If you’d asked me before I became a mom which is my favorite comic strip of all time, I’d have been hard-pressed to decide between Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes. I still love them both, of course, but now Calvin and Hobbes gets a slight edge because I have my own little Calvin here in the house. (His “Hobbes” isn’t a tiger, it’s a dog… but the similarities are still uncanny at times.)

In fact, when Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends came along, I remember thinking that it was sort of reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes… if Mac were Hobbes and Bloo were Calvin, that is. (Okay, maybe that’s a stretch. Sue me.) The point is, it got me wondering about how awesome an animated version of Calvin and Hobbes would be.

Unfortunately, creator Bill Watterson is somewhat infamous for his opposition to further development of the beloved characters:

Watterson also battled against pressure from publishers to merchandise his work, something that he felt would cheapen his comic. He refused to merchandise his creations on the grounds that pasting Calvin and Hobbes images on commercially-sold coffee mugs, stickers and t-shirts would devalue the characters and their personalities. He also refused to allow the strip to appear as an animated series.

A part of me loves that he has the courage of his convictions, and a part of me wants to cross my arms, stick out my lower lip, and wail, “Come ooooooooooooooon!!” Oh well.

But words cannot describe how I felt when I came across this post at Cartoon Brew yesterday. Although Watterson will never sanction an animated show or movie, this little taste was still a whole lotta fun.

Kudos to creator Donati Di Carlo. Who knows; maybe Bill Watterson will see it on YouTube and change his mind. (I know, I know. Just let me dream.)

Every story is better with a dog. Oh, come on—you know it’s true. Some of the most memorable cinematic and literary masterpieces throughout history feature a beloved canine companion.

I can’t say for sure if Tintin’s pal Snowy is the reason the Adventures of Tintin comic books by Georges Remi have been so enduringly popular throughout the years, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt. Just look at that little face.

Apparently I’m not the only one who’s a sucker for the appeal of Tintin and Snowy. It turns out that a few folks you may have heard of are fans as well:

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are teaming to direct and produce three back-to-back features based on Georges Remi’s beloved Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin for DreamWorks. Pics will be produced in full digital 3-D using performance capture technology.

The two filmmakers will each direct at least one of the movies; studio wouldn’t say which director would helm the third. Kathleen Kennedy joins Spielberg and Jackson as a producer on the three films, which might be released through DreamWorks Animation.

Tintin has long been a passion project for Spielberg; he and Kennedy have held various film rights to the comedic adventure book series off and on for more than 25 years. With the rights in place, Spielberg, Jackson and DreamWorks began quietly developing the project. Jackson has also long been a fan of the comic books.

I’m having a really hard time picturing Tintin in 3D, but perhaps this is why I’m not a feature film director and these guys are. (Well, that and a million other reasons.)

Jackson said WETA will stay true to Remi’s original designs in bringing the cast of Tintin to life, but that the characters won’t look cartoonish.

“Instead,” Jackson said, “we’re making them look photorealistic; the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people — but real Herge people!”

“Real Herge people” aren’t something I can picture. Not without feeling like I’m having a bit of a nightmare, anyway. But I have faith that the end result will be much less weird than what I’m imagining. These guys are pros, and legions of fans will be on the edge of their seats, ready for this next chapter in Tintin’s adventures.

I cannot promise that I will not lean over to my children and whisper “What’s the matter, girl? Did Timmy fall down the well?” during the movie, though. I’m nothing if not predictable when it comes to movies with dogs.

A while back I shared my dismay over not being able to share the Transformers movie with my kids due to the film’s rating (and violence). My son, in particular, was crushed. For about five minutes. Then he saw something shiny and forgot all about it. (He is his mother’s son, after all.)

I suspect he’ll be thrilled to learn that Transformers: Animated will be debuting on Cartoon Network this Fall. Hey, it’s Transformers, it’s Cartoon Network; what’s not to like? In my son’s universe, that’s pretty much a recipe for success, right there.

If you’re not a natural-born Transformers fan, or you’re skeptical about the series for some reason, here’s something you might find interesting: There are plenty of familiar names from Teen Titans at the helm of the new series.

Matt Youngberg (Teen Titans, The Batman) will be the new series’ supervising director while Derrick Wyatt (Teen Titans, Legion of Superheroes) is providing the character designs and Cartoon Network VP Sam Register will produce.

TitansGo.net notes that another Titans alum is on board:

Although no dates have been given for the show’s debut, Tara Strong’s site says it’ll be out shortly after the big movie this year. Tara says she’ll be voicing “Sari”, one of the show’s regulars (who she notes is “not a Transformer … just a little girl!”).

As for the feel of the series… well, that’s being kept under wraps, for now.

Little is known about the new series except for the fact that it will take place in a future era during which humans and robots both inhabit the Earth. Optimus Prime (supposedly now a fire truck) and Megatron will be featured in the new series, which reportedly features a brand new look for the long-lived Transformers characters.

Hmmmm, let me see. Will it involve… transformers? Yes, you say? Well then I’m thinking it’ll be a smash hit amongst most of the boys I know. Robots in disguise; that’s good entertainment. Just ask my son. Though I hope you have an hour to listen to him talk, if you do.

Well, on television, anyway. In honor of Mother’s Day (did you have a nice one? Did you remember to call your mom?), ToonZone took the liberty of assessing both the top mothers in animation and the worst sons and daughters in animation.

When I saw the article titles my immediate reaction was: “Huh?”

I mean, what exactly are we going to use as the criteria for judging, here? Who’s drawn the best? Which mother makes the best cartoon cookies? Which kid got carted off to cartoon jail? It just felt like there was ample opportunity for these to turn into really pointless assessments.

Oh, me of little faith! ToonZone came through with the funny. Both articles had me giggling.

The leader for best mom? Betty Rubble. Hey, wasn’t I just telling you about a Wilma Flintstone marathon, and how she was apparently an ideal mom? Well, you have to admit the argument for Betty is pretty persuasive:

Why: Hanna-Barbera is one of the most friendly studios for parents, since their works provide a number of potential candidates, including Wilma Flintstone and Jane Jetson. Betty Rubble ends up getting the title from the other H-B animated moms largely because she has to raise Bamm-Bamm. Being a mother is hard enough without having to deal with an inordinately strong kid who likes breaking things for fun. Pebbles Flintstone is a perfectly darling little angel, unlikely to give Wilma and Fred any trouble for anything until she starts dating, and anybody can be a perfect mother with the help of a robot maid. The fact that the Rubble household hasn’t been reduced to, well, rubble by Bamm-Bamm must be due to Betty’s influence.

If it will console the Wilma partisans, I always felt she won the “Hot Mom” contest between the two, but that’s not the only thing we’re looking at here.

The piece on lacking offspring is even better. Idolize the Teen Titans? Maybe you should take a good hard look at what a rotten daughter Raven is:

Why: What an ingrate this little goth chick is. Her father Trigon takes years to set up his grandest plans and dreams for his life (and everyone else’s), and entrusts his daughter with one of the most crucial parts of that plan. He does everything he can to convince her that she must fulfill her part of the grand design, despite her bad attitude about it and her need to pout all the time. He doesn’t raise his voice, he doesn’t send her to her room, he just consistently and constantly reminds her that she needs to do her job. And then she does it, and everything goes right for him, and he even keeps her around after everybody else is frozen as his special little girl. How fatherly. And what does she do? She kills him and says he was never her father. Oh, and how’d she come to that sterling conclusion? She joined a gang!

Advice to Would-Be Ravens: If your parents are trying to do something important, don’t get in their way. Or suck them of all their magic energy or anything like that.

Go give both pieces a read. Honestly, I feel less bothered by the clothes my kids leave on the floor right next to the hamper, now.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and you know what that means. Right. It means you need to call your mom and tell her you love her, and if you have kids, it means they’re going to wreak havoc in your kitchen, fight with each other, and generally cause you to wonder why on earth you thought motherhood was such a good idea after all.

What’s that? Oh. I see. Well, maybe that last bit only happens at my house. Moving on….

I am having a wee bit of trouble understanding who might be spending Mother’s Day watching a Flintstones marathon on Boomerang, but to each their own. Does this mean Wilma is supposed to be a role model for us moms? Because all I ever learned from watching her is that pearls go with everything. Which isn’t a bad lesson, I suppose, but still.

No, if I’m allowed the entire day to do whatever I want, I’m sort of unlikely to spend it watching 7 hours of The Flintstones, but maybe I could distract my kids with it and loll around with a good book. Or maybe we can play hide-and-seek, and if I hide really well, I won’t have to share the chocolate. There’s always that.

I kid. I love spending Mother’s Day with my children, because when else can I squelch any misbehavior with a stern look and a mournful, “You know, I thought today was supposed to be my day, when everyone was nice to me. I guess not.” (Guilt: It’s what’s for dinner!) Hey, we moms have to play to our strengths.

However you choose to celebrate the day, I hope it’s a great one!

Every now and then I come across a few things that I think are worth posting about, but none of them are really meaty enough in and of themselves to warrant a full post. Then I end up doing a post like this, where I squash together a bunch of stuff and pretend I totally meant for it to be that way. Just play along.

Item the first: Shrek is trying, people.

Remember how people were getting angry at Shrek for hawking candy and then being a fitness campaign spokesman (spokesogre)? Well, he’s really trying to live a more virtuous life. Honest. Just ask McDonald’s! They’ve got Shrek touting their healthier options:

McDonald’s will use Shrek to feature its salads, milk, apple slices and other products introduced in the last 3 years as the No. 1 restaurant company faced mounting criticism its food was not only unhealthy, but also contributing to the increase in overweight kids in the United States.

A Happy Meal with Apple Dippers, all-white-meat chicken McNuggets, and low-fat milk will be featured in television commercials and on posters in McDonald’s restaurants. Shrek will also appear on packaging for the milk and apples.

Good job, Shrek. I guess there aren’t many campaigns suggesting people just cook their kids a healthy dinner, so, um, way to push the apples.

Item the second: Nickelodeon video game proliferation.

I guess it wasn’t enough that I was going to try to keep my son from finding out about the new Ben 10 video game. Nope, it turns out that there’s going to be a whole slew of upcoming video games based on popular Nick shows. Great. Titles will include games based on cartoon favorites such as Spongebob Squarepants and Avatar, as well as games based on shows like Zoey 101 and Drake & Josh. Whomever has the most teen angst wins! Well, maybe that’s not exactly how it’ll be, but whatever.

Item the third: I hope you didn’t miss it.

Did you make it out for Free Comic Book Day? I hope you did. Even if you didn’t, you have to check out the Talking Shop piece about it over at Newsarama. This thing’s practically got a cult following, and their write-up is superb. An excerpt:

Patrick Brower, general manager of Graham Crackers Comics in downtown Chicago, said there were far more people this year than last. The store had Robert Kirkman signing for a few hours early in the day, particularly his Astounding Wolf-Man title that was offered among the free titles, but Brower said crowds continued after the creator left. “It wound up being our highest grossing Saturday in recent memory, possibly ever, and directly contributed the best single week of sales we’ve ever recorded,” he said.

There you have it. Three unrelated things you didn’t even know you wanted to know. No need to thank me.

I have some friends who homeschool, and I admire them very much. Homeschooling is not for me. No. For me, there must be a cheerful yellow bus that comes to the house and takes my children away. The kids like it, because the other children at school are more interesting than I am. I like it, because having the children in school frees me up to work (so that we can have foolish extravagances like food and clothing) and keeps me from killing them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all of that.

Every year, the first full week in May is Teacher Appreciation Week. Unless you’re homeschooling (in which case, good for you, and I hope your kids appreciate you this week and all the time, because you are a saint), you may wish to take this opportunity to thank the teachers in your kids lives. After all, they’re shaping your kids’ little minds, not to mention freeing you up to eat an uninterrupted lunch now and then.

There are traditional activities, of course: A teacher breakfast, flowers for the teacher, etc. There’s no shortage of suggestions of ways to celebrate this auspicious event. But now that the week’s half over, I have a suggestion that I suspect works for any teacher you’re grateful to have.

Write a thank-you note. Teachers don’t hear nearly often enough how much we appreciate them. And sure, flowers are nice and donuts are yummy, but there is nothing that trumps a few words from the heart when they’re spoken with gratitude.

Now, if those words happen to include something like “Thank you for listening to the endless Pokemon battle stories he makes up,” that’s between the two of you. Who knows what makes your heart sing. Just know that if there’s a teacher who knows what makes your kid happy, he or she deserves to hear that you’re grateful.

And failing that, I guess you could just send cash.

Sometimes when I ask my son what he wants to be when he grows up, he says “An artist!” Sometimes he says he’d like to be a librarian, or a policeman, or simply “Someone who always has cake.”

But I’d better hope I have a lot of time on my hands when I ask him and he answers “I’m gonna be Ben 10!” Because he can’t just say he wants to be Ben 10, he has to tell me why. And that explanation will doubtless include a litany of which aliens have which powers and what sorts of situations call for which things and before I know it I’ve been sucked into an alternate dimension where I am forced to discuss what sorts of super powers I would like to have.

And for some reason, he is never amused when I say “The ability to make my son stop talking.”

Anyway, I would consider it a personal favor if you would not let my son know that D3PA is developing the Ben 10: Protector of Earth video game:

Set to arrive this fall for Wii, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and PSP, Ben 10: Protector of Earth will allow players to harness the power of the Omnitrix and change into various alien beings in order to save the world vile villains.

I’m telling you, if my son finds out, it would be the end of the world as I know it. On the other hand, maybe if he had the game to play, he wouldn’t ask me quite so often to justify my love of Heatblast. (Heatblast isn’t necessarily my favorite. He’s just the only one whose name I can remember.)

“The Omnitrix’s most popular alien heroes will be accessible as playable characters, and a familiar summer vacation storyline including all-new locations and content for players will immerse gamers in Ben’s world like never before,” says Careen Yapp, VP of licensing and business development for D3PA.

Ben 10: Protector of Earth will feature other characters from the hit show, including Gwen, Grandpa Max, evil Kevin 11, the Forever Knights and Ben’s arch-enemy, Vilgax. Gameplay will involve a number of diverse challenges, puzzles and skirmishes. The Nintendo DS version is under development by 1st Playable Prods. LLC, while all other versions are being created by High Voltage Software Inc. The game is currently rated “RP” (Rating Pending) by the ESRB.

I need to come up with a plan, now, before the game comes out. Maybe I can use this as the ultimate bribe. “If you are very, very good maybe Santa will bring it,” I can tell him. But then I have to, you know, let Santa bring it. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

What could be better on a Monday morning than an assortment of movie news? Well, yes, I suppose coffee and a donut might improve things, but you’ll have to take care of that on your own. Must I do everything around here? Is it not enough that I show up here every weekday? Hmph. Some people.

(Okay, it’s possible that I need another cup of coffee before I’m fit to interact with others. Hang on. Ahhhh. Much better.)

First up: Spider-Man 3. Hotly anticipated, it opened this weekend to the delight of Spidey fans everywhere. And the verdict is…? A new box office record. Apparently Peter Parker can climb up walls, shoot webs out of his wrists, and earn 148 million dollars on opening weekend. Not too shabby.

Next: Do you like that picture, up there? Aren’t those Shreklings (Shreklets?) adorable? There’s something that makes me giggle about People Magazine doing a spread on ogre babies, but I’ll take it. I suppose we should’ve been able to guess that Shrek the Third was likely to bring triplets to our favorite green couple. (I know I’ve been talking about Shrek a lot, lately. We’ve got less than two weeks before the new movie opens, and then I’ll probably stop.)

One more Shrek tidbit: There’s talk of a Puss in Boots movie. No, really. [Hat tip to Animated News for both of these bits of Shrek news.]

And finally: The Incredible Hulk movie has been underway for a while, now, with the announcement that Edward Norton will play the Hulk now old news. It’s been newly announced, though, that Liv Tyler will play his love interest. Hmmm. I wonder how the real Hulk feels about all of this? Thanks to the miracle of the internet, I probably won’t have to wonder for long. It turns out that the Hulk has a blog. Of course.

Happy Monday!

They say that the best things in life are free, and most of the time I think that’s true. It’s perhaps especially true when those free things are the sorts of things you’d ordinarily have to pay for. Who doesn’t like getting something for nothing? Nobody I know.

You can learn just about everything you need to know on the official Free Comic Book Day site, but I’m sort of enjoying the Wikipedia entry:

Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers into independent comic book stores. Brainstormed by retailer Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics in Concord CA in his “Big Picture” column in the August 2001 issue of Comics & Games Retailer magazine, it was started in 2002 and is coordinated by the industry’s single large distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors.

Free Comic Book Day has usually been scheduled in May on the first Saturday after the release of a major theatrical film adaptation of a well known superhero property, in order to take advantage of the film’s heavy promotion and related press about the comic book medium. On Free Comic Book Day, participating comic book store retailers give away specially printed copies of free comic books, and some offer cheaper back issues and other items to anyone who visits their establishments.

If you’re not currently a comics fan, by all means—seize this opportunity to test the waters, for free. But even if you already know the joy of a good comic, why not take advantage? Free is my very favorite price, you know.

You can check out this partial list of available titles, with the titles guaranteed to be at every store including such goodies as The Amazing Spider-Man, Legion of Super Heroes, and Transformers. (I see that Archie is on the list as well, which warms my heart and reminds me of many summers at camp, reading comics by flashlight and wondering why Archie couldn’t just make up his mind between Betty and Veronica already.)

Not sure where to go? No problem. Enter your zip code for a list of stores near you.

And if all of that isn’t exciting enough, here’s a bonus. Although unaffiliated with Free Comic Book Day, May 5th is also Free Mini Comic Day!

Did I mention that you should probably share with your kids? That part is important, too.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy your free comics.