Right to Reflect Arms

Bizarro is brought to you today by Excellence in Engineering.

I've been lagging a bit behind in my posts this week because I'm busy trying to get my deadlines covered for an upcoming trip to the left coast. Next weekend is the National Cartoonists Society's annual convention and awards dinner, and this year it is in Hollywood. We have it in a different city each year, a tradition started a little over 25 years ago. Before that, it was always in New York, since it started in the early 1900s. Can't remember the year, no time to look it up.

The convention is fun and mostly an excuse for those of us in this relatively rare business to get together to drink more than we normally do and commiserate about deadlines, editors, the failing newspaper industry, and whichever of our lousy colleagues just got a TV or movie deal even though our work is WAAAAY funnier than theirs.

We also dress up in tuxedos and evening gowns, give each other awards for various types of cartooning and pretend we're at the Oscars. Yes, I've worn an evening gown as well as a tux, as have many other cartoonists.

The convention isn't as wacky as it many might think, though. Most professional cartoonists are fairly nerdy introverts with a few notable exceptions like Mort Walker (Beetle Baily) who is high on mushrooms most of the time and has been dressing like a Roman centurion since the late 80s.

Amazon Top 50

Here are the Top 50 Graphic Novels on Amazon this afternoon. All the previous caveats apply.

1 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
2 (+3). Star Trek: Countdown TPB
3 (-1). Watchmen
4 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
5 (-2). Diary of a Wimpy Kid
6 (-). Time of Your Life (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 4)
7 (+10). The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 3: Century #1
8 (-). Stephen King's Dark Tower: Treachery
9 (+19). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1 *
10 (+1). Batman: The Killing Joke
11 (-4). V for Vendetta
12 (+35). Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2 (Deluxe Edition)
13 (+23). Bone: One Volume Edition
14 (-5). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
15 (+4). Mercy Thompson Homecoming *
16 (-2). Invincible: The Ultimate Collection Volume 4
17 (-1). Blueberry Girl
18 (N). Blazing Combat
19 (N). The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2
20 (+11). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
21 (-8). Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days
22 (N). A Drifting Life
23 (+1). The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
24 (-9). Wolverine: Origin
25 (+4). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
26 (N). The Arrival
27 (+17). The Joker
28 (-8). The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1)
29 (+4). Batman: R.I.P.
30 (-). The Complete Persepolis
31 (+6). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
32 (-). No Future For You (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 2)
33 (-7). Batman: Year One
34 (+12). Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 18
35 (N). The New Brighton Archeological Society
36 (-15). Angel: After the Fall, Vol. 3
37 (+1). Serenity, Vol. 1: Those Left Behind
38 (-16). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
39 (+4). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
40 (N). Secret Invasion
41 (N). The Gunslinger Born (The Dark Tower Graphic Novels, Book 1)
42 (+7). Vindication (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Vol. 6) *
43 (-18). Weapon X (Wolverine)
44 (N). The Marvel Encyclopedia
45 (N). Return to Labyrinth Volume 3
46 (N). B.P.R.D. Volume 10: The Warning
47 (N). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
48 (N). The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain
49 (N). The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
50 (N). Creepy Archives Volume 3



Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items.


Commentary:

* The Star Trek Movie prequel overtakes Watchmen, the first non-Wimpy Kid item to do so since Watchmen's movie bump.

* Speaking of movie bumps, Wolverine's seems to be fading, withe the related titles slipping or falling off the list.

* Movement upwards on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen titles, as the new volume's release also provides interest in the previous volumes.

* The highest debut belongs to Fantagraphics' Blazing Combat hardcover. Also debuting strongly is The New Brighton Archeological Society, a kid-friendly book from Image.

* A good week for compendiums, with volumes for Y, the Last Man and Walking Dead making big moves, and Invincible remaining strong.

FCBM5 Day 15

It's day fifteen of the Fifth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Matt Pfaff. The five comics that Matt listed are:

1. Green Lantern
2. Fables
3. Ignition City
4. Batman
5. Ender's Game

And his other thing of interest is steampunk.

For Matt I have the first issue of Daniel Hogan's girl-and-her-robot comic Tinn Man.

For Matt's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Donald Duck Halloween comic.

Matt'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:
25 entries
36 free comics sent so far
16 days remaining

Owah Tizdat Toobee

You is bringed to day Bizarro by Satisfactory Discourse.

When I submitted this cartoon weeks ago, I knew it would cause some confusion. Since it appeared in papers a week ago, I've gotten dozens of emails from people who were mystified by it, which means there are many thousands more who were equally out to sea but didn't bother to write.

The cartoon refers to a game we used to play as children, one of those games that only works on someone who has never heard it before. You get them to say these three words – owah, tagu, siam – slowly, like a chant. Then you ask them to go faster, stringing the words together, until they are saying, "oh what a goose I am." Laughter ensues.

This kind of thing comes up from time to time, where I want to do a cartoon based on something I know or have heard or remember, but am not sure how common or widespread the knowledge is. I ask CHNW if she gets it and that's about all the research I do. She got this one and she was raised in Florida (I, in Oklahoma), so I figured I'd give it a try.

In addition to the emails from the dazed and confused, I got nearly as many from people who remembered the game from childhood but hadn't thought of it in years. And also one from a reader who had played a dirty version of the same thing where the end sentence makes reference to the speaker's biological habits.

That's the official report on the Great Basketball Cartoon Conundrum of 2009. Onward and upward.

FCBM5 Day 14

It's day Fourteen of the Fifth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Tom Proven. The five comics that Tom listed are:

1. Green Lantern
2. Amazing Spider-Man
3. Fables
4. Y, the Last Man
5. Elephantmen

And his other thing of interest is Guitar Hero.

For Tom I have Jen Van Meter's rock-n-roll comic Hopeless Savages: B-Sides, drawn by Becky Cloonan, Vera Brosgul, & Mike Norton.

For Tom's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Donald Duck Halloween comic.

Tom'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:
24 entries
34 free comics sent so far
17 days remaining

Incredibleness

Bizarro is brought to you today by My Distant Cousins.

There is much we can learn from The Incredible Hulk. We all feel the pressure to be incredible all of the time but for most of us, it just isn't possible. True, some people achieve it – Rush Limbaugh is an incredible jerk all of the time, Paris Hilton is an incredible disappointment to her parents all of the time – but most of us will never reach that level of consistency.

Also like the Hulk, most of us will grow out of our clothes at some point. I can't wear the pants I wore when I was 18 any more than the Hulk can fit into the purple jeans he wore moments before his archenemy made him so angry. And we all lose our cool from time to time and bust up the place. That's just life.

I find comfort in the knowledge that even super heroes like the Incredible Hulk have many of the same problems I do. When I'm feeling embarrassed by my behavior or my clothes are splitting off of my rapidly expanding body, I often sooth myself by remembering that this happens to the Hulk, too. At least I'm not green and my hair is manageable.

FCBM5 Day 13

It's day thirteen of the Fifth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Bill Doughty. The five comics that Bill listed are:

1. Starman
2. All-Star Superman
3. Captain Britain & MI13
4. Scott Pilgrim
5. 20th Century Boys

And his other thing of interest is Doctor Who.

For Bill I have the first issue of Fantastic Four: True Story, by Capt. Britain scribe Paul Cornell and artist Horacio Domingues.

For Bill's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Donald Duck Halloween comic.

Bill'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:
21 entries
32 free comics sent so far
18 days remaining