Crawl Ahead

Tonight's the night we fumble with our clocks and wonder why we still go through this strange ritual. Tomorrow morning, the official time will jump from 1:59 AM directly to 3:00 AM, while the country does its best to return to the 1850s.

Let's take a short look back in time, and review the week's Bizarro cartoons.

Monday's gag was based in part on a pair of "aspirational jeans" which hang in my closet waiting for a time when I might fit into them again. Fortunately, inking the snails' funky textures proved to be a therapeutic exercise that took my mind off my pants.

We received an angry email in response to this gag. The entire text follows:

I find your 3/3/20 publication to be OUTRAGEOUS. How dare you!

I never imagined that someone might think I was implying that Ben Franklin had returned from the dead and was driving a modern car, but that's the only reason I could come up with for such dudgeon. Perhaps the writer is an electricity denier.

I have a friend who's nowhere near retirement age, but is so intensely focused on their job, that it's difficult to imagine them performing normal, non-work activities. I know someone else who's gone beyond fifty years at the same job, and is vital, thriving, and truly seems to enjoy it. Both of these friends helped to inspire this cartoon about someone adjusting to a new routine.

Whatever makes you happy and keeps your brain active is cool, no matter what the calendar tells you.

I took advantage of the strip's wider layout to add another lecture attendee. Any excuse to draw Mister Potato Head.

At this particular establishment, the same tool is used for piercings and for punching customers' frequent flyer cards.

Friday's Bizarro led this cartoonist down a rabbit hole of research. In order to set up the caption, I read summaries of Medea, the Greek tragedy written by Euripides. Wow. I've seen some graphically violent movies in my time, but even a brief synopsis of this gruesome play is hard to take.

As I often do, I used photo reference while preparing the drawing.

My first reference image was a 1907 painting by John William Waterhouse, showing Medea and Jason in happier times, as she concocts a performance-enhancing potion for her then-husband.

I also took some elements from this sassy photo of Maria Callas as Medea in Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1969 film. This was her only non-operatic acting role.

I looked at a few other photos of stage productions, but these two images provided plenty of inspiration.

After Friday's highfalutin cultural mashup, we ended the week with a simple, stupid pun.

That's the output from this week, Jazz Pickles. Check in next Saturday for more useless information. And don't forget to read Dan Piraro's blog, where you can gaze in wonder at his latest Bizarro Sunday page.

Happy Daylight Saving. Keep that hour in a safe place. You might need it one day.

Bonus Track

Rock music for snails.