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 good start is half the work. Brendan Behan
It's been a few years since I last read Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy, and I don't recall the context of this pithy quote, but I endorse the sentiment as I interpret it.
That brief sentence offers an encyclopedia's worth of advice for artists. The hardest part of creating art of any type is getting beyond the blank page. A meaningless scribble or a random word can serve as a springboard, sending the mind in unexpected creative directions.
Since Brendan kept it brief, I'll follow suit.
Onward!
Bizarro reader Richard H. sent me this charming photo of a dog with a stick that looks like a pipe.
WeRateDogs began as a social media account in 2015. In 2016, they posted a crowdfunding page for a dog in need of costly medical attention. Later, they established the nonprofit 15/10 Foundation, raising money to sponsor shelter dogs with behavioral or medical issues that made them less likely to be adopted.
Thanks to Richard for the photo, and to WeRateDogs and the 15/10 Foundation for showing us what can grow from a good start.
Late last year, I started these cartoons by making marks in my sketchbook and on Bristol paper.
My pal Dan McConnell is both a cartoonist and an orchardist. He had this to say about Monday's gag:
Excellent cartoon, Excellent pear, perfectly named. We grow Bartletts, Anjous and Bosc pears... [The leaves of] Bartletts are just as portrayed in you cartoon but a bit bigger. The spine of the leaf is straight.
Mr. McConnell is a sweet gent and one of the funniest people I know. He could have been a stand-up Comice.
Tuesday's gag was based on that classic TV show, The Fire-Breathing Gourmet.
They'll celebrate by snacking on corned beef jerky (which, I just learned, actually exists).
A snake visiting a psychologist is no less plausible than the traditional Saint Patrick legend.
As if they need reminding.
We got a couple of complaints that this panel was "political" or "editorial." If a little joke about an easily observable behavior among a certain overprivileged population causes offense, I can only surmise that they view everything through an ideological lens.
One of the oddest culinary experiences of my life happened in Vermont. We were visiting good friends who brought us to a "Sugar on Snow" festival. The titular confection is made by heating maple syrup and drizzling it over a tray of snow, where it thickens into a taffy-like candy. It's served with plain donuts and dill pickles in a particular order, which I've forgotten. It's New England's answer to the salt, tequila, and lime ritual.
That's the latest output from Bizarro Studios North. I'd write more, but it's time to start boiling the cabbage. We'll return to this somewhat stable blogging platform next Saturday with a new bouquet of buffoonery.
Okay, my pint of stout has settled, so I really must go. Sláinte, mates.
Bonus Track
The Undertones: "My Perfect Cousin"
Sire Records single, 1980
A Pot o' Bizarro Gold
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's still 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
The themes that make one laugh always stem from poverty, hunger, misery, old age, sickness, and death. These are the themes that make Italians laugh, anyway.
Mario Monicelli (1915-2010)
Greetings from brisk and breezy Hollywood Gardens, PA. Fall has arrived, and with it an early autumn cold—or perhaps allergies caused by pollen, since that seems to have been the year's most successful crop.
I've been enduring various unpleasant symptoms for the past two weeks, and missed two live music events I was looking forward to. I decided to stay at home to avoid spreading the ick to friends and strangers, and I'm almost back to normal as I write this post.
In the future, I may refer to filmmaker Mario Monicelli's words when someone finds one of our cartoons to be too dark. Who knew that the propensity for morbid humor has a genetic component?
Today's multi-pipe pic comes from Bizarro international field correspondent Pablo D.
Pablo sent these notes:
Walking home after lunch today with a friend, we stopped to look at another Tabac with a pipe display in the window. He said there used to be a local shop whose owner made pipes. The sad ending is that he wanted a custom made meerschaum pipe, but waited too long. When he was ready, the shop owner had retired and the shop was closed.
Oh well. But as an American living in France now, I appreciate the support from the government in general to the traditional trades, all the culinary trades, workshops like printing, bookbinding, etc.
Tabac is the name of a French convenience store where you can grab stamps, lottery tickets, mobile phone chargers, and maybe an espresso. It sounds more elegant than the 7-Eleven down the street, doesn't it?
Merci to Pablo for the photo and for the story. It sounds like you had a lovely afternoon with your friend, and I wish I could've been there.
Here's the latest batch of Bizarro cartoons. Apologies in advance for any black humor that may have crept in.
I was delighted to learn that the German word for "menu" includes an umlaut.
Also, extraterrestrials visiting Germany arrive in a flying beer mug.
Before returning to the ship, their parting words were, "Stay warm and prosper."
Anchovius the Salty is Rome's forgotten monarch.
To be fair, they're drawn almost the same from the neck down.
Many airline passengers are "Papa Bears" whose carry-on bags are too large to stow overhead or under the seats. The airline then checks their luggage at the gate for free, while customers who paid in advance feel like chumps.
Carry-ons and "personal items" continue to expand, causing passengers to juggle their oversized bags, which slows down boarding and deplaning.
When we launch Bizarro Airlines, I'll propose that we check bags for free but charge fifty bucks for carry-on items larger than a purse or messenger bag.
Father Bibendum is a harsh confessor.
Although he looks less intimidating than he did in the early 1900s.
With that disturbing image, we conclude this week's cartoon recap.
Comments From Bots
AI has started making blog comments containing advertising links. Fortunately, Google Blogger marks them as potential spam, and they're easily deleted, but it's still a pain. Yet another example of what Cory Doctorow calls "enshittification."
Bonus Track
Werner Hass: "Witch Doctor"
Telefunken Records single, 1958
Since we kicked off the week with an Oktoberfest gag, here's a German record that's also Halloween-appropriate. Many years ago, I acquired a small stack of German-language records of American songs, and most of them are amusingly absurd. (This was scanned and digitized from my personal collection.)
A Basketful of Bizarro Baubles
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
Your faithful cartoonist has been working hard to stay ahead of those neverending deadlines and had extra responsibilities to manage this week, so today's post will be shorter than usual.
You might want to take advantage of my brevity by grabbing a nap in anticipation of daylight saving time throwing us off our schedules tomorrow.
Today's pipe pic is a rather grotesque 1925 German artist Otto Dix painting.
The work is entitled Französisches Ehepaar (French Couple).
I think I found this one on my own; I don't have a note of anyone suggesting it to me. If one of you recall pointing me to this image, please pardon the omission and let me know.
Let's jump right into a review of the week in Bizarro.
The dating scene is sometimes even more brutal for insects than for humans.
Bizarro reader Paul F. alerted me to a business named Taco Pronto in Wichita, Kansas.
That was inevitable, and I have found a few other restaurants with the same name. If you live near a Taco Pronto, I encourage you to try them to ease my conscience.
I received a comment from someone claiming to have identified an error in this gag, but the fact that it was written in sentence fragments without punctuation undercut their assertion.
The scout's field report concluded, "Then, I threw up a little."
What's your occupational theme music?
We ended the week by examining differing perspectives from two sides of a desk.
That's the latest from Bizarro Studios North. Your comments and questions are always welcome, and your readership is greatly appreciated.
Bonus Track
Tom Waits:"Heigh Ho"
from Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films A&M Records LP, 1988
I'm not a fan of Disney products, but I love this subversive 1988 album, conceived and produced by the late Hal Willner. Among its treasures is a version of "Castle in Spain" (from Babes in Toyland) performed by Buster Poindexter, the alter ego of David Johansen, who left the mortal plane on February 28. Some other highlights include Bonnie Raitt doing "Baby Mine" and The Sun Ra Arkestra's buoyant version of "Pink Elephants on Parade." Oh, yes, and this medley!
Garth Hudson & NRBQ:
"Feed the Birds" & "Whistle While You Work"
As a friendly reminder, it's always a good time to listen to NRBQ. The lineup on this recording is my favorite incarnation of the band: Terry Adams (keyboards, vocal, arrangement), Al Anderson (guitar), Tommy Ardolino (drums), and Joey Spampinato (bass, vocal).
More Bizarro Mishegoss
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free of charge, 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
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. Charles Mingus
The wise words of jazz bassist Charles "Baron" Mingus were on my mind after I returned from Nancy Fest last weekend. The celebration of the art of Ernie Bushmiller was by far the best comics event and exhibit I've ever attended.
Among the many highlights were a performance of Tom Gammill's play, "A Morning with Ernie Bushmiller"; the first-ever public meeting of the Bushmiller Society, moderated by underground comix legend Denis Kitchen; Bill Griffith discussing his Ernie bio Three Rocks, and reading the touching epilog; Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden's How to Read Nancy lecture, and closing words from Bushmiller's neighbor, assistant, and best friend Jim Carlsson.
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum also mounted The Nancy Show, an ambitious exhibit of Bushmiller art and artifacts, along with the work of other artists, including yours truly.
Bushmiller's comics have been dismissed as childish or worse, but his art was carefully crafted to be as effective as possible. One might say it was awesomely simple. His advice to aspiring cartoonists and his assistants was, "Dumb it down!" It was his shorthand for avoiding overcomplicated art or gags.
I'm sure I'm not the only cartoonist who looked at their own work with different eyes after being immersed in Ernie's classic, iconic comic art.
I'll share photos and more thoughts on Nancy Fest in this week's newsletter.
Naturally, today's pipe pic features Nancy.
I snapped this from a projector screen, so the quality isn't great, but it brings back fond memories of the day spent among my tribe.
I'll now humbly share my most recent Bizarro cartoons.
This research project was a bargain at the price.
I believe this is the first syndicated comic to use the line, "Mom always barfs in your mouth first."
Anyone can be fooled by deceptive advertising. It's a shame about the locks because this customer was interested in a hundred-year lease.
Our ballsiest gag of the week offers a quiet nod to Jim Horwitz's Watson comic strip. JimmyHo has written many gags for Dan Piraro, and I highly recommend his solo strip.
As I've said in the past, Watson can be sweet and sentimental or dark and strange, sometimes all at once; much like Jim himself.
There are plenty of rock songs about being in a rock band and songs about music itself. The Iron Bunnies of Dööm take it to another level.
Side note: We're considering offering new Bizarro t-shirts through the Comics Kingdom shop, including an Iron Bünnies shirt, so stay tuned for updates. Yes, their umlauts are fungible.
Brevity is the soul of wit and the key to moral support.
That wraps up this week's comical output. Drop by next week for more words combined with pictures.
All hail Bushmiller!
Bonus Tracks
They Might Be Giants: "We're the Replacements" from the Don't Let's Start EP Bar/None Records, 1987
In the spirit of taking things to the next level, this TMBG song is about being in a different band.
A Boatload of Bizarro
If you like what we do and appreciate that it comes to you free of charge, we encourage you to explore any or all of the following links.
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