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
Greetings from Bizarro Studios North in spooky Hollywood Gardens, Pennsylvania, and welcome to November.
If you have a post-Halloween sugar hangover, take comfort in the fact that Daylight Saving Time ends tonight, and you can sleep for an extra hour tomorrow morning.
Congratulations to all of us for surviving another month in this insane year.
Today's historic pipe pic comes to us courtesy of Bizarro field correspondent Dave F. of Austin, Texas.
Dave wrote:
We just visited Charleston SC which is home to The Citadel, a military academy with a long and interesting history. While touring their museum of student life over the centuries, the attached photo of an anonymous student in his barracks room circa 1900 caught my attention. Hope you like it!
It looks like our anonymous student had a small bottle of champagne on the shelf to his left.
A tip of the winter fedora to Dave F. for taking the time to snap a photo of the photo and send it to us for the blog.
If you ever spot a Bizarro comic in the wild, I'd be grateful for a photo of that, too.
We now present our cartoon output for Halloween week and hope your enjoyment is full-size, not "fun size."
Our guard should apply for a position at the Museum of Malapropisms to get out in front of the probable closure of institutions that dare to present natural history.
Face-painting falls somewhere in the middle.
Or at least it's supposed to be.
Following the commercial success and critical acclaim of Andy Warhol's Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, there were reportedly plans for a series of Shakespeare adaptations, starting with Andy Warhol's Macbeth. At least that's how I remember it.
Before this one, I don't believe I've done a gag with three characters speaking. I had to be creative with the word balloons for the strip layout.
The panel for Halloween Day combines two of my recurring themes: clowns, and ghosts wearing sheets.
One would assume that in this case, it simply means "a boatload."
Thanks for dropping by. I'll be here again next Saturday with another cartoon recap and whatever else is bouncing around my skull.
Where's Wayno?
I spent a couple of hours visiting a historic building back in September. Can you guess the location?
Read about it in my newsletter (which will be updated a few hours after this blog entry goes live).
Halloween Bonus Track
Louis Armstrong: "The Skeleton in the Closet"
from the film "Pennies from Heaven" (1936)
Here's a last gasp of Halloween from the great Louis Armstrong.
Much More Bizarro Madness
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.
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
A stranger is shot in the street, you hardly move to help. But if, half an hour before, you spent just ten minutes with the fellow and knew a little about him and his family, you might just jump in front of his killer and try to stop it. Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know, is bad, or amoral, at least. You can’t act if you don’t know.
Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
In my household, we watch spooky movies throughout October. Some are works of art, and some are goofy romps. One film we revisit every year is 1983's Something Wicked This Way Comes, based on Ray Bradbury's 1962 horror/fantasy novel.
The text quoted above didn't make it into the movie, but it feels especially relevant. The lack of empathy and the level of cruelty on exhibit lately are directly related to what Bradbury called a refusal to know. The rampant "othering" of groups of our fellow humans makes too many feel they have permission to treat people as less than human. Being part of a community is wonderful, unless it devolves into tribalism.
Perhaps Halloween is popular for the same reason people celebrate Mardi Gras: Masks and costumes can obscure the arbitrary differences people with too much (or too little) power and wealth exploit to define groups of people as "them."
Today (Saturday), we'll be attending our town's annual Halloween parade, cheering the high school band in their themed costumes, and watching kids scramble for treats thrown their way.
I hope you all have an enjoyable Halloween, see a lot of fabulous costumes, and give and receive the best treats. Mask up, have fun, and meet and greet your neighbors.
Don't refuse to know.
Bizarro field correspondent Danielle A. spotted this vintage metal leaf tobacco box in a collectibles shop in her hometown.
The illustration on the box is charming and well-executed. The marine looks as if he's emerging from a porthole in its side.
Thanks to Danielle for taking the photo and sharing it with us. I love to see pipes found in the wild.
Oh, and if you ever see a Bizarro comic displayed somewhere out in the physical world, I'd be grateful for a photo of that, too.
Halloween creeps into Bizarro this week and next, although we keep the holiday in our dark hearts all through the year. Here's the latest sextet of cartoons.
Monday's gag was inspired by the Beatles knockoff records that proliferated in the 1960s. Designed to fool well-meaning grandmas, the phony groups had names like the Buggs, the Liverpools, or the Beat-A-Manias.
Metaphorical, if not inaccurate.
I offer my apologies to Charles Schulz.
"But I'm keeping the Dr. Brown's eyeball soda."
Their business card says "England's Newest Note Takers."
We wrap up with a reading from The Book of Rebellious Offspring 6:13-22.
Thanks for taking the time to read these boxes of badinage. Come back next week for more of this sort of nonsense.
Bizarro Bonus Track
The Kirby Stone Four: "You Came From Outer Space"
From Man I Flipped When I Heard the Kirby Stone Four Cadence Records LP, 1958
The Kirby Stone Four were one of many vocal quartets of the 1950s and early 1960s. They released several LPs on Columbia Records and other, smaller labels, but their debut on Cadence remains my favorite.
The group incorporated boisterous comedy, vocal impersonations, and a jazzy sensibility that set them apart from their contemporaries.
I chose "You Came From Outer Space" as today's bonus track because it's fitting for Halloween, and as a nod to Bizarro's Secret Symbol, the Flying Saucer of Possibility.
This song closes out the Rhino Records box set Brain in a Box: The Science Fiction Collection, a five-CD compilation released in 2000. Each disc is dedicated to a genre or style: Movie themes, TV themes, Pop, Lounge/Incidental, and Novelty. I served as an "A&R consultant" on the project, and the KS4 track was one of my suggestions that made the cut.
Rhino was known for extravagant packaging, and Brain was one of their most elaborate box sets.
It's designed to resemble a mad scientist's apparatus powered by a human brain, and it has lenticular images on three sides. It's a gem in my collection.
Need More Bizarro? We've Got You Covered.
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.
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
Civilization cannot last or advance without culture. Ahmad Jamal (1930-2023)
Pianist Ahmad Jamal is one of many great jazz musicians who were born in Pittsburgh. He achieved significant commercial success while being respected and admired by his peers.
Miles Davis himself spoke highly of Jamal:
All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal. He knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement, and the way he phrases notes and chords and passages.
Jamal's example is a valuable study for practitioners of any creative pursuit. With a simple trio of piano, bass, and drums, and a delicate touch, he created a body of work that rewards repeated listening.
I think of Ahmad Jamal when I (attempt to) cook. I limit the ingredients and allow them to do their thing without a lot of distractions. I also try to keep my comic art uncomplicated to serve the gag, which is somewhat paradoxical since Bizarro is sprinkled with our Secret Symbols. The eyeball, flying saucer, pipe, and other symbols should be thought of as seasoning rather than the focus of the visual dish.
Bizarro field correspondent Derek R. brought this week's pipe pic to my attention.
It's a shot of Albert Einstein with Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, reviewing a letter they sent to Franklin Roosevelt following the 1938 discovery of nuclear fission. The two scientists warned FDR of the potential for the development of extremely powerful and destructive weapons using nuclear chain reactions.
This photo and the accompanying history can be found on the National Park Service's website. This is an excerpt from that page:
The Manhattan Project was a highly significant chapter in America’s history that ushered in the nuclear age, determined how the next war, the Cold War, would be fought, and served as the organizational model behind the remarkable achievements of American "big science" during the second half of the twentieth century.
The Manhattan Project also raised ethical and moral questions among scientists and citizens alike—questions that continue to this day. More than 200,000 people died by the end of 1945 as a direct result of the atomic bombings. The advance of nuclear science has given rise to nuclear energy and medicine as well as radioactive waste and health problems. The Manhattan Project and its legacies are complex as the science that made the project possible.
Thanks to Derek for the photo and history lesson. I recommend checking out the referenced web page before anti-science zealots take it down.
Let's see how the latest Bizarro panels score on understatement and lightness of touch.
Perhaps I should have saved this for Halloween, but I enjoy doing ghostly gags throughout the year.
That "lumberjack" pattern is known as buffalo plaid in the US, but it originated in Scotland as the MacGregor Red and Black tartan.
Tuesday's panel isn't autobiographical. I took Spanish in school.
In response to the cartoon, my good friend Jeff shared this photo of a reference book from his home library.
Merci, mon frère!
A
caption for the eye rather than the ear. It could be considered a "visual pun" since the words "through" and "trough" look very similar without sounding at all alike; a form of misdirection.
I believe this is what's called an unforced error.
Friday's panel resulted from a sketchbook drawing.
The image of a car mechanic doing ventriloquism using a crash test dummy made me smile, but it wasn't until a week later that I came up with dialogue to flesh it out.
I sometimes watch nature documentaries, and although I've seen many examples of the mating and courtship rituals of animals, plant life is rarely covered.
Thanks for viewing our latest batch of quadrilateral quips. We'll be back with more of this foolishness next week.
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
Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all―the apathy of human beings.
Helen Keller
Tuesday was wall-to-wall blue skies and 78-degree sunshine in my neighborhood. What a contrast to Wednesday's appropriate air of gloomy gray.
I'm writing this post on Wednesday, weary from a sleepless night spent worrying for the safety of us all, so it will be briefer than usual.
Bizarro reader Linda M. suggested today's pipe pic, a 1905 Picasso painting titled Boy With a Pipe.
We could have used this a couple of weeks ago, to accompany a gag referencing Picasso.
Old Pablo did quite a few paintings of pipe smokers. Google at your own risk.
Thanks to Linda for the suggestion, which also reminds me that art connects us and appreciating art is an act of empathy, something in short supply in these times.
Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.
Claude Monet
We hope that our humble form of art helps provide some respite from unwelcome news.
He was positively glowing in his mug shot.
"What do you want first―the bad news or the inexplicable news?"
No political subtext was intended.
Inheritance tax takes various forms.
A tip of the old Bizarro porkpie to Instagrammer Becky G. for her comment which became the title for this post.
As usual, my favorite gag of the week is in the Friday slot.
The struggle is real.
Kevin has obviously been in a restaurant before.
Jazz Pickle Spotted in Seattle
Our latest t-shirt model is a Jazz Pickle who goes by the nom de pan PlatePilot, because he's an avid cook. He clearly has excellent taste in clothing as well.
PlatePilot tells us that some of his jazz musician friends have asked where they can get BJP shirts. If they do,we hope to see photos.
Would you like to be a Bizarro fashion model? Send your t-shirt 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. We truly appreciate your purchase of Bizarrowear!
Thank you for reading and supporting the cartoon arts.
See you next week with more of this sort of thing.
Bonus Track
Resistance Revival Chorus w/Rhiannon Giddens
"All You Fascists Bound to Lose"
Righteous Babe Records, 2020
A spirited version of a Woody Guthrie classic.
A Plethora of Bizarro Paraphernalia
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free of charge, we encourage you to explore the following links.
