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
Rock 'n' Roll is a combination of good ideas dried up by fads, terrible junk, hideous failings in taste and judgment, gullibility and manipulation, moments of unbelievable clarity and invention, pleasure, fun, vulgarity, excess, novelty, and utter reservation. Greil Marcus
I recently read Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968-2010, collecting dozens of pieces over nearly four hundred pages. Marcus is one of my favorite cultural critics focused on popular music. His Dylan book is exhaustive (and almost exhausting), following the continual reinvention of the Bard of Hibbing, while documenting the writer's evolution.
There's not much one can add to the quote from Marcus's 1975 book Mystery Train, so let's move on to our current pipe pic.
Bizarro reader Kathleen H. found this oddball image on Facebook and sent it our way.
It appears to be a carved watermelon person smoking a carrot pipe. I've been unable to find the original source, but I like it enough to share it here.
While writing this post, I realized that the photo reminds me of the idiosyncratic folk musician Michael Hurley, although I don't recall ever seeing him smoking a pipe.
Thanks to Kathleen for spotting this gem.
No watermelons were harmed in making this week's Bizarro cartoons, and here's the proof.
If nothing else, a miner's helmet with a blazer and necktie is a unique fashion statement.
I would've toasted them.
I flipped the image for the strip version, so the word balloon and caption box both appeared on the right edge of the layout. For no reason, I changed the name tag from "Jeff" to "Spud."
Treehouse arrest is better than being a jailbird.
Our Leap Day gag is a riff on a familiar film scene and the latest addition to my growing pile of snowfolk cartoons.
In this apocalyptic vision, humans even wiped out Bizarro's Secret Symbols; a true nightmare scenario.
To compensate for the cockroach gag, our last one of the week contains a rare two-in-one Secret Symbol.
Thanks for stopping by and checking things out. We'll be back next week with another fistful of chuckles for you.
Bonus Track
Baba Brooks Orchestra: "Watermelon Man Ska"
R&B Discs UK, 1963
A unique take on Herbie Hancock's classic composition.
Whole Lotta Bizarro
If you like what we do and appreciate that it comes to you free of charge, we encourage you to explore any or all of the following links.
I didn't know about the Greil Marcus book on Dylan. I will have to find a copy. I read Anthony Scaduto' s Dylan biography when I was 17 and have been fascinated by him ever since.
Hello Wayno Alan here, from Canada's frozen tundra. We've chatted before. I wish to submit my Bizarro cartoon idea. Free of charge out of my own brain-box (not stolen).
Single panel : Large-winged dinosaur flying through the air - dragging an airplane banner - with several letters blacked out.
Sorts like... "JA⬛PICK⬛S"
Caption reads: PTER-REDACTED
That's the suggestion. Let me know. Thanks Alan Harrington Canada (twitter follower + paid subscriber to the Naked Cartoonist + 3x previous contributor)
Hey Wayno, sitting here in cold Calgary Alberta north of 49 listening to an Elizabeth Cotten album, wondering why I hadn’t heard this music til now(well ,last week) . Thanks for all the laughs, but just as many thanks for broadening my musical horizons every week.
I didn't know about the Greil Marcus book on Dylan. I will have to find a copy. I read Anthony Scaduto' s Dylan biography when I was 17 and have been fascinated by him ever since.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware of Scaduto's book. I just put it on hold at the library. Thanks for the tip!
DeleteSoitenly!
DeleteHello Wayno
ReplyDeleteAlan here, from Canada's frozen tundra. We've chatted before. I wish to submit my Bizarro cartoon idea. Free of charge out of my own brain-box (not stolen).
Single panel : Large-winged dinosaur flying through the air - dragging an airplane banner - with several letters blacked out.
Sorts like... "JA⬛PICK⬛S"
Caption reads: PTER-REDACTED
That's the suggestion. Let me know. Thanks
Alan Harrington
Canada (twitter follower + paid subscriber to the Naked Cartoonist + 3x previous contributor)
Thanks, Alan. I'll write that down in my sketchbook and let it percolate in my head.
DeleteHey Wayno, sitting here in cold Calgary Alberta north of 49 listening to an Elizabeth Cotten album, wondering why I hadn’t heard this music til now(well ,last week) . Thanks for all the laughs, but just as many thanks for broadening my musical horizons every week.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, Elizabeth Cotten's stuff is perfect!
DeleteAbsolutely love the two-in-one secret symbol—perfect!
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly!
Delete