Nekked Folks Like You

Today's Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by the thousand-or-more species of cacti.
"Cacti – Look, but don't touch!"

As announced yesterday, I'll now be posting my daily cartoons daily. However, for complicated business reasons that only a veteran member of the cartoon industry could understand, I have to post them a week late. Like the war in Iraq, don't try to comprehend it, just trust the experts.

Here now, is last Sunday's cartoon and its header panel. (Click on the cartoon for a larger view) In your local paper, the header panel might appear just to the left of the cartoon, but I've separated them for ease of viewing. The header panel is different each week, this one is made from a weekday Bizarro from the late 1900s entitled, "Self Portrait". I've always loved it. Someone wrote to me once referencing it as "that cartoon of God creating man." Huh?




My favorite part of this Sunday panel is the art on the walls. I enjoy spoofing classical art, and deciding how to dress these characters caused me to experience flutters of joy.

Since I can't figure out how to get a clearer image on the full image, here are some close ups with which to test your art history knowledge.

Sporting Sharks and Humans

Today's Bizarro cartoon (right) is brought to you by the wonders of electricity. Get some today!

Today's shark-infested funny is about the appalling habit we humans have of hiding sharp things in food and offering it to animals. We call it "fishing" and convince ourselves that because we can trick animals into hurting themselves, we should. I used to fish as a kid but I grew out of it–much later than I should have, I'm ashamed to say.

Fisherman who throw them back after injuring them are slightly more admirable, in my opinion. At least they admit they're hurting things for fun and not pretending that eating the victim justifies its suffering. We are a strange species.

The 'toon below is one I did on the same subject a few years back. Fly fishermen thought it was very funny, admitting the truth behind it. I suppose you have to admire them for "owning it."

CrazyHNW and I are fostering a baby racoon this weekend – smaller than a newborn kitten. I'll write about it in my next blog.

Check back for more shenanigans, amigos.

Comedy Buddies

Today's Bizarro cartoon (left), featured in living color.

Hey, kids,
My good pal and talented comedian, Jeff Kreisler, is bringing his wicked brand of political comedy to San Fran next week. Remember Bizarro's Politicomedy-a-Go-Go tour a few years back? He was a big part of that. And he's been practicing daily ever since, so he's even better!

Here is your Bizarro Mission for today:
Read info below.
Go see Jeff's show.
Laugh freely.
Go home.

Just as with all my directives, this comes with a personal guarantee: You will have a better time at Jeff's show than if you go somewhere else and have a lousy time.

Smooches,
3TP

Jeff Kreisler's Comedy Against Evil is *the* political comedy tour.

The Purple Onion
140 Columbus Avenue San Francisco, CA 94133
Friday & Saturday, April 25 & 26, 8pm
TICKETS ARE CASH ONLY, AT THE DOOR, DAY OF SHOW
$20 at the door
$12 with local student id
Reservations and info: www.ComedyAgainstEvil.com, info@comedyagainstevil.com, 800.529.2765

Bill Hicks Spirit Award winner, writer for Comedy Central's Indecision2008, CNN, and 23/6, cast member of Shoot The Messenger (from the creator of The Daily Show), and author of Harper Collins' "Get Rich Cheating," Kreisler dissects American politics with passion, absurdity, and hope.

Joining him in his return to San Francisco and the legendary Purple Onion will be local favorites Joe Klocek, Mike Capozzola, Boxcar, Nato Green & others.

Comedy Against Evil believes humor speaks truth to power and that laughter can save the world.

"A highlight." - The New York Times

"Kreisler tore into politics, race and religion in a similar style to Hicks, but with his own personal slant and some very acute and funny observations. This is one show that will have you laughing from start to finish and is probably one of the best comedy shows at the Fringe..." - Fresh Air at the Festival

"An hour of excellent comedy... Jeff Kreisler does clever, well-presented political stuff..." - The Scotsman

"Kreisler changes the pace a bit with a slightly demented, extremely animated set that attacks everything..." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Funny and on-fire Jeff Kreisler followed, railing against attack ads and injecting some powerful and pointed political barbs on both sides " - San Francisco Herald

"The highlight of this all-American evening was final act Kreisler, who, with slow, dry rigour, pulled apart America..." - ThreeWeeks

"Jeff Kreisler and his Comedy Against Evil show were amazing. Jeff's act was thought provoking, edgy, and quite hilarious... He had all of us on the floor laughing for an entire hour." - Georgetown University

"A welcome reminder of a time when comedy cut a lot closer to the issues of the day than most comics now dare." - Dallas Morning News (from the original Bizarro PolitiComedy A-Go-Go Tour)

Four to Read for Friday, April 11

* scans_daily: Only in Japan could such a thing exist..... (via Dirk)

* EW.com: Comic Books: The One That Hooked Me! (via Kevin Melrose)

* Flipped: David Welsh Interviews Michael Perry of Aurora

* ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Illustration: Lawson Wood Monkey Mania (via Dirk)

Review: A People's History of American Empire

A People's History of American Empire
By Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, & Paul Buhle
$17.00/$30.00, Metropolitan Books

This graphic historical narrative is an adaptation of sorts of ideas from Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States. Those familiar with Zinn's works will not be surprised to know that American History in this work is viewed through the lenses of class and race conflict domestically and imperialism internationally.

Any historical graphic narrative labors in the shadows of the work of Larry Gonick. Unfortunately, Zinn, Konopacki & Buhle fall short in this comparison. Gonick is an accomplished cartoonist and entertaining storyteller who makes ample use of (often irreverent) humor while presenting his sometimes out-of-the-mainstream histories; A People's History of American Empire (APHoAE) features adequate but by no means exemplary cartooning and is a consitantly serious and humorless affair.

As Gonick does with his comics, Zinn is used as a narrative character within APHoAE--a technique that force comparisons with superior works. However, Zinn also appears in some chapters as a viewpoint character. This serves to muddy the waters as to whether APHoAE is meant to be a historical memoir or an objective view of history.

Another curious decision is to make liberal use of historical photographs within the work, often in place of regular drawn panels. There seems to be little rhyme or reason for what has been chosen to be drawn and what is represented by a photograph. Also, the reproduction of most of the photographs is quite poor and tends to downgrade the visual quality of the book.* Konopacki is a good enough artist that these photograph panels could have been drawn, and doing so would have given the work better visual cohesion.

Whether or not one agrees with Zinn's political and/or historical views, A People's History of American Empire is a less-than-compelling work of graphic narrative.

Rating: 2 (of 5)

* (This review is based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher. As an uncorrected proof, there is a statement that reads 'some illustrations are not final,' which seems like a very odd thing to do for review copies of a comic-format work.)

Quick Review: Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #34

This comics has:

Sue Storm vs. the Bwindi Gorilla cult

Ben Grimm vs. a fake Hulk

Johnny Storm vs. a kissing booth

Reed Richards vs. The Mad Thinker & His Awesome Android

And that's just the tip of the iceberg in this issue by Paul (Banana Sunday) Tobin and David (Private Beach) Hahn. You'll be hard-pressed to find a more enjoyable Fantastic Four comic this year (at least until their next issue!)

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

The Late Shipping Hall of Shame

These days, comics are late all the time. But some late-shipping titles stand out, due to their extreme lateness, frequncy of lateness, or their impact. For those titles, we are creating the Late Shipping Hall of Shame!

Here are our nominees:



Camelot 3000 - The granddaddy of them all. Back in the days of newsstand distribution, comics just weren't late. If a story wasn't ready to go in time, the editor would pull an inventory story from the drawer and run it instead. Because the newsstand distribution wasn't going to wait for the next issue of X-Men or Batman. But Camelot 3000 was one of DC's first direct-only titles, so the newsstand rules didn't apply. Brian Bolland is a wonderful artist, but these days editors know that to give the man a monthly book would be crazy talk. A number of delays plagued the book, with the result that the final isuse of the twelve-issue series came out more than a year later than originally planned. Not the worst delay ever, but certainly a harbinger of things to come...



Action Comics, Superman & Wonder Woman ca. late 2006/early 2007 - 2006 was to be a big year for Superman & Wonder Woman, with high-profile creative teams coming on board to give these stalwarts a needed boost. But small delays became longer delays, resulting in issues being published out-of-order and causing much embarassment for DC editorial.



All-Star Batman & Robin - Hey, let's get Frank Miller and Jim Lee to do a Batman comic together! Of course, Frank is busy becoming the latest darling of Hollywood, and Jim is also a VP in the company. Sure they'll sell a lot of Batman comics, but what made the powers-that-be think that this would come out monthly? The result was a comic that shipped just one issue during all of 2006, and saw a sixteen-month gap between issues #4 & 5.



Civil War - The delays weren't super terrible during Marvel's Civil War; but with so many other spin-off books tieing in tightly to the plot, delays of a few weeks in the core title saw a ripple effect that devestated a large chunk of Marvel's line-up. Sure Civil War sold like gangbusters, but how much money was lost because issues of Amazing Spider-Man or Captain America didn't ship?



Spider-Man "One More Day" - Remember how the big ending to JMS's Spider-Man was to come out weekly? But rewrites and other delays meant that it came out less-than-monthly, and pushed back the debut of the thrice-monthly Amazing Spider-Man, leaving one of Marvel's best-selling books on the sidelines for several months.



The Ultimates - The first Ultimates series saw many long delays, but they were going to not have that problem with Ultimates 2, as artist Brian Hitch would work far enough ahead that it wouldn't be a problem. Right? But series 2 saw the same type of delays in the back half that plagued series 1. But all would be well with series 3, as the delays on series 2 meant that the new creative team would have plenty of lead time to get issues in the can. Oops...



Powers - It seems like not a week goes by when the Diamond Shipping Updates don't include a shift of one or two weeks on a Powers comic. And yet, they still pretend that this will be a monthly, and even recently decided to increase the page count! It's time for Marvel to get real and admit that Powers will always be a bi-monthly-at-best book.



Astonishing X-Men - Debuting in 2004, this seemed like a match in heaven, with Joss Whedon & John Cassady taking on everyone's favorite mutants. Sure, a decompressed story lasting 24-issues might seem to take a bit long, but that would also mean a new top-selling trade collection every six months for those who prefer to wait for the trade. Alas, Whedon has Hollywood fish to fry, and Cassady, while a superb artist, has never been known for his speed. As a result, this slow-moving story has dragged on and on, and any surprises from the final (double-sized--wait twice as long!) issue are pretty much moot as the rest of the X-Men line has decided to move along without it. Theoretically this means that the new creative team of Ellis & Bianchi have plenty of time to work ahead, but we saw how well that worked with Ultimates...



Planetary - A comic that gets written whenever Warren Ellis gets around to it, and then John Cassady tries to squeeze in drawing it if he's waiting for an X-Men script from Whedon. Fine, we know what we're getting into. But there's just one issue remaining in the series, which means that the final trade collection is being held up as well. One might think that the potential paycheck for finishing just one more issue would spur the creators to finish the darn thing.



American Flagg hardcover collections - Image announced these way back in 2004, but they still haven't seen the light of day. They promise a Summer 2008 release for the first volume at the San Diego Comic Con; Howard Chaykin has reportedly said that he won't believe it until someone actually hands him one to sign.



Those are my choices for the Late Shipping Hall of Shame. Agree? Disagree? What other comics would you add?