Saturday, October 26, 2024

Portraits & Landscapes

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

When you deal with humorists, you deal with dynamite.
Harold W. Ross to E.B. White [Summer 1936]

I'm reading Defining New Yorker Humor, by Judith Yarros Lee, a professor at Ohio University recognized as a leading authority on American literary humor.

New Yorker founder Harold Ross wrote the words above to the future author of Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web eleven years after the magazine was launched. White was one of its earliest staff writers and contributed for almost sixty years.

I have yet to locate the context for this quote and wonder if it expresses appreciation or dread. Since Ross championed humor as a mission of TNY, I'm leaning toward the former. 

I hope to discover more about this quote later in the book. I've also contacted Dr. Lee to ask about it, and she will check her files to get a citation and perhaps more info on the context. 

I do know that humor often involves surprising the audience, not unlike a hidden stick of dynamite.



Ron H. of Baldwin, Pennsylvania sends this photo of a lawn sculpture standing beside the front stoop of his home.



I was pleased to get a pipe pic from someone not far from Bizarro Studios North and am glad to know that Ron's home is protected from whatever gnomes protect us from.


Thanks, Ron! I'm at my studio window waving to you.



Each of this week's cartoon panels presented its own challenge when being reformatted for the strip layout, so for this review, I'll show both versions of every gag.


A word of caution: When you read Bizarro, you'll most likely deal with some dynamite; not to mention pie, pipes, and UFOs.




A few readers asked if the bearded fellow was meant to be Tommy Chong. I didn't have him in mind, but I can see why someone might think that, man.


I kicked off the week with a relatively easy one to stripify. I merely had to crop in on the characters and reposition the flying saucer and pipe.


My favorite detail in this gag is the yo-yos using their strings to hold their beverages.


The strip reverses the staging, allowing me to place the word balloon and caption box on the same end of the layout.

My least favorite detail in this gag is that I undercounted the Secret Symbols. There are six, not five. Several readers commented or wrote to let us know, and we appreciate their attention to detail. 

Thanks to everyone who spotted the error. This is a reminder of why I didn't go into accounting.


My first thought was to have the stinkbug sing about being overshadowed by the arrival of a spotted lanternfly, but that's still a regional pest, so I went with the more familiar cicada.


I broke my rule about placing a word balloon and a dialog box in a strip because the art had enough open space to put them on opposite ends.

Vinyl trivia: "Stinkbug Blues" was the B-side of "I Put a Smell on You."


This seems logical, doesn't it?


I try to avoid reducing the art for strips since we don't control how small the comics appear in print. If this drawing had been reduced by even a little, the kiddie trike would've become an unrecognizable blob when reproduced on newsprint, so I chopped off the adult just below the shoulders.


A couple months ago I woke up wondering which type of sock puppet is more evolved. The debate rages on.


This one also required minimal shuffling.


Saturday's panel had the most extreme vertical spread of elements, and I expected it to be most difficult to reconfigure as a strip.


It didn't give me much trouble at all. After almost seven years on the job, maybe I'm learning to plan ahead.



I had fun creating obsolete magazines for the waiting room, even though some might be too small to make out in print. My favorite is the Yorker, which I imagined as the predecessor to the New Yorker.

"Up the Irons!"


Here's Scott S., our latest t-shirt model, who reports:

I had purchased tickets to see Iron Maiden months ago for their Denver, Colorado show. When I read that I could be the proud owner of an Irön Bunnies t-shirt, it was the perfect opportunity to show support for two of my favorite art forms.

Rock on, Scott, and thanks for the great picture!


If you’d like to be a Bizarro fashion model, send your picture, along with a comment, to WaynoCartoons(at)gmail(dot)com.


Fine print: By sending your photo, you permit us to share it online. Readers will be identified by first name only. Whether or not you send a picture, we truly appreciate your purchase of Bizarrowear!



Thanks for wading through my blatherings for yet another week.


See you next Saturday.


Bonus Track

The Rolling Stones: Play With Fire
Decca Records single, 1965



"Play With Fire" was the B-side of the Rolling Stones' 1965 single "The Last Time." 

The Harold Ross quote about humorists brought it to mind.

Several Sites For Bizarro Stuff


  

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Saturday, October 19, 2024

Twenty Gallon Hat

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

[Cats] teach you that you can have a happy life without knowing anything at all. They take care of themselves, and they make their own fun. To be an individual, to be self-content—those are nice qualities for a life.
Ai Weiwei

As someone who has lived with cats for most of my adult life, I can vouch for Ai WeiWei's observation.

Despite their reputation for being aloof and picky, my experience is that our feline companions embody the Zen idea of living a life of peaceful simplicity.

The least we can learn from them is to be aware of and appreciate life's everyday pleasures—like reading the funnies, for example.


Bizarro reader Pat M. of Lincoln, Nebraska was kind enough to send me a photo of his 2003 painting of his late Uncle Forrest.



Pat is also a musician who's been making home recordings of his original songs since the 1970s and now posts them on his YouTube channel.


He notes, "I am adding video and slideshow content so the listener/viewer doesn't have to stare at the same photo throughout the entire song."


Sincere thanks to Pat for sharing his art and music. Our community of readers continues to impress me.


And hats off to Uncle Forrest.



Let's see how many pipes turn up in the latest batch of Bizarro gags.



This is a rare chance to tell someone they're too small for their britches.



What's an antonym for cubism?


Wednesday's gag depicts a common subaquatic anxiety.


I've found that I'm better at playing ukulele than I ever was at the guitar, which I attribute to a more favorable strings-to-fingers ratio. The plush bear should probably go for voice lessons, although he might be good at fuzz guitar.

By the way, doesn't the instructor look snazzy in his Irön Bunnies öf Dööm t-shirt? You can get one from the Comics Kingdom Bizarro shop!


It might be time for the old woodcarvers' home.


Sometimes I think a gag will be nice and easy to draw, and then spend as much time on it as a more complicated image.


At least the strip conversion was simple. Apologies to newspaper readers who had to rotate their papers by ninety degrees.

Wow, there was just one pipe in the entire week. I'll try to do better next time.

Jazz Pickle for a Jazz Pickle

Recently, Beej from NYC modeled a Pipe of Ambiguity shirt for us. He also ordered a Jazz Pickle shirt for his friend the bandleader Ed Palermo. He delivered it when Ed played a gig at the prestigious Iridium Jazz Club, a former hangout of guitar great Les Paul.



Those beaming smiles tell me that Ed was happy with the gift from his friend.


Next time I'm in New York, I hope to catch Ed's big band, which performs creative arrangements of originals, jazz standards, and surprises such as the music of Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, the Beatles, and even Edgar Winter.


Big thanks to Beej for supporting cartoonists and musicians.


If you’d like to be a Bizarro fashion model, send your picture, along with a comment to WaynoCartoons(at)gmail(dot)com.


Fine print: By sending your photo, you permit us to share it online. Readers will be identified by first name only. Whether or not you send a picture, we truly appreciate your purchase of Bizarrowear!



Thanks, as always for your Bizarro readership.


Drop by next week for more of this stuff.


Bonus Tracks

The Ed palermo Big Band: Waka/Jawaka
From The Ed Palermo Big Band Plays the Music of Frank Zappa
Astor Place Recordings, 1997




Naturally, I've been investigating Ed Palermo's music. Here, his big band plays the title tune from Frank Zappa's Waka/Jawaka album.

More Bizarro For Your Enjoyment


  

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Saturday, October 12, 2024

Recombinant Literature

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

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Oscar Wilde

This quote popped up as a fun reminder that Halloween is coming soon, but it can also be read as a prediction about virtual communications. People can be guarded in face-to-face conversation, with their words being more performative than informative. 

Behind the mask of online anonymity, many people are more likely to reveal themselves, which I believe is Wilde's truth—showing their true nature instead of speaking the truth.

Masks can be literal physical disguises, but they're usually less obvious, if more intentional facades. The phrase "putting up a front" comes to mind.

A "front" can be as simple as a business suit and a lapel pin. When encountering this type of mask, it's wise to pay attention to the person who's behind it.


Today's mysterious pipe pic comes from Bizarro reader Stuart V.



The only information we have about it is that Stuart spotted it "on the backside of a garage, looking out over the countryside in Redmond, Oregon."


I can't decide whether it's whimsical, menacing, or both. Perhaps it was meant to protect the garage it's attached to. 


Whatever its origin or purpose, I thank Stuart for the photo, and for not taking offense when I recently did a comic about someone named Stu.


Now, let's look at the cartoons I've been hiding behind for the past week.



Isn't their matching climbing gear adorable?


When I turned in this batch of comics, I spelled the chimp's name as "Cheetah." JB, my tireless editor asked me if it should be spelled without the final "h," and we both spent a fair amount of time researching the correct spelling.


The character never appeared in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan books, so that was a dead end.


Credits for the 1932 film Tarzan the Ape Man used Cheeta, who was played by a chimp named Jiggs. Articles in The Washington Post and People Magazine referred to the animal character as Cheetah, as did The New York Times, in the animal's 2012 obituary.


A photo from the funeral only muddied the waters.



The box of ashes is marked Cheetah, and the memorial card says Cheeta.


We decided to go with Cheeta, as credited in the 1932 film. I think that variant looks more like a name anyway.



The poor fellow's only half-awake.



I shuffled more than two dozen titles while working out this gag.



The seersucker jumpsuits are for the summer months, of course. You can tell it's summertime by the sheriff's mint julep.


These two are known associates of the Roget Gang.


The strip layout is aesthetically satisfying in its own way.


I wrote this gag in August after a certain despicable political figure tried to downplay outrageous undemocratic comments he made as mere "thought experiments." It sounded like something a lazy high schooler might try to pull.

Since then, that same character has spouted countless repugnant ideas and proposals.

Sometimes a "mask" is just a beard and eyeliner.

This Week's Spokesmodel


Daria S., who received a Bizarro tee as a birthday gift from her husband Richard says, "On a gorgeous autumn day, my jazz pickle and I take in the sights of Saint John, New Brunswick on the shores of the Bay of Fundy."



Bizarro Jazz Pickle, Pipe of Ambiguity, and Irön Bunnies öf Dööm shirts are available in assorted colors from the Comics Kingdom Bizarro Collection.


Thanks to Daria and Richard for sharing this delightful photo. If you’d like to be a Bizarro fashion model, send your picture and a comment to WaynoCartoons(at)gmail(dot)com.


By sending your photo, you permit us to share it online. Readers will be identified by first name only. Whether or not you send a picture, we truly appreciate your purchase of Bizarrowear!



Thank you for reading Bizarro and supporting the art of cartooning.


See you next week.


Bonus Track

The Ran-Dells: "Martian Hop"
Chairman Records, 1963




A Halloween hit from the archives of Bizarro Studios North. I don't think I've ever played the the B-side, but apparently it reveals the Martian hop story as a fabrication.

Lots of Bizarro Links 


  

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