I'm in a Comedy SHOW!

CLICK THIS IMAGE TO MAKE IT BIG SO YOU CAN READ IT!

I'm going to be in a terrific comedy show in NYC next week on April Fool's Day of this year, 2010. It's for charity, so bring your self, laugh your ass off and get a nice dose of good karma.

The links in this image don't work, so go here for more info and tickets!

Apatow Now

Bizarro is brought to you today by Lunch.

Here's a kooky crazy wacky fun idea from my good friend and colleague, cartoonist extraordinaire, Wayno. He donates ideas to me from time to time and I love this one. I almost regret not making the clown Seth Rogen instead, but it still works. When I use other people's suggestions, I often change them to better suit my style or facilitate the joke, but this one is pretty much exactly as Wayno conceived it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Hope you enjoyed this collaboration. For more of Wayno's dandy work, check him out here.

I've been blogging less often lately as I've been busy with some special and nifty projects. I'll fill you in on them later, for now, please forgive my occasional absence.

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 (+1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid
5 (-1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
6 (+9). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat
7 (+3). Kick-Ass
8 (-1). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
9 (R). Hellboy Volume 9: The Wild Hunt
10 (+31). Invincible Iron Man Omnibus, Vol. 1
11 (-3). Planetary Vol. 4: Spacetime Archaeology
12 (+18). Tales from the Crypt #8: Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid
13 (N). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 *
14 (N). Irredeemable Vol 2 *
15 (R). The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear The Hunters
16 (-7). Warriors: Ravenpaw's Path #2: A Clan in Need *
17 (-4). Watchmen
18 (-2). Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
19 (-7). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
20 (-14). I am an alien. I have a question 01
21 (-2). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
22 (+18). Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead
23 (R). V for Vendetta
24 (+12). The Complete Persepolis
25 (-2). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
26 (-9). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
27 (-2). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
28 (R). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
29 (N). Complete Milt Gross Comic Book Stories
30 (N). Gunnerkrigg Court, Vol. 2: Research
31 (N). The Gashlycrumb Tinies
32 (N). Meanwhile: Pick Any Path. 3,856 Story Possibilities
33 (-11). Batman: Year One
34 (N). Irredeemable: Volume 1
35 (-21). Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume
36 (-25). Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover
37 (R). Star Wars: Legacy Volume 8 - Tatooine
38 (R). The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1)
39 (R). The Rocketeer: The Complete Deluxe Edition
40 (-12). Twelve Kingdoms, The - Hardcover Edition Volume 4: Skies of Dawn
41 (R). Predators and Prey (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Vol. 5)
42 (-9). The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House
43 (-17). The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
44 (-26). Batman: The Killing Joke
45 (N). Superman: New Krypton, Vol. 3
46 (R). The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
47 (R). Maximum Ride: The Manga, Vol. 2
48 (N). The Boys Volume 6 SC *
49 (-28). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
50 (-30). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)



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:

* Amazon returned the sales link for comics from Diamond on Tuesday, so the sales chart has mostly returned to normal.

* The Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie comes out today. Not much chart action as the books still can't de-throne the newly released Twilight manga (#17 on the overall chart); although the recently announced but as-yet-untitled Wimpy Kid book 5 is the highest debut at #13 though it doesn't come out until November.

* I'm quite surprised to see the two Irredeemable volumes show up. Has there been some mainstream coverage that I'm not aware of?

* Speaking of unexpected, it's a nice surprise to see Jason Shiga's Meanwhile show up on the charts. This new color edition has wonderful production values to go along with Shiga's innovative comic.

Poo Rules

Check back in for new Mythfits cartoons. The comic continues...

Adam and Apple

Today's Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by Tampon Chandelier.

This cartoon was pretty popular with readers, as you might expect. Computers have become such an important part of virtually everyone's life in our society and the story of these two companies and their founders is fascinating. It's also interesting that the one with the better business sense but inferior design won the war in many ways. Apple is a huge and successful company, of course, but nothing like the size of Microsoft. It says a lot about life and the Utopian fantasy of meritocracy.

There are some cartoonists whose work is much more creative, clever, well-executed, and relevant than others, but who make a fraction of the money of less worthy products, too. I can't think of any right now, but I'm sure they exist.

A quick summary of last evening's graphic novels panel

The room was packed, with people sitting on the floor and standing in the back. Three great speakers, which meant that my duties as moderator basically consisted of introducing the speakers and then fielding questions at the end.

Eric Rabkin walked us through a close reading of the classic children's picture book Goodbye Moon, making the case for a visual language that can be every bit as complex as the written word and intuitively understood by young children.

Jim Ottaviani made the case for using comics to tell stories of science (which, he says, is more readily accepted by science people than comics people!) and demonstrated the creation of a scene from T-Minus, from research to writing to the final printed page.

Phoebe Gloecker talked about why she chooses to draw comics and how it is an emotional engagement for her. She talked some about her experiences traveling to Mexico for frist-hand research on her latest project, and about how the new generation of eBooks readers like the iPad may open new creative freedoms for comics creators.

A big thanks to the staff of the Shapiro library for putting the panel together and providing the space, and to our panelists who gave three very different by very engaging presentations.

(There was a video recording made of the panel, but I'm not sure if it will be made widely available...)

Dental Mortgage

Bizarro is brought to you today by Personal Health.

The Tooth Fairy is a fairly ghoulish character. She (Is it wrong to assume TF is female? ) collects human teeth, for starters, and wants them so badly she's willing to pay for them. What does she do with them? Does she make jewelry, dentures, puppets?

She is also cruelly inequitable. A friend of mine was getting a dollar a tooth while I was getting only a quarter. I had to lose four times as many teeth to keep up with him. I began life with both an inferiority complex and difficulty chewing my food.

This cartoon is retribution. Take that, Tooth Fairy.