I am not alone.

Silly Daddy was/is created by Joe Chiappetta of North Riverside, Ill. I found some interesting facts about Silly Daddy over at the Geek To Me blog at chicagonow.com:

• Silly Daddy is the longest running comic about a family by a father. (It hit it’s 500th comic in November.)

• Mr. Chiappetta is continuously exploring new tools for the trade, consistently using a Pocket PC to create his comics, as well as being the first cartoonists to explore comics made on a mobile phone, calling them ‘telephonics’.
• Every comic at Silly Daddy is fully accessible to the blind or those with low vision. Every comic posted has described narrative that assistive technology software such as JAWS or ZoomText can read to the viewer.

I would like to take the time to thank Mr. Chiappetta for being a pioneer not only in webcomics, but in the world of dads chronicling their lives online! I hope I am worthy of crawling in your shadow, sir.

One more sidenote on Joe Chiappetta, he has also written an all-ages space opera called ‘Star Chosen’. Check it out!

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Yes, you read that right. Today is the day that you can walk in to nearly any comic book store and receive one, or many, (depending on the store owner) free comic(s)!

This day always excites me, but I’m excited even more this year because I have to drive to Denver early morning anyway for Kat’s ‘Appointment Ceremony’ into People to People. This is the ceremony that will make her an official Student Ambassador for the United States to represent the country this year to Australia! We’ll get to hear a real U.S. Ambassador speak and celebrate this great honor.

And then, leaping in to the car, we will be making the tour of Denver via all of the Mile High Comics locations to scoop up free shwag. If that’s not the best day ever, I don’t know what is!

For those of you unfamiliar with Free Comic Book Day, here’s a few facts and tips as I’ve come to experience it:

1. Free Comic Book Day is an annual event held on the first Saturday of May. Any comic book store worth two grains of salt participates. I did run in to one that didn’t, however, several years ago in Paducah, KY. The reason they didn’t want to participate? “What they don’t tell you is that it’s not free for us! They charge us, like, five cents a copy!’ Five cents to win a fan that will become a returning customer sounds like a small price to pay to me. Needless to say their store was empty and we turned on our heels and left without spending a dime, or even a nickel.
2. Visit as many stores as you can. This one’s probably a no-brainer, but like I’ve briefly mentioned, each store is completely different in how they handle this. Almost all participate, but some limit the number of issues you can get, some base this limit on the amount you purchase. Some stores don’t carry every title. If you don’t spend the day touring different locations, you could possibly miss out on the perfect book for you.
3. Look out for creator guests! A lot of stores will score appearances by the creators of the comics you’re picking up! There’s absolutely nothing like a good meet and greet to stir up your enthusiasm!

I could go on and on, but if you would like the full lowdown, including a list of many of the titles available (There’s always a few surprises) and participating locations near you, be sure to visit the official Free Comic Book Day website!

Here are a few of the family-friendly titles that you may find and that are endorsed by Howefitz Blog: click the pics for the official descriptions!

Highest Possible Recommendation!

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Where The Wild Things Are

Who wouldn't want to watch this movie?

Wild Things is the swing and the miss. I attempted to watch this movie four times. Each time I got a little bit farther in… and fell asleep. Now, work had been stressful and I was exhausted, but I made it through the next cinematic adventure just fine, so what happened?

Where The Wild Things Are is one of my favorite children’s books. I’ve always loved the imaginative creatures that Max encounters and Maurice Sendak‘s breath-taking art work. So it was great to see these creatures come to life on screen… eventually.

They added a lot of angst to Max. From the book, I gathered that he was a brat. From the movie, he’s lashing out because his dad is … missing? And Mom has a new boyfriend that looks like kind of a sleeze. I get it, where are the Wild Things? Max imagines himself getting on a boat and landing in the land of the Wild Things. Finally!

The Wild Things start off promising. Smashing trees, throwing each other around… But then it’s as if Spike Jonze, the director, remembered that he’s an independent film director, so all the creatures started talking… and talking… … and talking.

I think the creatures are supposed to be personifications of Max’s psyche. They are an outward manifestation of all the issues of a child living in a broken home. It’s all very cathartic for him, but the audience languishes. When does the wild rumpus start? That’s what I’m here to see!

Breath-taking imagery just couldn't get me to sit through this one.

I enjoy great independent films. A lot of my favorites feature people sitting around talking. And, I don’t feel like you could carry a full-length feature with just smashing trees and flying around. I guess I just didn’t get who the targeted demographic should be, and that bugged me. Is this a kids’ movie? Or is it for young twenty-something independent film lovers with storytime nostalgia? I just don’t know who this movie is for!

My kid was bored and my wife and I are  just beyond being twenty-something (we’re now thirty-something), so the movie didn’t hit home for any of us. Swing-and-a-miss.

It got returned to the Redbox about half-watched after four attempts…

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Mr. Fox lacks the wonderful illustrations, but has the power of Roald Dahl's imagination behind it.

Fantastic Mr. Fox, however, sent it out of the park. Now, this film is rated PG and features characters that smoke, and, get this, ‘slang humor’. Honestly, I don’t want to spoil the fun of discovering the slang humor just by watching the film, but trust me, these animated animals are not going to say slang your kids shouldn’t hear.

I remember watching Mouse and the Motorcycle as a kid. I remember loving how the fur moved oddly (due to the animators no doubt inadvertently bumping it as they moved the characters around). It was the same wonder I would feel watching Claymation, and really watching the figures for fingerprints in the clay. It told me that someone made this! By hand!

My eyes popped out of my head watching this...

Fantastic Mr. Fox’s puppet-style stop-motion animation is a lot more cleaner and refined, but there is still that awe of knowing that these puppets were really made by someone! And they’re doing amazing things!

Add to that the direction perfection of Wes Anderson(Life Aquatic, Darjeeling Limited) and a stellar cast (George Clooney, Merryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Defoe, Owen Wilson, to name a few); and this has the makings of a great film!

Also independent, also based on a children’s book (this one written by Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and Matilda), this one succeeds where Wild Things fell on it’s big monster face: it appeals to ALL audiences.

Lately I cringe when a movie claims to be ‘great for the whole family!’ because that generally means it’s intended for kids, made by folks who may or may not ‘get’ kids. I’ve said it before, but kids’ movies shouldn’t talk down to kids. You should be able to watch films with your kids without feeling like stabbing sharpened pencils in to your ears and gouging your eyes out with spoons. Just sayin’.

Mr. Fox is truly a film the entire family will love. I laughed at stuff my kid didn’t get, she laughed at stuff I didn’t think was all that funny. The smoking thing? It was old school Disney: only the bad guys smoke. And those bad guys are gross. No worries of the kid coming out of the movie thinking that smoking is cool.

AND something that’s been missing in a lot of movies: it’s quotable. I’ve been driving my family crazy quoting and referencing since we saw the movie. But it feels good. I don’t have to keep pulling up original Star Wars trilogy quotes, I have something new!

Any thoughts?

Since everyone saw these two before me, care to weigh in? Did I break your heart by not being able to sit through Wild Things? Was Mr. Fox the biggest turd you’ve ever seen? Let me know below…

‘Lions, Tigers, and Bears’ is the story of a little boy named Joey Price. Joey has just moved away from his grandmother who he’s close to, and is scared of being in a new place without any friends. As a going away present, his grandma gives him a set of four stuffed animals called ‘The Night Pride’. The lions and tigers in the set she says will chase the beasties away.

As Joey is trying to go to sleep, he hears some bumps one night. That’s when The Night Pride come alive!

I enjoy this comic as much as my small child. Joey is someone anyone can relate to. Through his relationship with The Night Pride, Joey can learn to handle his fears.

As simple as the story seems at first, it soon takes many surprising twists and turns, with plenty of humor and action along the way.

What’s really great about this comic is that the artwork is spectacular. In the introduction, the editor, Ron Marz, calls it ‘animated’. Each frame looks like a still from a hand drawn animated film. This is one of those comics you can get lost in, as if you’re simply watching a movie.

In April of this year, it was announced that Paramount has secured the rights to a Lions, Tigers, and Bears movie. It is said to be similar to the Narnia movies: live action with CGI creatures. I almost wish this film would be fully animated in a way that captures Jack Lawrence‘s artwork, but we’ll always have the comics!! To read an interview with LTB author Mike Bullock about the film, visit comicon.com.

It’s no secret that I hate Neil Gaiman. He continuously pumps out great work, and I hate him for it. ‘Crazy Hair‘ is another such work. I brought it home to my nearly three year old, and she made me read it. Twice. This was after I read it to myself a couple of times.

Thanks again, Mr. Gaiman.

I hate you.

‘Crazy Hair‘ is a wonderfuly rhyming tale that the entire family will enjoy.

Here’s an excerpt from inside the dust jacket:

“In my hair

Gorillas leap,

Tigers stalk,

And ground sloths sleep.

Prides of lions make their lair

Somewhere in my crazy hair.”

This book is full of whimsy, like Gaiman‘s other children’s offerings, ‘The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish‘ and ‘The Wolves In The Walls‘.

And like much of Gaiman’s work, he has once again teamed up with Dave McKean, whose frantic artwork perfectly compliments Gaiman’s words as if the book was created by one creator.

‘Crazy Hair‘ can go on your shelf next to any other Seuss or Sendak classic that you and your kids will want to enjoy again and again!