WaynoBlog: 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