Father's Day

(How big can you make this cartoon? Click the Wolverine's beer label and find out!)

Bizarro on this day is brang to youse by Power Urination.

Regular readers of this blog will recall that I posted this cartoon a few weeks ago beneath a link, but did not include the caption. (I'd link to that now, but I can't find it.) Anyway, I mentioned in that previous post that I thought it was regrettable that this cartoon would run on Father's Day, when it is about men who are estranged from their families. It was completely unintentional.

My Sunday cartoons are drawn about six weeks ahead, so sometime in mid-March I drew the cartoon, inked it, colored it, got it all ready to submit to King Features, then looked on my calendar to see what date was next. Turned out it was Father's Day but by that time it was too late to replace it with something less pointed.

So I'd like to apologize to any estranged fathers out there who found this cartoon to be painful. I got divorced in the mid-nineties when my daughters were 9 and 14, so I know it can be tough. On the bright side, it probably isn't a tough as being a huge, blue furry guy with a face like a baboon's ass. So count your blessings.

As for my own Father's Day, 2009 – My two daughters called and said, "HFD," I called my dad and said, "HFD," he said it back, then I went to work in my garden. For once, it only rained HALF the day, so it was a rousing success by recent standards and I enjoyed it thoroughly. No decorations, no gifts, no songs written for the occasion, no TV specials, no obligatory parties...my kind of holiday!

Wolfy

Bizarro is brought to you by Love Not War.

I don't know much about X-Men, I confess I've not read the comics nor seen the movies. Yet, the imagery on TV is such that I wrote a couple of X-Men jokes lately. This one, and a Sunday cartoon that will run in papers on Father's Day, June 21, then will be discussed on this blog the following Sunday.

Oddly enough, the cartoon that runs on Father's Day is about men estranged from their families. I didn't plan it that way, I just drew the comic, then looked at my calender to see what date it should run. The next Sunday on the schedule was Father's Day. Whoops.

Regarding nail salons, I'm puzzled as to why women spend so much time and money on elaborate nails. Who really notices them besides other women who are interested in nails? Not judging, just wondering. Some of the ladies around my neighborhood have nails so long and elaborately decorated that they seem more appropriate for a Bond villain than a neighborhood mom.

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.