Showing posts with label Signage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Signage. Show all posts

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Quietly Complex or Noisily Simple

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 

If I had more time, I'd have written a shorter letter.
(attributed to) Mark Twain

That pithy sentiment, which Twain may have composed, paraphrases "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time," which was definitely penned (albeit in French) by 17th-century French philosopher, physicist, mathematician, inventor, and theologian Blaise Pascal in his Lettres Provinciales.

I share it today because Bizarro reader J.Z. mentioned it to me the other day, adding that the quote "pertains to your [cartoon] format and the quiet complexity it sometimes contains."

One of the more challenging aspects of creating single-panel cartoons, as well as the most necessary, is verbal and visual editing to remove anything that's not needed to deliver the gag. Dialogue or captions can easily become so wordy that the verbiage obscures the payoff.

At times, a word balloon's verbosity is part of the joke, but it's usually best to simplify.

I like the phrase "quiet complexity," and hope I achieve it from time to time. Our reader's comment is more literate than my usual description of single-panel gags as the punk rock 45s of cartooning.

Before drawing Tuesday's "Sidekick Law Firm" gag, I ran an image search for actors who have played Sherlock Holmes's Dr. Watson. Among the results was this caricature of British actor Nigel Bruce, who was best known for his portrayal of Watson in several films and a radio series.

New Zealand cartoonist Allen Reeve (1910-1962) did the caricature. Nigel Bruce must have liked it, since this image is a glossy photo of Reeve's drawing, autographed by Bruce.


The signature on this 1938 self-portrait by Reeve matches the one on the Nigel Bruce drawing and confirms that it's the same artist. 

In 1932, at age 22, Reeve published a book of 250 caricatures of notable people from Wellington, New Zealand, where he lived. He traveled extensively as a cartoonist and journalist, and his work was published in American magazines such as Fortune, Town and Country, and Vogue.

If this week's comics aren't all punk rock 45s, at least none are triple-LP gatefold-cover concept albums.


The good news is that the mold problem was eliminated.


As someone who once had an overnight lock-in shelf-stocking job at a local grocery store, I can confirm that the referenced syndrome is pure fiction.

When you can't afford first-rate attorneys, go to the second fiddles.


Few biblical scholars know that Cain was an early grammar nerd.


Speaking of grammar, I know that the sign should say "fewer" rather than "less," but supermarket express lane signs nearly always use "less." I applied for and was granted special dispensation in this case.

For the strip configuration, I had some fun with the shelves in the background, and swapped out the flying saucer secret symbol for the dynamite.

Rapunzel never left the tower, but she always tried to look her best.

My Substack newsletter, available this afternoon, includes the alternate strip version and an early sketch of the Rapunzel gag that we abandoned in favor of the one you see here.

That's the blog for this week, and I hope it wasn't too lengthy. Join us again next Saturday for more cartoons and commentary.

Does Anybody Really Know What Day It Is?


You can be in the know for all of 2026 with a Bizarro Canines & Felines wall calendar hanging in your home or office. It's available at the Comics Kingdom Shop, along with t-shirts, hats, and holiday.

Currently, you can save 50% on your entire order by using the code BIZARROHOLIDAY25 at checkout.

Bonus Track

The Kinks: "Father Christmas"
Arista Records single, 1977


The Kinks seemed to draw renewed energy from the emergence of 1970s punk rock and released this great Christmas single, full of cynicism, humor, and crunchy guitar.


Gobs of Bizarro Goodies

If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.


     

17 comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Saturday, April 27, 2024

All I Have To Do Is Dream

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

Dreams are constructed from the residue of yesterday.
Sigmund Freud

I hadn't planned on quoting Freud in two consecutive posts but his words from The Interpretation of Dreams are particularly fitting this week.

Last Sunday night into Monday morning, I had a vivid dream of working on a project in my garage. I was standing by a folding table, cutting apart a large poster with an oversized pair of scissors. I then rearranged the pieces and secured them using egg yolks as homemade glue.

I was doing this to reconfigure a portrait-oriented poster to fit into a horizontal frame. It was a precise analog equivalent of what I do with Photoshop in my waking life every week.

As many of you know, some newspapers print Bizarro in a horizontal strip configuration. The feature is available in both formats to make it easier to sell if a potential client has a strip-sized vacancy. I conceive and draw the gags as vertical panels, and after they're completed, I digitally rearrange the parts to fit into a widescreen strip.

I woke up with a laugh because this was the first time I ever had a dream about doing this comic. In the past, I've had nightmares related to jobs I was working. Some of the less disturbing ones involved showing up at the office without shoes (or worse). 

One summer during my college years, I worked in a hot, dirty, dangerous factory, and was assigned to a different shift every week. My sleep cycles were disrupted for three months, and I lost a ridiculous amount of weight from my already small frame. Once, after working the four to midnight shift, I dreamed that I was in my bed (where I actually was at the time). I saw/hallucinated a forklift in the corner of my bedroom, as if the factory had infiltrated my home. I vowed never to again work on rotating shifts. 

Although I found the recent Bizarro dream amusing, I'd much rather wake up with a usable gag. Maybe next time.


Today's weirdly charming pipe pic is a shot of the men's room door in a Mexico City restaurant.


Bizarro reader Bruce D. spotted this while on vacation and was kind enough to send me his photo. I've been wondering what they have on the door to the women's room. If I could see them both, I might be able to figure out the meaning, but for now, it remains a tantalizing mystery.

Heartiest thanks to Bruce for sharing his find with us.


All of this week's Bizarro comics were written and drawn while your cartoonist was fully awake.



After inking this gag, I became envious of the comedian's amplifier. I bet a harmonica would sound wicked played through that thing, and at the very least, it would look cool.


I'm as guilty as anyone of asking a server to take a group photo when we're out to dinner with friends, but I always show my appreciation when calculating our gratuity.


The Terminator movies may have been onto something.


Thursday's panel offered a dark take on a game of Rochambeau.


I was pleased with the strip version of this gag, which felt a little more threatening.


I'm taking suggestions for the name of this astronaut, the first to squawk on the moon.


The signs are nice, but airports are among the least calming places to be, which is probably why their bars open so early.


The strip layout forced me to rearrange the inspirational art on the walls, which fortunately required no egg-based adhesives.


Bonus Track

Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra: "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams"
Recorded in Chicago, November 4, 1931


The opening discussion of dreams allows me to (once again) share my favorite Louis Armstrong recording. I enjoy almost every phase of his career, but the years 1931 and 1932 are my sweet spot. This particular number gets me every time I hear it.

Bizarro Bonanza



  

33 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Practical Dread

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

I got a head full of ideas that are drivin' me insane.
Bob Dylan (lyric from "Maggie's Farm")

Bob Dylan, the Bard of Duluth, turned 82 this week. Rough and Rowdy Ways, his most recent album of new material, was released in 2020, when he was a kid of 79. It's a strong addition to his lengthy discography, and his career of more than six decades is inspiring.

Recently, I ran into a friend and fellow artist at the opening of East End Brewing's new taproom in my neighborhood. We were talking about work, and the concerns of working artists. We've both been doing what we do for a long time and noted that we have fewer bouts of impostor syndrome than we did in our younger years, but are not immune from anxiety over deadlines, bookkeeping, taxes, and the uncertain future of outlets for our work. I noted that we now experience a more practical dread. We also agreed that Practical Dread is a great name for a band.

Although I've (mostly) overcome self-doubt regarding visual art, as a musician, I always fear that I'll be found out as a charlatan. I like to think that's preferable to unfounded overconfidence, which is widespread.

Whatever form of creative expression you practice, I hope it brings you satisfaction.

Today's pipe pic is newly-minted octogenarian Michael Palin of the Monty Python troupe.
 

Palin's birthday was on May fifth, so we're a little late in celebrating his milestone, but I loved this photo so much, I had to share it today.

For obsessive Monty Python nerds, I recommend Michael Palin's book, Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years. It's a fascinating day-to-day account of the history of the Pythons, and Palin's life during those years.

Since we're all friends here, I feel comfortable enough to share the latest Bizarro gags.

If the Hell of religious mythology were an actual physical place, getting into the energy business would probably be more profitable than buying souls.

Tuesday's panel includes a rare Franglais pun as its caption. Researching this gag taught me that the diacritical mark over the letter "e" is called a circumflex.
Every Bizarro panel starts as a hastily scribbled digital sketch. I print them out and use them as a guide for drawing the finished art. The number below the signature is a sequential identifier attached to each cartoon, which is used in an unwieldy spreadsheet where I document all of my work.

At this stage, I often edit the text, as seen above. I usually try to remove as many words as possible, although sometimes wordy dialog can improve a gag.
Speaking of imposter syndrome, this software is almost human.

Here's a fine example of the high-quality prose AI can produce.

I do hope that my cartoons giggles you regularly.

Following last week's pair of Darth Vader puns, I finally got the character out of my system with one more gag.

My colleague George Broderick, Jr. noted that this gag ran on the 46th anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars film, and asked if it was intentional on my part. It was a complete coincidence.

Complementing Tuesday's circumflex, Friday's caption included a tilde. Before you consider joining this particular religion, you should be warned that the rite of baptism involves Wiffle Ball bats.

We also considered the line, "You never invite me to your place."

Beer Here!




A little over a year after releasing Old Nebby Stock Ale (featured in last week's blog), our friends at East End Brewing Company bottled a brew they named Old Knobby.

I still have a couple more labels to share in the coming weeks.

Bonus Track

Bob Dylan, "Tangled Up in Blue"
From Blood on the Tracks
Columbia Records LP, 1975

One of my favorite Dylan numbers, and an example of what I had in mind last week when I said, "If [an] artist hadn't made x, they may never have created y."

For this listener, "Tangled Up in Blue" is the y that stops me from dismissing x ("Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.")

More Bizarro Material 

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

  Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

 
That's the latest from scenic Hollywood Gardens, PA. Catch you next week?
 

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®

 

 

18 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Subterranean Modern

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, who created Bizarro in the late twentieth century, continues to do the Sunday comic from Rancho Bizarro in Mexico.

Wayno

When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.
John Lennon

Thursday, December 8 is the day John Lennon was murdered outside his New York City home in 1980. He was forty years old, which is stunning considering how much he achieved while he was alive. Lennon was a far from perfect human, and he'd be the first to acknowledge that. I recall hearing the news, and experiencing the empty feeling when someone whose work you knew since childhood is suddenly gone.

For many years, I wouldn't actively listen to the music of the Beatles, after a lifetime of hearing it all the time, in every possible context. I came back to it with renewed appreciation in 2009, when I bought a CD box set of their British albums in mono. Again, I was struck by the amount of music they released in just seven or so years.

Seeing the photos of Lennon, and the memories people have been posting on social media this week made me start over with their discography, and I'm enjoying that journey once again.

I don't have any profound thoughts to offer about this, it's just what I've been thinking about these past couple of days, and marveling at how works of art can affect us many different ways at various stages of our lives. I suppose I'm recommending that you consider revisiting some music, literature, or other art that you once liked but felt that you outgrew, and check it out again. If you have any interesting or surprising reactions, send me a comment about it.

Before we get to the cartoons, let's lighten the mood with a fun pipe pic sent to us by Bizarro reader David R, who snapped it at his local farm market.


Thanks, David! I love the market's highly specific instructions.

Now, here's the latest output from Bizarro Studios North.

The pool player on the right is meant to be a slimmed-down Jackie Gleason, who starred as Minnesota Fats in the 1961 film, The Hustler.

A real-life pool player named Rudolf Wanderone adopted the name Minnesota Fats after the film was released, claiming that the character was based on him.

My pre-Bizarro comic, WaynoVision also referenced the character, almost exactly seven years earlier.


When drawing Tuesday's panel, I had cartoonists James Thurber and Jules Feiffer in mind, and wished that my work could have a bit of the expressive looseness theirs exhibited. No luck there, but I do like the way it turned out.

Every time I write a gag involving ghosts, I think it'll be quick and easy to draw, and every time I spend almost as much time fussing over it and tweaking it as I do with any other comic.

This is most likely a common topic of discussion at movie studios, who in large part have themselves to blame for the situation.

For brevity's sake, the word balloon omits all of the vocal disfluencies. 


For some reason, several of my recent comics were set around an open utility hatch, like this one or this one.

That wraps up another week of cartoonery from the Little Shop of Humor in Hollywood Gardens, PA. If you enjoy this blog, you might like to scope out our other web-based thingies:

Dan Piraro's Bizarro Blog
His latest Sunday Bizarro page, along with nuggets of wisdom and observation

Wayno's Bizarro Newsletter
More talk from me, a preview of an upcoming gag, and art, design, or photos from my past

Dan Piraro's award-winning graphic novel 
 

Bonus Track

James Booker
"On the Sunny Side of the Street"
from New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live!
Rounder Records, 1983


As my dear friend, pianist, composer, and bandmate Tom Roberts likes to remind us, Dr. John described Booker as "the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced."

I can't argue with that.

The pirate ghost comic prompted Tom to suggest a Booker bonus track this week.

Copyright© 2022 by Wayno®


 

12 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)