The year 2008, that is, with the first strip of a new Shaenon Garrity daily webcomic: Skin Horse. It’s co-written by Garrity and Jeffrey Wells and (unlike her other webcomic projects) drawn by Garrity.

From the Oh, That’s Someone I Met Once file, Shaenon Garrity’s San Francisco comics-scene compatriot Jason Shiga had his latest work Bookhunter listed as one of the best of the year by Salon.com. While it’s based on a true story about Oakland library cops who tracked down a missing rare book, Shiga turns into into an awesomely ridiculous, Hollywood-ized tale of a crack squad of library commandos in the 70s.

Bookhunter is unavailable on Amazon and is unlikely to be shelved at all but a handful of comic stores, so your best bet is probably to read it online. I recommend the “Read Scroll” option as the images are slightly larger and easier to read.

I’ve been meaning to comment on Hunter’s dKos post “Save the Reagan Owl” since last weekend, because it’s kind of brilliant. Given the following, how do you make Republicans care about environmental issues?

Conservatives are all about the symbolism of things, like whether or not you should be able to burn flags, or deciding who should or should not be depicted on a dime.

[...]

I had contemplated this for some time before I hit upon the blindingly obvious answer… It’s all in the name. Conservatives are all about giving names to things, and taking names away from things, and objecting to the names of things; that’s why we have enhanced interrogation instead of torture, for example.

The solution: give endangered animals new names that appeal to conservatives. Anything tagged with words like Reagan, Freedom, or Patriot automatically elicits a kneejerk positive reaction.

Hunter offers this as evidence:

You may doubt the plan, but I am confident it would work. The bald eagle was saved from the brink of extinction and is now in steady recovery simply because it was for two hundred years the symbol of our nation; the effort was taken for that species, and not for others, because it would have been profoundly embarrassing if we let the bird stamped on our money go extinct. Ponder that, for a moment: if Ben Franklin’s turkey had become our national bird, turkeys would be on our coins, but the bald eagle would at this point have ceased to exist.

He even suggests offering entire species up for corporate sponsorship.

Obviously he’s being satirical, and I suggest reading the whole post for the full effect. Still, as with all the best satire, there’s a gem of truth underneath it.

I quibble with his application of names, though. Reagan™ is the only remaining GOP brand with broad appeal, so it shouldn’t be used lightly. Since I consider global warming a bigger environmental problem than endangered owls, we should turn polar bears into Reagan bears. No red-blooded conservative could deny the appeal: they’re deadly, ferocious, and white.

Alternative energy sources could be helped in the same way. Wind and solar power should be renamed Freedom Turbines and Jesus Panels. We could even add vague, miraculous Jesus-shaped images to the solar panels for that extra incentive to install them on the roofs of God-fearing homes.

The possibilities are endless! As long as it works…

Sweeney Todd is pretty awesome, easily Tim Burton’s best since Ed Wood. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t even like musicals or the theater. I guess it depends on the subject matter — gothy, blood-drenched musicals about serial killers and cannibalism in Dickensian London get a thumbs up.

Already, I’ve started holding up random objects — scissors, electric razor, etc — and growling, “Finally, my arm is complete!” To no one in particular. I am strange.

Also, I now have a craving for meat pies.

One odd moment in the film: a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo from Anthony Stewart Head. I wonder why they recruited him if he was just going to be a day player, or if there was more to his part that ended up on the cutting room floor.

How to ensure Cinematic Titanic is a success right off the bat, in three easy steps:

1) Miss your promised release date — first episode on Dec. 10, followed by one release per month thereafter — by twelve days. It inspires confidence.

2) Negotiate the rights to the film with a man who not only forces you to change the film’s title (from Brain of Blood to The Oozing Skull), but then “surprises” you by insisting that the promised downloadable version must be delayed until April. That way, your product is only available via DVD purchased from a web site I’ve never heard of.

3) Make sure the aforementioned DVD is not available on Netflix or any other rental site. After all, who needs “try before you buy” if you have a trailer?

While the trailer looks amusing, it doesn’t look amusing enough to drop $16 plus S/H on it, sight unseen.

Sorry, Joel. I’ll be back in April, or upon the next release… maybe.

MONDAY UPDATE: I’m told that $16 price tag actually includes shipping, which is more reasonable. Now I’ve gone from “definitely not” to “hmmm… maybe?”

Missing Jon Stewart’s commentary over the last couple of months? Well, you don’t have to keep Stewart locked in your basement anymore, because both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are returning on Jan. 7, scant days after the Iowa caucuses.

They’re returning without their writing staffs, though. Since Stewart relies on good writing more than other late-night hosts (who are also coming back next month), I really wonder how that’s going to work. Or whether. It may not be pretty.

I have a love-hate relationship with trailers. I always complain that if it’s for something I’m not interested in, then I don’t want to watch its advertising, and if it’s something that I’m already planning on supporting, then I don’t want to be spoiled for anything.

And yet there are times like now, when I go fucking trailer-crazy. Who knows why.

Here’s what I’m obsessing over lately:

• The Wire Season 5. The last ten episodes of the best TV series of all time.
• Lost Season 4. This trailer seems to give a heck of a lot away about the coming season, but it looks great, doesn’t it? Besides, given the end of last season, we probably could have guessed some of these developments.
• The Dark Knight. Realistic Batman meets Realistic Joker. Actually, he looks like Beetlejuice crossed with ICP, but that’s not a complaint. I’ve watched this trailer three times already, and I’m not even a fan of the comics.
• My Name is Bruce, the cheesy Bruce Campbell comedy vehicle. Trailer seems to give away the whole film. I know I’ll end up seeing it anyway.

And it’s actually kind of creepy.

You know, I was already half-convinced Idiocracy was a documentary. I really did NOT need to discover that Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator is now a real product. That you can buy.

I’ll be over the in corner whimpering. Good morning.

Happy Day-We-Decided-Was-Our-Anniversary, sweetie.

If only Hallmark had a DWDWOA section…