The Art of Compromise

The Week in Review
Welcome to another recap of the week's cartoons, from the staff at Bizarro Studios North.

The trickiest part of the date depicted in Monday's gag was selecting a bottle of wine to share.

It occurs to me that restaurants might be more interesting if all diners wore bibs sporting pictures of their entrées.

This poor kid never stays awake long enough to hear how the story ends. 

We got the name Örvar from Örvar-Oddr, a character who's the hero of a 13th-century Icelandic epic. We pride ourselves on the research that goes into your daily cartoon, especially when it gives us a reason to use an umlaut.

Literary scholars estimate that Shakespeare wrote Richard III two years before writing Richard II. This supports the theory that the term "spoiler alert" originated in the Elizabethan era.

Everyone dreads presentations with slide after slide of bullet points, but this guy took an overly literal approach. After the meeting, the org chart behind him was immediately revised.

There are so many choices for entertainment "content," the program mentioned here is probably available somewhere.

This is the first time head lice have appeared in one of my comics, so I searched for reference photos before working on the art. The drawings are simplified representations, but I'd like to imagine that an entomologist could identify them.

For clowns, "gag reflex" is a response to humor stimuli rather than a contraction at the back of the throat. We're not sure where you tap that tiny hammer to test for it.

It's my continued pleasure to work with Dan Piraro on the Bizarro dailies. Don't forget to read Dan's blog for his comments on the week's offerings, along with his latest Sunday panel. 

Unrelated Bonus Thing 
I just added this book to my reading pile: Poetics of Music by composer Igor Stravinsky.  

While reading another book on music, I came across a reference to Stravinsky describing the job of a composer as simply putting the time and energy into the work of writing music, rather than waiting for inspiration to drop from the sky (I'm paraphrasing). That explanation of the work behind creative endeavors made me want to read more.

Much of the material will most certainly be over my head, but it should be interesting to follow as much as I'm able.

This 1956 paperback edition also has a terrific cover designed by Paul Rand (1914-1996). Rand was an influential modernist graphic designer, and was responsible for the iconic logos for IBM, UPS, Westinghouse, ABC TV, and many others. In addition to logos and books, he did advertising and editorial work, product packaging, made paintings, and was an art director and educator. He lived to the age of 82, which doesn't sound like enough time for all he accomplished.