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
Humor is basically a cognitive process, and it's a creative process not only on the part of the cartoonist but on the part of the viewer.
Robert Mankoff
Bob Mankoff is a great cartoonist who was The New Yorker's Cartoon Editor for twenty years. He's a deep thinker who cares about cartoons and is also funny as hell.
Mankoff makes a solid point about the creative aspect of reading cartoons. When we view a cartoon, we often have a microsecond of disorientation, a feeling that something doesn't quite make sense. It's only when we discover a connection to resolve a seeming contradiction that we get the gag. We have to make the same creative leap that the cartoonist did when constructing the gag. That's the type of readers cartoonists treasure and appreciate.
Less appealing are anonymous scoundrels who crop out the artist's name and, worse, try to "improve" a cartoon or twist it to their own purposes by clumsily altering the art and text. It's maddening, and there's generally nothing we can do about it. Digital images are too easy to copy and mess with.
My pre-Bizarro comic panel, WaynoVision, is still in reruns on GoComics. A wordless panel from 2016 recently came up in the rotation, and I happened to read the latest comments on it. As regular readers know, I find it tougher to convey a joke using no words, so this was a gag I was particularly happy with. Not long after it was originally published, I started seeing it on social media with a caption added, which I hated. Whoever did it made the cartoon a dumb reference to a popular movie.
The gag's recent appearance prompted a few comments, including this one:
It’s the same comic from a few months ago, just missing the caption, which was great.
Although I try to avoid responding to online comments, I foolishly posted a reply:
This cartoon is my work, published here on GoComics precisely as I intended—with no dialog or caption. Several years ago, someone copied the image and added a caption. That unauthorized, altered version periodically circulates on the web.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens to cartoonists every day.
Of course, another commenter missed my point completely, adding:
Unfortunate, but never the less [sic] it is a good caption.
I dropped the discussion at that point for the sake of my mental health.
The incident at least reminded me that we at Bizarro Studios are fortunate in that the vast majority of our readers are the kind who appreciate and respect cartoonists' creative work.
Instead of pouting about people who don't get it (willfully or otherwise), I'll take the opportunity to thank all of you for being outstanding citizens of the cartoon community.
Bizarro reader Vince C. found this amusing shot of film director Steven Soderbergh.
The photo is credited to "Peter Andrews," which turns out to be a pseudonym Soderbergh uses when he is the cinematographer on films he also directed to circumvent some rule of the Writer's Guild.
Thanks for the terrific find, Vince, and for its interesting backstory.
Here's a review of the latest Bizarro gags in their original, authorized form.
Wouldn't it be nice if such a thing existed?
I enjoyed configuring it for the strip layout, which reinforced the idea of vertical motion.
As a sibling, I would have loved to have this superpower.
Pity the rare Artificial Intelligence worker who has a conscience.
In a case of cartoons imitating life, this is a scene I witnessed in line at a local cafe. All I did was draw it to the best of my ability and a smart-aleck caption.
A lesser-known battle taking place in the DC comics universe.
Saturday's panel features a rare appearance of the Arrow of Vulnerability Secret Symbol.
Thanks for checking out my ramblings and scribblings. I'll have another fresh batch for you in a week.
Eno: "Driving Me Backwards"From Here Come the Warm Jets
Island Records, 1974
Brian Eno's first solo effort was released in February 1974, after he left Roxy Music and before he discovered/invented ambient music. I bought it the day it was released, not knowing what to expect, but sure it would be something out of the ordinary. It's still a favorite and still out of the ordinary.
A Lovely Bunch of Bizarro
Unfortunate, but never the less [sic] it is a good caption.