Saturday, July 20, 2024

The Pit and Hyperbole

This is the weekly dispatch from Bizarro Studios North, where I have been writing and drawing the Monday through Saturday Bizarro comics since 2018. My partner and friend Dan Piraro created Bizarro in the late twentieth century and continues to do the Sunday comic from Rancho Bizarro in Mexico.

Wayno

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
Pablo Picasso

The internet being what it is, I can't confidently state that Picasso actually said or wrote these words, but let's assume he may have said something similar, and move on.

Whoever said it, this quote elegantly demythologizes the notion that artists are visited by a benevolent goddess who drops art fully formed onto their canvas/paper/keyboard, etc. 

The mythical place where one can "get ideas" is equally absurd.

In truth, the only way to create art of any value is to work at it constantly. Part of that work is developing an ability to recognize images, phrases, or situations that might be turned into something. It's a skill that can be learned and improved, and it involves making a lot of stuff that gets discarded.

I thought about this over recent days, for a couple of reasons. Each time I complete another 150 Bizarro gags, I place the original art in an archival storage box and take a moment to observe the body of work as it grows. This month, I filled the fourteenth boxful of Bizarro art, bringing the total to 2,100 gags since I took over the daily panels in 2018. 

The Bizarro pile o' art, July 2024

A few days ago, I also answered some questions for a King Features blog post, including, "What advice do you have for aspiring comic artists?" Naturally, I mentioned the importance of doing the work consistently, over and over.

Knowing that the best art is the product of human determination makes me admire my favorites even more. Believing that artists have a mystical creature giving them "ideas" dismisses what they actually do, and makes them nothing more than lottery winners, worthy of jealousy perhaps, but certainly not respect.

Don't Be That Guy
Pencil, Micron marker, & rubber stamp
on 3" x 5" index card, 2024

After that near-rant, I must mention that Dan and I are fortunate to have so many readers who appreciate and understand how art comes to be (even lowly gag cartoons!) and we're beyond grateful for your support and readership.

When the King Features blog post is up, I'll be sure to share it. It includes a photo of my cluttered but beloved workspace.


Before we review this week's comics, we'll cleanse our palates with a simian pipe pic.


I looted this seafaring primate from my friend Timothy P's Facebook page. Here's his comment on it:
Spotted this a few weeks ago in the atrium of where my parents live. I'm sure there's an explanation for it, but I don't know it.
Maybe it's best to leave it as an intriguing mystery.

Thanks to Tim for being on the ball and taking the photo!


It's finally time to check out the most recent Bizarro gags. (I thought he'd never shut up!)


Some soups can be scary at first.


The defendant will have time to think about what they've done.


Poe was known to give public readings of his stories and was said to be a fan of theater. He was the Balti-most!

Note: The caption refers to Tales of Mystery & Imagination, a compilation of the author's suspenseful and strange stories, which was published posthumously.


Are the bookshelves in a Little Free Library called the short stacks?


I tried cryotherapy once, and felt great afterwards, but that could have been because the exposure to extreme cold had ended.


This was one of those gags that called for a vertical strip. Readers of printed newspapers had to rotate the page ninety degrees, but through the magic of the blog, you can read it here with no additional effort.

Note 1: I was quite pleased with the character's satisfied facial expression.

Note 2: Although there are no plans to offer Bizarro Inverted Penguin polo shirts, we're still waiting for Irön Bunnies öf Dööm t-shirts. As soon as they're available, we'll hype them everywhere we can.


I did image research to draw a likeness of Pavlov but failed on the Secret Symbol count. There are four Secret Symbols in this panel, not three.


The error was duplicated in the strip layout. At least it includes an additional pooch.

Please drop by again next week for more of this sort of stuff.

Bonus Track

The Kirby Stone Four: "Raven"
Cadence Records single, 1957


Two consecutive weeks of Kirby Stone Four bonus tracks? With the Edgar Allan Poe gag this week, I had to feature their hilarious "Raven." I've shared it in the past, but it's always worth a listen. For some reason, this excellent number did not appear on their Cadence Records LP.

Additional Bizarro Resources



  

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Saturday, July 13, 2024

Piracy, Puppetry & Product Placement

This is the weekly dispatch from Bizarro Studios North, where I have been writing and drawing the Monday through Saturday Bizarro comics since 2018. My partner and friend Dan Piraro created Bizarro in the late twentieth century and continues to do the Sunday comic from Rancho Bizarro in Mexico.

Wayno

I have a plan to consolidate my worries. I'm going to try to find a shrink who can talk all my worries from my head down to my arm, then to my hand, then finally down to one long fingernail. Then—wham!—all I have to do is clip the fingernail, and all my worries will be gone.

Virgil Partch (1916-1984)

Small wonder that the late Virgil Partch is one of my cartoon heroes. He was never shy about expressing his anxiety about working as a freelancer and facing deadlines. At the time of his death, he was two years ahead of deadline on his Big George comic strip. One could rightfully say that his art wasn't as great as it once was, but I can understand his motivation. 

If I could get four to six months ahead of deadline, I'd be a more relaxed dude. Well, maybe not, since the outside world gives us so much to be worried about. But my job as a cartoonist is to offer moments of relief from our everyday horrors, and I'll keep trying to provide that service.


Today we have a fine art pipe pic.

N.C. Wyeth: Self-Portrait
Tempera on hardboard, 1940

I tip my summertime cocoanut straw porkpie to Bizarro reader Jeff M for suggesting this charming painting by one of America's best-known artists.


As many of you know, in addition to the standard Bizarro panel, I also make an alternate version for newspapers that run it in a horizontal strip layout. 

This week, each gag required a different approach to fit the widescreen layout. In today's blog entry, every panel is followed by its strip for those who care to compare and to study some of my tricks for rearranging the art.




Monday's gag was the subject of some focused speculation on Arnold Zwicky's blog, which is mostly about language, but frequently discusses comics. Mr. Zwicky and one of his readers spent considerable time trying to determine whether the musicians in the panel were based on actual people.

I responded to Mr. Z and said that I like to do my homework when depicting real people, but these drawings are simply shorthand characters that are intended to read as hard rock or heavy metal musicians, of whom I have little knowledge. 

He sent me a very kind reply:
Ah, that was the other possibility -- that these images are coming from your subconscious, which is much richer than you credit. You have a truly gigantic bank of images, most of them partial and schematic, in your head -- it's one of your great powers as a professional artist --  and you mine them constantly in your work, rarely with any sense of where they come from. I assume that at some point you came across images of Kerry King as a thrash metal guitarist, and then bits of these images surfaced when you were trying to imagine a thrash metal guitarist. So you conjured up a nice-guy version of Kerry Fucking King (who is an amazing guitarist but otherwise a major asshole).

 You'll see that I'm posting more on your cartooning style, in some detail. That's pretty much orthogonal to the question of where your ideas come come from, but also interesting to me. How the craftsman does their job.
I recommend reading his blog, and truly appreciate people who care enough about comics to do in-depth research when they have questions about a cartoon.

Thanks to Arnold Zwicky and David Preston for identifying someone who could almost be the guitarist known as Zinc.




Even if you make him walk the plank, he floats.



Speaking of language in comics, I agonized over this caption and changed it multiple times. I finally chose Discotheque Support over Disco Tech Support. I thought that the three-word caption spelled out the gag too explicitly.



It's been almost a month since our last clown gag, so here's a new one.


Note: I'm still working out some issues over a grotesque toy from my childhood.



The reply was, "He's extinct to me."



I need not remind you why the 2024 Bizarro calendar is titled Cowboys & Clowns. 

I'd definitely buy a jug of Saddle Bag Rye.

Thanks for viewing my digital brain dump. I welcome and appreciate your comments, questions, and pipe pics, even if I can't always reply. Rest assured that I read every one.

See you next week!

Bonus Track

The Kirby Stone Four: "Clyde"
from the LP Rippin' N' Soarin'
Coronet Records, 1957-ish


A selection from one of the many oddball LPs I acquired in my years of shopping at Jerry's Records. The Kirby Stone Four were an unconventional vocal quartet who added a touch of jazz and a goofball sense of humor to many of their recordings. This LP is mostly okay, but "Clyde" is a standout.


The group fascinated me, and in the mid-1990s, I started putting together a proposal for a Best of the Kirby Stone Four compilation, which never came to be. I had a brief phone conversation with Eddie Hall, the "little guy" in the group. That's Eddie on the far right in the photo above. He was enthusiastic about the idea of a compilation, and during our call he told me about their appearance on The Judy Garland Show, which required multiple takes.

If you ever run across their Cadence LP Man, I Flipped When I Heard the Kirby Stone Four, grab it. You'll thank me.


A Hunka Hunka Burnin' Bizarro



  

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Saturday, July 06, 2024

Wishful Angling

This is the weekly dispatch from Bizarro Studios North, where I have been writing and drawing the Monday through Saturday Bizarro comics since 2018. My partner and friend Dan Piraro created Bizarro in the late twentieth century and continues to do the Sunday comic from Rancho Bizarro in Mexico.

Wayno

My goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.

Amy Coney Barrett, September 12, 2023
quoted in the Louisville Courier Journal

Apparently, that wasn't a long-term goal.

I'm writing this entry early in the week, with plans to disconnect from electronics over the Independence Day weekend. You know, the holiday that commemorates our rejection of being subjects of a king.

Rather than comment further, as I'm no constitutional scholar, I'll provide some balance with a quote from a worthier source:

Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop.

 

With fear for our democracy, I dissent. 

Sonia Sotomayor, July 1, 2024 

Enjoy the holiday. Next year at this time we could well be under an evangelical autocracy.

Please pardon the tone of today's intro. Watching the country's highest court and half of Congress aiding and abetting a criminal psychopath tends to make one cranky.


Until all forms of art are outlawed, we'll continue making cartoons and sharing them with you. But first, let's see what I've pulled from the pipe files.

Over the past couple of years, a few readers have sent me this internet-famous photo that's said to be a man named Rocky Fiegel, the real-life inspiration for Elzie Segar's Popeye character.


There was an actual person named Frank "Rocky" Feigel who probably inspired Segar, but this photo isn't him. (Thank you, Snopes.com.)
 
The ubiquitous image commonly identified as Feigel is actually a British sailor whose shipmates nicknamed him Popeye. The photo is from 1940, more than a decade after Segar created his iconic character. The internet has conflated that photo with Feigel's biography, and it will probably always be associated with him.

Thanks to faithful friend of Bizarro Jamie S. for reminding us about this pipe smoking swabbie, and prompting me to investigate its authenticity.


No felons participated in the creation of the following cartoons.


Unfortunately, genies are masters of deceptive fine print. Sorry, Aladdinsured.


Tuesday's panel depicts a little-known subplot from the Book of Genesis.


Transylvanian IP law is clear on this point.


Apologies to anyone who doesn't find courtroom gags funny right now. I do understand, but I still like the defendant's reading material.


ATMs are time-savers, but this one takes it to the next level.


I believe I attended this very sales pitch a few years back, though the message wasn't delivered so explicitly.

The complex will be named A Revolting Development.

Thanks for checking in on my latest comical activities. Your readership means a lot to us, and we appreciate your comments, questions, and pipe pics. See you next week!

Bonus Track

X: "Fourth of July"
from the LP See How We Are
Elektra Records, 1987





This song was written by the great American musician and songwriter Dave Alvin, who has performed and recorded killer versions of it on his own and with the Blasters.

The post will be published two days after the fourth, but it will still sound good.

A Lovely Bunch of Bizarro



 

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Saturday, June 29, 2024

Facial Hair Funnies

This is the weekly dispatch from Bizarro Studios North, where I have been writing and drawing the Monday through Saturday Bizarro comics since 2018. My partner and friend Dan Piraro created Bizarro in the late twentieth century and continues to do the Sunday comic from Rancho Bizarro in Mexico.

Wayno

Wit and puns aren't just decor in the mind; they're essential signs that the mind knows it's on, recognizes its own software, can spot the bugs in its own program.
Adam Gopnik

Someone recently shared this quote from New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik, which spoke to me as someone who works and plays with words. I scrutinize words in every way I can imagine, turn them upside down, and overanalyze them as part of my writing process.

I don't have much to add to this, and I probably grabbed it to remind (or reassure) myself that puns and wordplay are legitimate ingredients for a single-panel gag, as long as they're surprising rather than lazy.


Today's pipe pic was scanned from my current reading material.


The groovy image was created by illustrator Oscar Liebman for the paperback edition of The Boss Is Crazy, Too, a 1963 novel by cartoonist Mell Lazarus (1927-2016).


Liebman's drawing is a prime example of 1960s paperback art. The central character reminds me a little of Rockford Files actor James Garner.

Liebman was a prolific artist who created quite a few paperback book covers, some classics, and some "classics."


This is one of Liebman's milder sexploitation novel covers.

Mell Lazarus was a Mensa member who created two long-running daily comic strips, Miss Peach and Momma. I only recently became aware of his comic novel, via a Facebook post by fellow cartoonist Scott Shaw.

Scott's description was more than enough to send me off in search of a copy:
If you've ever worked for a comic book publisher, I guarantee that you'll laugh your ass off if you read Mell Lazarus' THE BOSS IS CRAZY, TOO (1963.) Before Mell was doing his comic strip MISS PEACH and long before he created MOMMA, Mell's first job as a cartoonist was working for Toby Press, a comic book publishing outfit that was owned by Al Capp. THE BOSS IS CRAZY, TOO has a plot that many feel was stolen for THE PRODUCERS, set in the world of 1950s comics, with stories inspired by Mell's experiences in the field and tons of non-existent Oddball Comics titles. 
Of course, the "Broadway Play and major motion picture" never happened and that's why I have to explain all of this to you.

Thanks to Scott for turning me on to this hilarious book. Speaking of hilarious books, Scott is the undisputed champion at unearthing and sharing weird comic book covers. Check out his collection of Oddball Comics, as well as his own fantastic artwork at his site, but be prepared to spend a lot of time there.


Now, it's time to see how crazy we got at Bizarro Studios North over the past six days.


We jumped right in with a bit of wordplay that we hope would meet with Adam Gopnik's approval.


The human farmer was based on character actor Hank Patterson, who played Fred Ziffel on Green Acres.


A cotton swab is the Nerf Bat of hexing.


How did that guy end up with my sketchbook?
 

I just noticed that this batch of gags is beard-heavy. Maybe the patient from Thursday's panel found work as this help desk operator who has achieved the elusive work/entertainment balance.


Speaking of wordplay as we were, this caption employs a construction that I refer to as a streptonym. I coined the term in 2011 and I'm still waiting for it to catch on among linguists.

Thanks for lending me your eyeballs for a while. I appreciate you for reading the blog and the daily comics. See you in a week.

Bonus Track

Ben Vaughn: "Growin' a Beard"


This ode to whiskers from my old pal Ben Vaughn seemed appropriate for today's post.

Mucho Mucho Bizarro



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