Whenever I do a comic with social commentary, one might be inclined to believe that real-life events are what inspired them.

The above scenario isn’t something that has happened to me personally, but coming from Iowa, it wouldn’t surprise me if it did. Sometimes I resent that our country was founded by puritanical nutjobs. I resent it further that they all seem to camp out in my backyard.

Today’s comic is more of a response to the overzealous Christian parents who organized book burning in regard to the immense popularity of the Harry Potter book series (and, subsequently, the popular movie sequel debuting in theaters this weekend).

I think the swipe paints itself pretty clearly. It’s okay to saturate yourself with violence and gore, but fantasy and magic are no-no’s. Do these parents prevent their kids from watching David Copperfield specials? Do they refuse to have their picture taken out of fears that it may “steal their souls”. Personally, I find Steven Segal movies the greater offense to God.

Obviously the Harry Potter franchise has done a lot to get kids back into reading. How can that be a bad thing? In an era of diminished imaginations – where cable television, video games and the Internet eat away at brain cells, why would you want to punish a kid for reading? I don’t have kids, but if I did, I’d hand over the freakin’ Necronomicon if it meant having a child capable of stringing together a few sentences of cohesive thought down the road.

That’s probably enough ranting, but it’s good to get that out.

I did get a chance to see Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets this weekend – after trying three times!

I went on Friday night around 7:00 to try and secure tickets for the late showing at 10:30. The idea was to avoid having to sit through the film with a bunch of screeching 10 year-olds. The plan worked only too well when we learned ALL of that evenings shows were sold out.

We tried again Saturday afternoon in hopes of catching a matinee. But again, all afternoon shows were sold out. Cami had to work in the evening, so that option was out.

The stars finally aligned when I went to the theater AGAIN and purchased two tickets for a 7:15 showing. This time I had the foresight to go in and buy the tickets at noon. Geeze!

Although the film was long, I felt it was well worth the effort. I liked it better than the first movie because it got all of the clumsy introductions out of the way. I hope to have a review up sometime soon, but then again, I promised a review of Punch-Drunk Love a few weeks ago. These things tend to slip through my fingers.

As I mentioned in Friday’s blog, I bought Episode II on DVD last week – only to find that I purchased the full screen version and not the wide screen as the Gods command.

Fortunately, I had some luck sticking it to the man when I went to exchange it. Toys ‘R Us wasn’t the place where I made the trade, however. In fact, they were so useless, I wouldn’t wipe my ass with their customer service.

Where I struck gold was at Target of all places. I walk into the store with an OPEN copy of the DVD and tell them my whole sob story about how I didn’t know it was the full-screen version until I started watching it. Could I exchange it?

To my shock, the woman behind the counter said YES! At TARGET! The place my friend Nick gripes about having to hand over blood and urine samples when you want to make a return.

The woman told me to grab the version I wanted, and she would ring me up. The beauty of this situation is that I bought the full-screen version for $9.99 at Toys ‘R Us. The widescreen version at Target cost $15.99 – it would have been $22.99 if it weren’t on sale. I ended up making money on the deal!

Of course now I am constant fear of reprisal from the great, red bulls eye. They’re probably watching me right now. It’s most likely a grand mistake to admit my crimes in such a public forum. Let’s just say if I’m taking away by the retail tribunals, I won’t be surprised. If Wednesday’s comic is a bit late, like 5 to 10 years late, you’ll know why.