#131 Kidz Bop Covers Modest Mouse

This cover of Modest Mouse's breakout hit "Float On" is further proof that we live in hilarious, surreal times. For the tween impaired, Kidz Bop, is a series of records featuring top hits (ala Now That's What I Call Music) sanitized and re-recorded by a gang of kidz. The resulting tunes feel like The Langley Schools Music Project songs, if their recording had been overseen by a corporate zombie.

"Float On" appears on Kidz Bop 7 along with covers of Usher's "My Boo" and Ashlee Simpson's "Piece of Me."

#130 Perry Bible Fellowship

Perry Bible Fellowship, a weekly three-panel gem published in Baltimore City Paper, is the first comic strip I've been truly excited about since The Maakies. The person responsible for this gorgeous color strip is Nicholas Gurewitch. His art style is loose, and very expressive -- a distinct departure from the torso-less 'toons you see in most papers. And the tone of the comic is distinctly morbid. Thankfully, Gurewitch's dark thoughts don't manifest themselves in the trite imagery of goth culture. The scenery in Perry Bible Fellowship is generally bright and sunshiney. The hues have a saturated feel, as if the colors are filled in with those multi-colored, fruit flavored markers they hand out at Sunday School. When nihilistic flashes of violence, death and despair seep into the artwork, the results are jarring, thought-provoking and funny.

My favorite strip portrays a rocket ship nearly about to crash into a giant "reset" button that floats in space. Life evolves. Cites grow and rockets are invented. The final panel is identical to the first; the spacecraft keeping the infinite loop intact. Not "ha-ha" funny, but certainly right up my alley.