Cruel Shoes

Cruel Shoes

Anna knew she had to have some new shoes today, and Carlo had helped her try on every pair in the store. Carlo spoke wearily, “Well, that’s every pair of shoes in the place.”

“Oh, you must have one more pair…”

“No, not one more pair… Well, we have the cruel shoes, but no one would want…”

Anna interrupted, “Oh yes, let me see the cruel shoes!”

Carlo looked incredulous. “No Anna, you don’t understand, you see the cruel shoes are…”

“Get them!”

Carlo disappeared into the back room for a moment, then returned with an ordinary shoe box. He opened the lid and removed a hideous pair of black and white pumps. But these were not an ordinary pair of black and white pumps; both were left feet, one had a right angle turn with separate compartments that pointed the toes in impossible directions. The other shoe was six inches long and was curved inward like a rocking chair with a vise and razor blades to hold the foot in place.

Carlo spoke hesitantly, “… Now you see why… they’re not fit for humans…”

“Put them on me.”

“But…”

“Put them on me!”

Carlo knew all arguments were useless. He knelt down before her and forced the feet into the shoes.

The screams were incredible.

Anna crawled over to the mirror and held her bloody feet up where she could see.

“I like them.”

She paid Carlo and crawled out of the store into the street.

Later that day, Carlo was overheard saying to a new customer, “Well, that’s every shoe in the place. Unless, of course, you’d like to try the cruel shoes.”

Still The Greatest Obituary Ever

Written by his (then) 18-year-old daughter.

Maybe you guys saw this a few years ago when it made the rounds on social media. My favorite joke in the whole thing is the one in the first sentence – I missed it the first time around.

Al Jaffee At 95

Inventor of the Fold-In, creator of Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions. Still sharp as a tack.

This Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions is a classic.

The Shiner

“The Shiner,” from MAD Magazine issue 221 (March, 1981).

Art by Angelo Torres, written by Larry Siegel.

Fuck You, I Like This Song

And I can’t stop listening to it.

Wikipedia says “Sloan is a Toronto-based rock/power pop quartet from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Throughout their career, Sloan has released 12 full-length albums, two EPs, a live album, a greatest hits album and more than 30 singles. The band has received nine Juno Award nominations, winning one.”

And yet I’d never heard of them until this song popped up on Underground Garage.

EDIT: Bonus song!

The Once And Future King?

John Byrne is my all-time favorite comic artist, going waaay back to his original run on The Uncanny X-Men beginning with issue 108 in December, 1977. Here’s some potentially big news as reported by Newsarama

John Byrne has stated that Marvel has reached out to him about new work – which, if it happens, would be his first for the publisher since 2000.

During a spotlight panel at Fan Expo Boston 2018, Byrne revealed it as part of explaining how his self-published continuation of his Uncanny X-Men run, called X-Men: Elsewhen.

“There was some discussion on my website: ‘What if you went back to Marvel?’ and it planted this itch in my brain. I thought, what if I went back to Marvel? Could I go back to Marvel? Can I do that? I haven’t drawn like that in 20 years,” Byrne said (as transcribed by Adventures in Poor Taste).

Byrne has drawn over 20 pages of X-Men: Elsewhen, classifying it as a fun side project he doesn’t intend to publish. Be that as it may, it got the attention ot Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief C.B. Cebulski.

“And then I got an email from C.B. Cebulski saying, ‘Love it! Let’s talk about this!’ Oh, that’s unexpected,” continued Byrne. “So yeah, it just happened as a fun thing. It’s still just a fun thing as far as I’m concerned.”

What’s In The Bag…

Here’s a new way to lose track of time and waste hours. What’s in your bag is a series of videos on You Tube where your favorite artist runs around Amoeba records and fills up a bag with their favorite music/dvds, and then tells you about why the picked whatever they selected. It’s been a nice go-to for finding new music, and a great way to waste hours without even realizing it. Here’s a few to get you started. They’re only a few minutes long…