Have You Heard the Good News?

Bizarro is brought to you today by I'll Never Eat Peanut Butter Again.

It isn't often you see a cartoon that combines the darkness of deadly disease with childhood candy icons, and that's just the sort of experience that Bizarro hopes to provide from time to time. I don't know if anyone else likes this cartoon, but I'm sort of proud of it.

I don't eat M&Ms anymore because I'm vegan and they have milk chocolate in them, but I used to love them. It's not so bad to have an ethical reason to avoid things like M&Ms, though (I say that because health reasons wouldn't be enough to keep me away from them). It's a good way to avoid unnecessary calories. I used to be really hooked on milk chocolate and didn't like dark chocolate much at all, but now that it is the only kind I will eat, I've developed a taste for it and love it. I tried a bite of milk chocolate not long ago and thought it was really wimpy. Dark chocolate is actually good for you (if not sweetened with sugar) so it's one of my acceptable vices. As opposed to heroin*, which my doctor told me to cut back on.

*Note to children and gullible adults: I don't use heroin.

Late addition: A reader wrote to me about this post and mentioned that much of the world's chocolate is harvested by slaves (many are children) and that it is important to choose "fair trade" chocolate. Which I always do. I should have mentioned that, thanks for the correction! Here's a quick article explaining that and a list of companies that do and don't use slave chocolate. As of this writing, Mars company, who makes M&Ms still uses slavery cocoa. http://fairchocolate.org/

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 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
3 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
4 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
5 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid
6 (N). I am an alien. I have a question 01
7 (-). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
8 (+24). Planetary Vol. 4: Spacetime Archaeology
9 (R). Warriors: Ravenpaw's Path #2: A Clan in Need *
10 (-4). Kick-Ass
11 (-1). Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover
12 (+4). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
13 (+8). Watchmen
14 (-23). Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume
15 (-7). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat
16 (-5). Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
17 (+16). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
18 (+4). Batman: The Killing Joke
19 (-2). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
20 (+7). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
21 (-1). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
22 (+2). Batman: Year One
23 (-12). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
24 (+23). Stitches: A Memoir
25 (+19). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
26 (+12). The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
27 (+9). Asterios Polyp
28 (+6). Twelve Kingdoms, The - Hardcover Edition Volume 4: Skies of Dawn
29 (R). Batman: The Long Halloween
30 (+9). Tales from the Crypt #8: Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid
31 (R). The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House
32 (R). Starman Omnibus Vol. 4
33 (-20). The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition
34 (N). Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure!, Vol. 6
35 (+14). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
36 (+14). The Complete Persepolis
37 (R). The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book
38 (-20). All Star Superman, Vol. 2
39 (+9). Marvel Encyclopedia
40 (-28). Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead
41 (-22). Invincible Iron Man Omnibus, Vol. 1 *
42 (R). Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, Vol. 1
43 (+3). Bleach, Vol. 30
44 (R). The Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country
45 (R). Batman: R.I.P.
46 (N). Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Omnibus, Vol. 2
47 (R). Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, Vol. 2
48 (R). Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds



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:

* Well that was an exciting week! The big glitch that hit over the weekend caused many large ticket GNs distributed to the book trade by Diamond soar up the Amazon bestseller charts, only to see them disappear after the error was corrected. This then had a rebound effect later in the week as Amazon pulled their sales listings for all comics distributed by Diamond. The biggest losers chart-wise in all of this are books like the latest Buffy collection, which was not really affected by the $14.99 price point but sees its Amazon sales pulled anyway; so instead of enjoying big sales its first week in release it is unavailable from Amazon.

* This is the first week since I started keeping these charts (over a year ago) that V for Vendetta has not been on the list (it would be at #51).

* Debuting way up at #6 is I am an alien. I have a question, a kindle-only comic that is selling for just $1.

*Twilight watch: It's #37 on the overall list, and actually goes on sale next week...