FCBM4 Day 1

It's day one of the fourth annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our first selected entry is from Dexter Roberts. The five comics that Dexter listed are:

1. 100 Bullets
2. Scalped
3. Criminal
4. Jack Staff
5. Locke & Key

Dexter seems to be a fan of crime comics, so for Dexter's free comic I'm choosing:

The first issue of Steven Grant & Mat Santolouco's 2 Guns, a cops & robbers comic with a twist.

For Dexter's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Iron Man ashcan.

Dexter'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:
8 entries
2 free comics sent so far
30 days remaining

Rock Star Proximity

If you would like to know what it is to feel extra groovy, go see an Old 97s concert. I became a fan of theirs years ago and they're one of my perennial favorites.

The lead singer and main songwriter is Rhett Miller (right, with goofy cartoonist), who also has a solo recording career and regularly does solo/acoustic concerts at small venues in NYC and elsewhere. At one such show a few years ago, a friend of mine who'd met Rhett before introduced us and it turned out Rhett had been a fan of Bizarro since college. Since then, we have been drastically in love with each other. Our wives don't mind.

CHNW and I saw Rhett doing a solo show last Saturday night in NYC at the Hiro Ballroom, and hung out with him and his gang after the show (his wife is from Ohio and a big group of Buckeye's were in town for a birthday celebration.) We had a dandy time, indeed.

In addition to partying with the rock star, we met the infamous Barber Brothers, three guys from Ohio. The craziest Barber by far, is the one they call "Dave," seen at left between me and CNHW. (Note: None of us is as gay as we look in the pic. Not that there's anything wrong with that.) It was, in fact, Dave who sent these photos of the festivities. Thanks, Dave!

If you like music that is fun to listen to and does not suck, I recommend checking out Old 97s older stuff, and their new album, too. Rhett played a few songs from the new album last Saturday and they were the exact opposite of terrible.

My secret hope is that they'll let me join them on stage someday to sing lead vocals on one of their old standards. I used to be the front man for a band in the 80s and still sing songs in my comedy shows. I still haven't lost it – in fact, I'm a better singer than even Rhett. Ask anyone.

Nothing's Free

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by Puns International. "A day without orange Jews is like a day without punshine!"

The basic idea for this cartoon came from an odd character up in Rhode Island who calls himself Derek. He writes cartoons all the time and sends me seemingly thousands every couple of hours. If you've sent me an email recently that was returned because my inbox was full, it was likely one of Derek's massive submissions that did it.

Most are pretty good, but not appropriate for Bizarro, for one reason or another. But when I spot one I can use, I like to give it breath, and this is one of those. Because puns are the simplest and most common form of humor, I tend to shy away from them unless they are very strange, terrifically unexpected, make me laugh out loud, or are in some other way unique. This one hit me as very funny, and still does. Hope you like it, my bloggy buddies.

Oh crap, after writing all that I just noticed this isn't really a pun. Why did I think that?

Allentown This Weekend!

Lady and gentleman, boy and girl,
I'm going to be dozing behind a table at the Philly Non-Sports Trading Card Show this weekend in Allentown, PA. Please come see me. Really. Please. (Why is the Philly card show in Allentown? Come to the show and find out!)

I'll be selling my new Bizarro Trading Cards, as well as my books and some one-of-a-kind sketch cards. I'm also doing a presentation on Saturday afternoon which will be as much like a comedy show as possible in a brightly-lit hotel conference room in the middle of the afternoon.

"Why are you doing this, Dan?" the creepy voice inside my head is saying. Because contrary to popular belief, "rich" does not always go with "famous." I'm a little famous now and then, here and there, but if I were rich would I be sitting behind a folding table all weekend signing stuff?

YES! Because I LOVE THE FANS! So come see me, and tell me you found out about it on this blog and I'll give you a peanut! If I have one.

LINK FOR CARD SHOW






P.S. Click on this image for a larger version. The note at the bottom of the ad refers to comics shops who carry cards. You can buy a sketch card from me at the show, which I will draw in front of your eye. Both eyes, if you like.

Pee Wee, CHNW, 'n' Me

A few months ago, CHNW and I were at a fundraiser party thing in Los Angeles (note the dopey nametags) and came across Paul Reubens in the crowd. I enjoy seeing celebrities as much as anyone, but I don't usually hound them for autographs or photos. However, I'm a HUGE fan of Pee-wee Herman, so I had to get my picture taken with him. It was a big day for me and I rushed home and emailed the pic to my two adult daughters, who were green with envy.

This was also a big day for CHNW, who was not only a big fan of Reubens but grew up in Sarasota just as Paul had, though a couple of decades later. In her excitement (and CNHW can get very excited) she immediately mentioned that a girl she grew up with was the daughter of a good friend of Reubens at Sarasota High School. As the words escaped her mouth, we all remembered that Sarasota was also where he was arrested, and all in attendance were flooded with feelings of weirdness. I'm sure Paul is over it by now, but it remains for me a dark period in history, as one of the most brilliant comic characters in entertainment came to an end. Paul is still acting, of course, and doing a fine job. But I'd kill to hear that Pee-wee laugh again.

Meeting celebrities is often a double-edged sword. If the celeb isn't nice, it can ruin your perception of them forever, thus rendering certain movies, TV shows, music, etc. too irritating to enjoy. (That happened to me with Jimi Hendrix. I saw him once while hallucinating during a high fever and he was gratuitously unkind. I cannot listen to Purple Haze now without tearing up.) Paul Reubens was not rude, however. He was friendly and put up with our photos like a champ, but as soon as he walked away and I had a chance to look at the photo, I realized that Pee-wee Herman is taller and has more hair than I do.

Will these random challenges to my self-esteem never end?

Burqa Buddies

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by Opression Fabrics and Chastity Devices.

The cartoon I normally would have posted today is from Earth Day, and I already published it last week on, yes, Earth Day, to go along with the CNN story. See "CNN Scrapes the Barrel's Bottom" in the blog archive list at right.

Instead, here's a classic Bizarro, my favorite joke (of mine) ever. It appears in my retrospective, Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro.

If you'd like to buy a nice-quality color print of this, or any Bizarro cartoon, go here. What says, "I love you so much I wanted to give you a funny picture to put on your wall" better than a Bizarro cartoon? Or, what says, "your opinions are so idiotic I wanted to give you a picture making fun of you" better than a Bizarro cartoon?

Bizarro prints, the multi-purpose gift for any occasion.

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!