Fast Food

Happy Saturday, Jazz Pickles. I'm going to try and keep this update brief, since it's the opening day of our community's farm market and I don't want to miss out on the first offerings of the season. Besides, there's a local distillery who offers free samples at their table.

Monday's gag is dedicated to my cartooning colleagues. Most of us probably heard comments about applying ourselves our whole lives. I'm fairly certain that phrase turned up on a few of my old report cards. 

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my job doing the daily Bizarro is having Dan Piraro as collaborator and editor. Early in the week, I create a pile of cartoon sketches and send them to Dan so we can discuss them and decide which ones make the cut. My first sketch of this one showed the Little Engine with a cigarette drooping from his mouth.

Dan suggested we move his cigarette to the rim of the smokestack, which gave us even more room for a lazy wisp of smoke. It's a small, but brilliant revision.

By the way, little engines make terrible pets, and are very hard on furniture.

There was some online speculation regarding what type of car is depicted in this comic. It bears a passing resemblance to a Volvo P1800, but perhaps this tag found in the glove box offers a clue:

(Posted with apologies to my fellow Italian-Americans)

Mama Calamari knows best, but kids rarely listen.

A friend of mine noted that the young squid was considerably more scared in the strip layout.

This gag features an old and very odd toy. They're still for sale, under the names Bug Out Bob and Panic Pete. The comments and questions on the Amazon product pages are worth checking out.

Continuing our tradition of poking fun at superheroes, we extend our ridicule to the citizens of Metropolis, who always need three guesses to identify their most famous citizen. He finally had enough and confronted them about it, but they still look confused. It's no wonder the guy has identity issues.

We round out the week with a variation on a classic cartoon theme of a person crawling through the desert. I enjoyed drawing the buzzards.

This week, I hit a bit of a milestone in my new role here at Bizarro Studios North, and finished the 150th cartoon under my authorship. 

The stack of 150 originals was lovingly placed in an archival storage box. Yes, I stamp the date on each original drawing and number it in the corner.

Putting the lid on the box reminded me to pause to thank Dan for trusting me to fill in the rectangle every day, and to thank every Bizarro reader for following, sharing, and commenting.

For even more behind the scenes commentary, pop on over to Dan's blog, and while you're there, gaze in wonder at his Sunday panel, and treat yourself to some Bizarro swag.

See you next week!