Top 10 Sunday Comics from the Washington Post: Prickly City Gets 1st Place for the 1st Time

Greetings to our blog readers in Chile, Spain, and South Africa......

The images above are of: 1) Adam West and Burt Ward from the '60s tv version of "Batman," 2) R.Crumb's "Fritz the Cat" and 3) the late Bob Denver as Gilligan on another '60s tv series "Gilligan's Island." These are in reference to our top three finishers: 1) "Prickly City," 2) "Lio" and 3) "Non Sequitur." This is the very first time Scott Stantis' "Prickly City" has been our top choice, though it is frequently in the top ten.

In "Prickly City," the two title characters, a cat and a little girl, are blind-folded and they say: "Now, we finally see eye to eye" or something to that effect. In Mark Tatulli's "Lio," the title character, a ten-year-old boy named Lio who never ages (but he is otherwise quite different from Charlie Brown and Dennis the Menace) gets pulled by an angry cat to a liquor store. And, in "Non-Sequitur" by a cartoonist named Wiley, a man's hops to get off the desert island are dashed.

Here is the list http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics/:

1. Prickly City http://www.gocomics.com/pricklycity

2. Lio http://www.gocomics.com/lio

3. Non Sequitur http://www.google.com/nonsequitur

4. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

5. WuMo

6. Candorville http://www.candorville.com

7. Pearls Before Swine

8. Speed Bump

9. Sherman's Lagoon

10. Foxtrot

The Last Ten Records We've Listened To: New Wave and Soft Rock

Greetings to our blog readers in Hong Kong, Ireland and Israel: Well, we thought finding an image of the Cesar Romero Joker from the '60s tv version of "Batman" with Adam Best would easier to use than one of the late Heath Ledger in the same role for one of the franchise blockbuster movies, but actually the reverse is true!

Here are the last ten records we have listened to........

1. Nick Lowe. The Rose of England. 1985.

2. The Tubes. Now. 1977.

3. The Steve Miller Band. The Joker. 1973

4. Badfinger. Magic Christian Music. 1971

5. Slade. Stomp Your Hands and Clap Your Feet*. 1974.

6. Culture Club. Kissing to Be Clever. 1982.

7. The Plastics**. Welcome Back. 1981.

8. Chris de Burgh. The Getaway. 1982.

9. Sad Cafe. Sad Cafe.*** 1980

10. Squeeze. Cool for Cats. 1979 (pict. top)

*- Album was released as "Old Borrowed and Blue" in U.K.

**- A short-lived Japanese New Wave band.

***-This was actually not the band's first record.

Best Comic Strips in Sunday Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Va): Rats, Ants and Batman

We are just going with one image this week. It is of an army of ants, which are the centerpiece of Dave Coverly's "Speed Bump," a one-panel strip, which bears the off-beat humor of the great 1980s comic strip Gary Larson's "The Far Side." "Speed Bump" ranks number two on our list.

The winner of this week's survey is the always hilarious "Pearls Before Swine." Interestingly enough, "Pearls" bore some similarity to this week's "Family Circus," which is essentially "The Waltons" or "Little House on the Prarie" of the comics section in that it has traditional themes. Both comic strip focus on a family gathering on Thanksgiving Day. But, Stephan Pastis, the cartoonist behind "Pearls" shows a family of rats actually being upfront and honest with each other while "Family Circus" has the orthodox view of the American holiday.

Tony Cochran's "Agnes" featured the title character making a pop culture reference to "Batman," which makes on wonder if Adam West read this week's Sunday strip (he played Batman on American television in the '60s).

Here is our top ten:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Speed Bump

3. Agnes

4. Get Fuzzy

5. Funky Winkerbean

6. Blondie

7. Garfield

8. Dilbert

9. Doonesbury

10. Zits

http://www.speedbump.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.dilbert.com

The Rabbit Ear Test_ (6 out of 12) "Batman"

Greetings to all our blog-readers, irregardless if you are in Winnipeg, Canada, the hometown of cult filmmaker Guy Maddin, or Atlanta, Georgia, where the Winnipeg Jets were playing hockey last year (they were then called the Atlanta Thrashers).

Many people born when Bill Clinton was president may not be aware that there was a "Batman" tv series, based on the hit DC Comics series, in the 1960s, which us Gen X'ers saw in reruns circa 1976 as kids. The show ran for 120 half-hour episodes, most of which aired multiple times during the week, from 1966-1968.

Though many of the actors who played the bad guys, including the pianist Liberace (he played the evil pianist Chandell, no we are not making this up), Frank Gorshin (The Riddler), Cesar Romero (The Joker), Vincent Price (Egghead) and Burgess Meredith (The Penguin) have passed away, the two main actors of that original "Batman" series are still alive.

Adam West, who played the Caped Crusader, is alive and well at 83.

But, are not going to reveal the age of Burt Ward who played Robin (pictured) because that is today's question for our quiz. So, how old is Ward; is the answer?

A) 63 B) 64 C) 65 D) 66

While, we can not disclose Ward's age until a later time (yes, I know you kids will google it), we can say that according to the IMDB, Ward was paid $350/week during the show's first season.

SIDEBAR: Italy has just passed Russia for fifth place on our top ten lists for countries where we are getting hits from. So, thanks to all you Juventus fans out there....and, oh yes, thanks to all you AC Milan fans as well (forgive the soccer humor).

Special Quote of the Week- Frederico Fellini

We wrap our series of quotes from famous Italians in honor of the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification with a quip from the great Italian film director Frederico Fellini (1920-1993).

Among his famous films are "La Strada" (1954), "La Dolce Vita" (1960) and "8 1/2"
(1963). Fellini was a surrealist and this side of him was illustrated quite strakly with his later films, including "Satryicon" (1969) and "Amarcord" (1974).

Here is his quote:

"Censorship is advertising paid by the government."

SIDEBAR: We were wondering about the origins of the term 'gazooks,' also spelled 'gadzooks.' It turns out that it means several things. Two of them are: 1) an expression of alarm and 2) a term of surprise. I knew I had first heard the term on a cartoon or children's show as a child, but I forgot which one it was.

Well, it turns out, according to the Urban Dictionary, that the term was used very frequently on the now-campy "Batman" tv series with Adam West (as Batman) and Burt Ward (as Robin), which ran from 1966-68. Amazingly enough, there are 120 episodes of the show because it aired twice a week. Today, Adam West is 82 years old.

UPDATE: And, in the gazooks! department, this entry was actually meant for our other blog "Politics, Culture and Wastes of Time." Oh well....