May is Free Comic Book Month 4 at YACB!

May is rapidly approaching, so you know what that means: Free Comic Book Month!

May 3 is Free Comic Book Day, but here at YACB one day isn't good enough. For the fourth straight year, we'll be giving away free comics every day of May!

That's right, free comics! Each day of May I'll pick someone to receive a free comic, taken from my personal collection: duplicates, things I have in trades, and other stuff. My goal is to match up people with a comic that they haven't read but that they may like. My tastes are wide and varied, so chances are I've got a comic for you.

And by free I mean free. Really. No cost, no shipping & handling, all free.

Here's what you need to do to enter:

By email (superman@umich.edu), send me the following:

* Your name
* Your postal address
* Titles of five comics that you like
* Please include 'FCBM' in the subject line

That's it! For every day of May I'll choose at least one entry and try to match up that person with a comic, then I'll mail the comic to him or her. It's easy, and it's free!

Last year I gave away 111 comics to 49 different people!

Of course, there are a few restrictions:

* You must be 18 or older
* You must live in the United States
* You may enter at any point during May, but only one entry per person.

And a little bit of fine print:

* Persons receiving comics are chosen by me, based on whether I feel I can provide a comic to you
* Even if you've entered in previous years, you're welcome to enter again
* I'll try my best, but there's no guarantee you'll actually like the comic I send
* All winners will be announced here on Yet Another Comics Blog (please let me know if you don't want your real name used)
* At least one winner will be selected each day, but it may take me a few days to get to the post office, so please be patient
* I will not use your address to spam you, nor sell or give your information to others

But wait, there's more!

Each person who has a free comic chosen for him/her will also receive a copy of the 2007 Halloween ashcan edition of either Marvel Adventure Iron Man #1 or Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge (featuring a classic story by the legendary Carl Barks). (Let me know if you have a preference, though no guarantees; and if I go overboard again his year and run out I may substitute something else.)

That's right, two free comics! How could you ask for anything more?

So what are you waiting for? Send in your entry today!

Three to Read for Monday, April 28

* Steve Duin: The Beanworld, Resurrected (via Dirk)

* All the Comics in the World: The Boys of Shojo Manga (also via Dirk)

* Mindless Ones: Candyfloss Horizons Forever! (via Brian Cronin)

Super Cat

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by a grant from the Jimmy B. Whatagain foundation. "Your name is what again?" "Yes!"

I'm a fan of animals of all sorts (with the possible exception of humans) and I enjoy exploring in cartoons the differences between cats and dogs. I used to consider myself a "dog person," but now, after living with cats for a number of years (a much easier pet in NYC because you don't have to "walk" them) I like them both equally. They are very different, however, sort of like comparing drama with comedy. Not "apples and oranges" different, more like Shindler's List and Meatballs different.

We have two cats who list this address as their own, but still regularly foster dogs. So we get both experiences, without committing to 15 non-stop years of walking a dog three times a day. Plus, we travel a lot and dogs shouldn't be left without their family too often or for too long. The cats, on the other hand, can't wait for us to leave and sometimes even change the locks.

There is a movement among animal rights folks to expunge the word "pet" from our vocabulary in favor of "companion animal." The feeling is that "pet" is a derogatory term. It is also suggested that we replace "owner" with "guardian." I personally find PC language to be suspect because most attempts are erroneous. In the case of race language (i.e. Oriental/Asian, black/African American, etc.) the term to be replaced only seems derogatory when racists utter it with disdain. "Oriental" is not an innately derogatory term – it means Eastern. Why is "Asian" better? Making a racist switch words, won't change their bigotry. I am, of course, not talking about obvious racial slurs or slang.

Regarding the "pet" and "guardian" issue, I agree with one but not the other. I don't find pet to be a derogatory word, in fact, quite the opposite. "Pet" denotes "favorite."

"Owner," on the other hand, I have given up. I don't think one should "own" a sentient being, so I say "guardian." As anyone with pets knows, they own you more than you own them.

Suicide Food

Just found a blog devoted entirely to mentally depraved animals who beg to be carved up and eaten. This is a phenomenon that saturates all modern human cultures and one I've wondered about since I was a kid. I guarantee there are several in your neighborhood. Very funny/creepy stuff.

Suicide Food

I first found this link on Vegan.com, an all-around terrific, no B.S. blog.

Monday Morning Music

My favorite new album is Through These Walls by Hilary McRae. She's the first developing artist signed to Starbucks' Hear Music label (but don't hold that against her!) Imagine that Joss Stone found a bunch of previously unknown early-Chicago charts in a drawer somewhere and decided to record them, and you'll have a sense of what McRae's music is like.

Here's her first video, for the album's opening track "Every Day (When Will You Be Mine)":



You can listen to the entire album by streaming it from Last.fm

If you like what you hear, you can purchase the album from iTunes and Amazon.

Jesus Camp

I saw a movie a couple nights ago called "Jesus Camp." It's a documentary from 2006 about an evangejical, fundamentalist, Christian summer camp for kids. It won some awards, is very even-handed, and just lets the subjects of the film tell the story, without pushing the filmmakers' opinions.

It may surprise some of you to know that I was sort of a "teen for Jesus" for a few years back in the early 70s, and went through some of the sort of evangelical Christian indoctrination that the film depicts. I was older than the kids in the film, and so was better able to form my own opinions about what they were teaching. Still, it is difficult for kids to discern between fact and fiction, and I believe that heavy indoctrination in anything as a child has the potential to cloud your reasoning skills later on. The ease of the Neo-cons and Fox News in convincing people that the ridiculous things they were spouting were true, and everything the rest of the world was saying was false, is a case in point.

See the film, quake in your boots, do not fail to vote, and get a hundred of your reasonable-minded friends to do the same.

Video Victim

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by the fine folks at The Church of Invisible Superheroes.

I haven't played video games since "Asteroids" was big back in the late 1900s. Seriously. All I know of them is what I see on TV commercials. But they look as though they may have advanced quite a bit since then in both graphics capabilities and content. I suspect many of them may be somewhat violent, too.

Extrapolating that limited knowledge to what I assume is an issue in some households in North America, I devised this cartoon where the kid is physically brutalized by his video game. I assume it's only a matter of time before games can fight back and assault you, not just your onscreen character. Might be fun.

Someone wrote me last week saying their family was having a debate over the meaning of the woman's use of scissors to cut carrots. I hated to deflate the debate, but there is no meaning. I just thought it was funny.

As always, click on the image to make it larger. It's the only way to properly count all the symbols. The number next to my signature tells you how many to look for.