reason why Persepolis surged up so high this week. Anyone have any clues?

* I bet we could show a strong correlation between sales of The Walking Dead volumes on Amazon and casting calls for the upcoming AMC series.

* Scott Pilgrim demand continues to show no rational pattern. Some volumes are up, others are down, with often big swings from week-to-week.

FCBM6 Day 20

It's day twenty of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Adam Whitlatch. The five comics that Adam likes are:

1. Astonishing X-Men
2. Y, the Last Man
3. The Walking Dead
4. Ultimates
5. Green Lantern

And his other thing of interest is Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.

For Adam I have the first issue of David Mack & Pascal Alixe's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Electric Ant.

For Adam's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Star Wars Halloween comic.

Adam's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
32 entries
58 free comics sent so far
11 days remaining

Crash Talk

Bizarro is brought to you today by Cops on Break.

Lately I've been depending on my good friend and talented colleague, Wayno, to help me with cartoons. My schedule has been a mess lately, as I've mentioned here previously, and without some writing help I'd be a basket case. CHNW and I swapped houses with some friends in Maui a few weeks back (which had been planned before I knew just how busy my schedule was going to be), then my daughter got married in Texas*, then I had a stand-up gig and a business meeting in Los Angeles. All told, I was home for just three days of the past four weeks. Fun and exciting, but grueling. By far, the worst thing about syndicated cartooning is having to work 365 days a year for years on end – over 25 for me so far.

Here are a couple of Wayno's gags from the past week. I like the Starbucks one because I don't like Starbuck's coffee – it tastes like burnt grill scrapings to me – but I drink it when there is nothing else available. I fully recognize the insanity of drinking something you hate just because it is all you can find, but the need for a strong, hot drink in the morning trumps my tastebud's preferences. I also suspect that any company as large as Starbuck's can't be doing the planet any favors, but I could be wrong about that. When it comes to corporations, I say, "guilty until proven innocent."

This next joke is an obvious pun which may have even been done before but I like the angle and the visual. "Crash," as an expression meaning "to sleep," probably came from the hardcore drug culture reference to coming down hard from a high. It amuses me that even mainstream America has embraced this word to mean sleeping in general. A middle-aged fundamentalist preacher and his wife visiting Branson, Missouri would think nothing of saying "we were so tired we went back to our hotel and crashed."

That's not to say that middle-aged fundamentalist preachers aren't using hardcore drugs, of course, but you get the idea.

*This photo was taken by a super talented photographer you can find here.

FCBM6 Day 19

It's day nineteen of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from David Borders. The five comics that David likes are:

1. Rai
2. Magnus Robot Fighter
3. Identity Crisis
4. Batman: The Killing Joke
5. Harbinger

And his other thing of interest is the tv show Firefly.

For David I have the first two issues of Kelly Yates' sci-fi adventure comic Amber Atoms.

For David's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Star Wars Halloween comic.

David's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
31 entries
56 free comics sent so far
12 days remaining

Puppies and Chickens

(For a larger, more better image of bigness to view, click the cartoon)

Bizarro is brought to you today by Good Name for a Band.

Dear faithful reader, thank you for your patience. I've been out of town for all but three days of the past four weeks and it's been difficult keeping up. As I look at the mounting pile of missed deadlines and cascading unanswered emails, I am experiencing fits of depression and feelings of hopelessness. These are mitigated with fantasies of setting fire to my apartment and moving to Tahiti, however, so that keeps me going.

Here are a couple of nice Sunday cartoons that ran in the past few weeks. I like both of these concepts and the art, as well. I like the idea of a werepuppy as opposed to a werewolf. Come to think of it, an excellent children's cartoon show might be a baby who is bitten by a werewolf and becomes a werepuppy every full moon. Oh, the shenanigans he/she could get into.










I've long been a fan of both birds and dogs, so combining them in one drawing was fun for me. One of the things I love so much about Hawaii is that the islands are populated with feral chickens. Descendants of escaped livestock, these kooky critters have thrived for generations, so the jungles and parks are full of them. When viewed objectively, they are among the most visually exciting birds in the world, in my opinion. And they are surprisingly smart.

Back to the grindstone for me. If you've emailed me recently and I haven't answered, please be patient. I badly need an assistant, wish I could afford one. I've used interns from time to time but they're too transient and take too much time to train.

Watercolor Wednesdays

This Watercolor Wednesday is actually an "Amigurumi" Wednesday thanks to MYTHFITS reader, zuperdzigh!

Take a peek at the awesome amigurumi Poo zuperdzigh created based on the cute pile of caca that appears in my comic. There are lots of poo cartoon characters on the internetz, but have you ever seen one as cute and cuddly as this???

Please visit zuperdzigh's blog and let her know how amazing her creations are. If there are any other MYTHFITS readers who'd like to share artwork with us all, please let me know!

Another comic coming soon...