WOW! A Unicorn!

This was my first attempt creating a Mythfits strip. Obviously, the robot hasn't shown up yet. That turd might show up again later. I like him.

A New endeavor

As an Illustrator, I get told what to draw a lot (duh). It's not usually what I would sit around sketching at home, so lately I've been experimenting with character creation. For some reason these two little guys keep showing up in my doodles! I always loved unicorns. I always loved robots. Maybe I'll do a little cartoon with them.

Lessons in Nudity

(To enlarge this image, click on the man's right kidney.)

Bizarro is brought to you today by Future Figure Drawing Models.

This cartoon brings me back to art school. I dropped out after a semester, never to return, but during that semester, figure drawing class was my favorite. Not because of the nudity, none of the models were sexually attractive, but because I like drawing animals of all sorts and humans fall squarely into that category.

One of our models was a young hipster dude with a Tom Selleck mustache and a Brady Bunch Half-fro. He thought he was God's gift to women and while other models would put on a bathrobe and tie a belt around their waist during our 10-minute breaks, he wore one without a belt and just let the front hang open while he hit on the girls in our class. This was 1976, before college campuses became hotbeds of sexual harassment litigation. Nobody much liked this guy, including the girls.

Another incident I remember that would have landed someone on an unemployment line today had to do with the teacher for the second-year figure drawing class. She was a very attractive woman in her early thirties and many of the male students had a crush on her. One day, when her model did not show up for a class, she stripped and did the modeling herself. On my break, I happened past her room and it was full of not just students but dozens of spectators. There were so many, in fact, that the crowd spilled out into the hallway, and boys were straining to see over the drove and through the narrow doorway. Good times.

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...

NO CONTEST TODAY

High School Stereotypes

Bizarro is brought to you today by Future CEOs.

I'm sorry to say that my high school class has not had many successful reunions. The 10th, in 1986, was reportedly large and well-attended but I missed that one. They've tried it a few times since, I went to a couple, but there were very small turnouts.

Mine was not a stereotypical high school experience, I attended a magnet school that tended to attract kids that did not "fit in" at their neighborhood schools, so many of my classmates were really smart or artistic or musical or unusual in one way or another. (That is to say that most of us were the kid on the ground in this cartoon.) This led to a lot of interesting adult careers, spread out all over the globe, but we were by nature a class of more independent sorts, thus making it difficult to get everyone together again. At least that's been my impression. Either that or they're having fabulous reunions every few years and I've just not been invited.

I was never beaten up by a jock for being brainy, like this poor kid, but I was regularly called a "fag" by redneck types because I was artistic and didn't dress like Ted Nugent. This didn't happen at my high school, Ted Nugent types tended not to apply or get accepted there, but it happened in other parts of my hometown of Tulsa. Thanks, Booker T. Washington High School, for saving me from a miserable high school career as an outcast.

I think it would be fun to have a large high school reunion but I've given up hoping for it. I'm content to run into them occasionally on the streets of New York and other places my classmates tended to escape to.