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
The earth cannot move without music. The earth moves in a certain rhythm, a certain sound, a certain note. When the music stops, the earth will stop, and everything upon it will die.
Sun Ra, Space is the Place
Sun Ra was one of the most prolific recording artists of all time. He released more than 100 albums in his lifetime. That's a conservative estimate. I have around forty Sun Ra discs in my music library, and I revisit them regularly.
Ra left the earthly plane in 1993 at age 79, and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Allen, who will soon be 102, continues to lead the Sun Ra Arkestra.
I usually listen to music while working, and I believe that live music is beneficial to one's well-being, so Run Ra's words resonate with me.
This month, I attended three terrific musical performances. On March 3, I saw Jonathan Richman, and more recently, two great shows at a favorite venue, The Original Pittsburgh Winery: The Town Pants, a Celtic/Roots/Rock band from Canada, and the Rebirth Brass Band from New Orleans.
After spending a good part of my adult life in loud clubs, in the audience, and sometimes onstage, I now have some hearing loss. It's not bad enough to require hearing aids, but I'm protective of what remains. Jonathan Richman's show was minimally amplified, so I didn't wear hearing protection that night.
I have earplugs with three sets of filters for different levels of noise reduction. At the Town Pants show, I realized I was wearing the strongest filters, which I used when running a snow blower. The show sounded a bit muffled, but we still had a great time.
Do yourself a favor and check out some live music. Even if it's not something you'd normally listen to at home, it's always worthwhile to hear accomplished players who do it every day.
Today's pipe pic is a portrait of Chinese cartoonist Hua Junwu, whom I learned about from Richard G's informative blog, Who's Out There?
A digital version of Chinese Satire and Humor, a collection of Hua's cartoons, is available here.
The cartoons I've seen are funny and satirical, and it seems his sharp humor was tempered by a friendly drawing style and beautiful brushwork.
This week's Bizarro gags might look rather odd, in part because there are almost no Secret Symbols. In early January, the symbols took a week of sick leave, and they're almost totally absent in this batch. Since then, they've been working at full strength.
This one reminds me of my days at a series of normal office jobs.
If the art looks different, it's because I did this week's gags in 2011, when I filled in for Dan Piraro as guest cartoonist. I inked with a heavier line than I do today. At that time, I was also assisting Dan by coloring his black-and-white art, and I used his more elaborate shading technique.
When the Secret Symbols were fighting off that virus, they passed it on to me—we work in a small studio space—and while I recovered, we pulled this batch of gags out of the storage unit.
Fifteen years ago, felonious fashion was a thing.
The Bunny of Exuberance was the last symbol to be knocked out by the illness. Apparently, an all-carrot diet provided some immunity.
I don't think I'd cram as many words into one panel today, and I hope I wouldn't be as snarky.
Clowns in one of my gags? Shocking.
This wasn't meant as a political statement in 2011. I'm not sure how it will be received today, but the online comments will let us know soon enough.
Thanks for indulging me while I recovered three months ago. We'll be back next week with new, improved gags, and the usual complement of Secret Symbols.
Bonus Track
Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns
"Would You Believe It? (I have a Cold)"
Ace Records single, 1959
This is a lesser-known Huey Smith song, with a great vocal by Bobby Marchan.
A Truckload of Bizarro Tomfoolery
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