My friend Rob and I have recently both undergone a comic-book resurgence, and we've been furthering each other's spiral downward by trading graphic novels back and forth. My slide back into comic love is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that I squealed with glee when I received these on Christmas morning:

There are a lot of comedians I like right now who read comic books, and I always get little crushes on them when they talk about it. For example, The Apiary had a nice little write-up last week about the first anniversary of Comic Book Club in at The PIT in NYC. The event featured Seth Myers, Bill Hader, and three writers from Marvel sitting on stage and talking about comic books. Swoon. I'm not a huge fan of New York, but things like this make me wish I lived there a little bit.

On a related note, here are the comics I've read recently that I'd recommend:

Astonishing X-Men—I grew up reading X-Men, but stopped in early high school. Recently my friends suggested that I pick Astonishing X-Men, which is written by Joss Whedon. People usually love Mr. Whedon for writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love him for directing the episode of The Office with the bat. Anyway, I think this title is written specifically for those of us who fell off the X-Men bandwagon. I mean, Kitty Pryde and Piotr do it! Naked-style!

Jack of Fables: The (Nearly) Great Escape—After losing his real-world movie-producer job, Jack (of beanstalk fame) is captured and shipped off to a compound where fables are eradicated from public memory.

Laika—A charming graphic novel about the first dog shot into space.

DMZ: On the Ground—In a future civil war, a photojournalism intern gets left in Manhattan, which has become the demilitarized zone separating the United States and the Free Armies.

Marvels—I just reread this. It's a gorgeous hand-painted mini-series follows the life of a photojournalist in the Marvel Universe. One of my all-time favorites.

Rob and I are performing two comedy shows this week:

1. December 19 with ZombieShark Improv at MilkBoy Coffee in Ardmore, PA. 8 p.m./free.
2. December 20, hosting Puppet Karaoke at the M-Room in Philadelphia. 9:30 p.m./$5. Features special celebrity guests Eva Spinspiller and Scooty Johnson!

Also, here's a video of us performing at Die Actor Die in November, courtesy of Comic vs. Audience:

Not For Tourists paid me to write what is essentially fan fiction about the Phillie Phanatic and Swoop the Eagle getting into a brawl.

I got paid to write fan fiction. About mascots. Sometimes my life is pretty fantastic.

In the form of local relationship expert, Diz:

From Comic Vs. Audience.

I went to see Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black on Friday, and it kind of sucked. "Blasphemer!" you might yell. "You cur, you dog, saying that these wonderful comedians put on a bad show!" Here's the thing: both Michaels had hilarious jokes, but they talked to hecklers waaaay too much. I was a little afraid that was going to happen. When Michael Showalter did his blog tour promoting his new album, his post on The Apiary was about how he thinks hecklers are awesome because they give him an opportunity to get angry. But I didn't go to see him get angry; I went to see him perform funny comedy jokes. And it's not as if putting down a heckler can't be funny (oh good god, it can), but when a comedian constantly interrupts jokes to hold conversations with the audience, it can wreck the energy level of the whole show. Which it kind of did.