Spring Ahead

Before we turn our clocks ahead early tomorrow morning, here's a look back at the Bizarro comics calendar for the past week.

Monday's offering is based on an early draft of the Book of Genesis, where Adam & Eve were tempted by a talking bird rather than a serpent. 

This cartoon utilizes a form of wordplay we employ from time to time, where unrelated phrases or names are smashed together by a common linking word. A few years ago, I came up with the term streptonym as a name for this verbal construction. I've written about it on this blog and elsewhere, but it never caught on with linguists.

When this cartoon ran, many readers in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the States were shoveling snow, enduring power outages, and cursing Mother Nature. I hope this cartoon gave them a chuckle in spite of the weather, if they had enough light to read it.

Imaginary monsters under the bed are nothing compared to the actual monsters we see in the news every day. However, we're also seeing an inspiring young generation who are giving our modern-day ogres plenty to fear themselves.

Many of the comics published on Thursday noted that it was International Women's Day. We envisioned this scene, where a girl's merit badge project actually shows up to claim the merit badge. The cartoon was inspired by the work of the nonprofit organization Girls Who Code, which aims to support and increase the number of women in computer programming, and to close the gender gap in technology.

Composing the text for this one was an enjoyable exercise, finding the right words to describe the progression of moods that usually follow that initial hour of happiness. I think we got it just about right.

March 10, 2018 is the 142nd anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's historic first phone call, which he made to his assistant, Thomas Watson. That happened on a Friday, and by Saturday, Bell had already moved on to punking poor Watson.

I took some liberties with the art, since bell was not yet 30 years old in 1876. I based my drawing on a later image of Bell making the first long distance call, from New York to Chicago in 1892. By that time, everyone was tired of hearing him pull the same gag, but they played along because he was a beloved figure who made his investors giant piles of money. 

Although home refrigerators weren't introduced until the early part of the 20th century, we're reasonably certain that Watson (who enjoyed a cold sarsaparilla) probably owned an early vapor-compression system to keep his beverage chilled to the ideal temperature.

Thanks to all of you Bizarro Jazz Pickles who read these weekly posts in addition to following the comics every day. Your interest is appreciated throughout the enterprise, from the home office at Rancho Bizarro in Mexico, to Bizarro Studios North, in Hollywood Gardens, USA.

Our CEO (Chief Eyeball Officer) Dan Piraro also posts a weekly recap along with his always-gorgeous Sunday panel. You can find that comic and Dan's commentary at Bizarro.com.