Press Release: Bizarro Guest Cartoonist 12/26/11 - 01/01/12

December 5, 2011 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Wayno Returns as Guest Cartoonist for Dan Piraro's Bizarro

December 26, 2011 through January 1, 2012 

Bizarro, Dan Piraro's aptly titled outlier of the daily comics page, will again showcase the cartoon work of Wayno during the week of December 26, 2011 through January 1, 2012. While Piraro takes a break Wayno will fill in with his own quirky take on the world at large. 

The two artists began collaborating in 2009, with Wayno serving as a regular gag writer, and early this year, becoming Bizarro's weekday colorist. 

Since the cartoon feature was launched in 1985, Wayno is only the second artist to sit in for Piraro. Cartoonist and television writer Francesco Marciuliano substituted for Piraro in July of 2008. Wayno's first appearance as guest cartoonist was in May of 2011. 

Piraro will spend the week in his underground laboratory, where the Bizarro Research Team is working to develop a Scotch-flavored cigar, or possibly a cigar-flavored Scotch. Speaking of his guest, Piraro said, "Apparently, our first choice, Nancy cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller, is still dead. Wayno wrapped some acceptable scribbles around a brick that recently came through our window, so we decided to print them." 

Wayno remarked, "I'm grateful for this opportunity to mind the store for Dan, and this time I promise to lock the door securely on my way out." Wayno's new batch of cartoons explores such topics as the local-food movement, health risks in the clowning industry, and family dynamics in ancient Egypt. The week concludes with what he claims to be the first Sunday newspaper comic to feature jazz great Miles Davis. 

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Dan Piraro is the cartoonist behind Bizarro, a columnist for VegNews, a musician, and stand-up comic. Piraro was named Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year 2010 by the National Cartoonists Society, and received their prestigious Reuben Award. Bizarro is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and appears internationally in 350 newspapers. 

Wayno is a cartoonist, illustrator, pop artist, and writer based in Pittsburgh, PA. He is a member of the National Cartoonists Society, and one of the ToonSeum's founding board members. In 2010, Animal Friends selected him as their Honorary Artist for Black Tie & Tails, which raised over $400,000 for the pet adoption & resource center. 

For more information, visit the artists' blogs and Twitter feeds: 

Bizarro Blog • WaynoBlog • @waynocartoons • @pirarobizarro 

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12/05/11 ndp

Bizarro Guest Week: May 16 - May 22

Who is this guy, anyway?

Welcome, new readers (and thanks to the regulars). Some of you may have stumbled across this blog after seeing a link in Bizarro, and this post is intended to serve as an introduction.

I'm a cartoonist, writer and illustrator, and have been contributing gags to Bizarro for a couple of years now.

I created all of this week's Bizarro cartoons, filling in as best I could for Dan Piraro's brilliant work. I completed my seven comics earlier this year, and they were put into the publishing queue two weeks ago, while Dan took a little vacation. I'm honored to be minding the store this week.

Dan's talent as a cartoonist always impressed me, long before we met. Working with him—as a collaborator, or as guest cartoonist—is a pleasure, and a high spot of my career.

Thanks for finding your way to the blog. I hope you'll become a regular. 

Please also follow my Twitterings (which are brief and not ridiculously frequent), visit my illustration website or Facebook thing, check out my online store, and view my rock & roll portraits at Portland's Rock Pop Gallery. 

All of my previous collaborations with Dan Piraro are archived on this blog under the Bizarro label. 

•••

Now, here are this week's offerings. I'll update every day or two, adding the latest material.

Monday, May 16

I was always curious about the significance of that number.

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Tuesday, May 17

Guys love that bad girl look.

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Wednesday, May 18

He's hoping that cookies are enabled.
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Thursday, May 19

A rare moment of self-awareness.
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Friday, May 20

Laffs on the ledge. My favorite of the week.
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Saturday, May 21

 They hold rallies at shopping malls.
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Sunday, May 22

 From Hell on Monday to Heaven on Sunday...
•••

Thanks for the feedback and reposts. I hope you enjoyed the week's cartoons. Dan Piraro will retake control of Bizarro on Monday morning.

Bizarro Meets Wayno

Today's Bizarro comic is a collaboration between the artist Dan Piraro and me. I recently wrote a few gags that Dan liked enough to use in his panel, and this is the first to be published.

Dan's one of my favorite cartoonists, and it's a kick to see my joke rendered in his style.

Thanks, DP!

R.I.P. Lux Interior

A brush with greatness: Meeting Lux Interior at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1989.

Lux died this week at age 62. Long live the Cramps!

Thanks to Mary Fleener for the photo.

Back in the Bottle

Scott Smith, beermeister at East End Brewing, is releasing a new bottling of his delicious dark brew, Smokestack Heritage Porter, with label art by yours truly.
Smokestack Heritage was first brewed in the summer of 2007, and was limited to 600 one-liter bottles. This batch will be similarly limited. Since it's a new "edition" we tweaked the color scheme a little from the original version.

You can still purchase limited edition art prints of the original Smokestack Heritage label, as well as the ever-popular Ugly American label. Go to my store for details. These would make great holiday gifts for the alcohol fan on your list!

Everything Must Go

Stubble & Smoke has ended its run at the fabulous Zombo Gallery, but you can still get one (or more) of the paintings or prints .

I've recently had a couple of requests for prints of paintings that have sold, and for older art from various places, and can now offer them on a by-request basis. I've found a great one-man shop right in my neighborhood that does high quality giclée prints (archival inks, acid-free rag paper, the works).

So, if you missed out on that one painting you had to own, or would like to own a print of just about anything I've ever done, contact me and we can talk turkey. Prices start at about $75.

Production of your giclée print will be personally supervised by the artist! Wow!

Partners in Art Crime

Photo op with Michael "Zombo" Devine at the Zombo Gallery, July 12, 2008. This was taken just before the opening night reception for the Stubble & Smoke art show, which also marked the gallery's first anniversary.

Photo by KimH © 2008

Rat Pack Prints

I'm now offering giclée prints of my portraits of Dino, Frank & Sammy. The images are 10" x 10", with a one-inch border, for an overall size of 12" x 12". They're printed in archival inks on museum quality Arches rag watercolor paper, and are limited to 25 individually signed and numbered prints.

The prints are $75 each, or $200 for the set of three, and the prices include domestic postage.

Contact me if you're interested!

Virtual Viewing

Stubble & Smoke Virtual Art Show!

That's right kids, even if you don't live in Pittsburgh, you can preview my new show, Stubble & Smoke, by clicking on this link. All of the paintings are for sale on-line, too (except for Happy Hour, above, which has already sold to an alert and generous patron).

Check out 28 cartoon-pop paintings of tough guys, hard-luck mugs, saucy dames, crime scenes, the Chinese zodiac, and lots of red meat. As you cruise through the website, I recommend that you have a beverage and a small plate of cheese cubes on hand, with your choice of music playing at maximum volume. It's not the same as actually being there at Zombo Gallery, but that's the "Wide World of Web" for you...

Stubble & Smoke! July 12-26, 2008

July 12 - July 26
ZOMBO GALLERY'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY SHOW:
STUBBLE & SMOKE

All new works featuring hard-luck mugs, saucy dames, The Rat Pack,
plenty of red meat, and the entire Chinese zodiac.

A detailed Press Release will be posted here the first week of June.

Ten Musical Questions

Here's an email interview from March 2006. A blogger submitted the questions to me, but he abandoned the blog and it was never published. I don't think I'm responsible for his disappearance, but you never know.

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1. What is the last record/CD that you listened to?
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Japanese version) by The RZA.
This CD is different from the version released here in the US, which included a lot of vocal numbers. This Japanese release is the (mostly) instrumental score, consisting of RZA's sonic collages. It's absolutely hypnotic.




2. What is your earliest music memory?
I was on a local kids' TV show here in Pittsburgh at the age of about eight. I wasn't a regular cast member or anything; local kids could sign up to be guests around their birthday, so it was just a one-shot thing. There were around 6 or 8 kids on the show each day, and the host would interview each child, and ask them to tell a joke and sing a song. I sang the Yogi Bear theme.

A year or two later, my younger brother appeared on the same show. He completely clammed up and just stared at the camera, like one of those kids from "Village of the Damned."


3. What is the first record you bought?
Redirecting my lunch money, I bought a 45, "Gizmo," by Jimmy Heap, from a fifth grade classmate. Years later, I was thrilled when the song turned up on a bootleg CD compilation.


4. You once played in a band that sounded like?
(If you never played in a band, what would a band you play in sound like?)
Two answers:

1: A country/blues version of The Cramps. In the early 1990s I played harmonica and sang in a cartoonist band called the Sin Alley Katz. The band also included JR Williams on vocals and electric ukulele, Mary Fleener on bass and vocals, Mary's husband Paul Therrio on lead guitar, mandolin and sax, and various drummers. We'd regroup every year for the San Diego Comics Convention.

(Sin Alley Katz photos courtesy of Mary Fleener)

b) A bunch of spastic Sun Records rejects: In the early 80s, I played guitar (badly) in a rockabilly-inspired trio called The Rumble Strips, with my friends Jim Spitznagel (bass) and Kathleen "Crash" McCollum (vocals). We couldn't find a drummer, so I also programmed and triggered a dirt-cheap rhythm machine when we played live, and on our only recording, a 6-song vinyl EP.

5. What would one find most surprising about your music collection?
That would depend on who you asked, I suppose. People who know me from my involvement in the world of oddball music might be surprised at the amount of straight-ahead jazz I listen to. It accounts for about a quarter of my collection. I'm a big Frank Sinatra fan too.

6. What is something you like to play at maximum volume?
The Pixies' album Surfer Rosa. It's one of my absolute favorite records of that era, and I'm sure that listening to it in the car will accelerate my eventual hearing loss.

7. The first concert you attended was?
It was either Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Frank Zappa. I can't recall which one was first, but I think I saw to both of these shows when I was in tenth grade.

8. What is your favorite music moment that involved yourself?
Two answers, again:

a) A couple years ago, during the (alcohol-free) intermission of the annual University of Pittsburgh jazz concert, where I volunteer as stage manager, Joe Lovano and I crashed a nearby wedding reception to score some drinks.

b) Learning all of the lyrics to Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business."

9. What is a song or album from an artist or band that you generally don't like but for some reason like this by them?


I absolutely hate the Statler Brothers, and their bland country harmonizing (despite endorsements from Johnny Cash). They sound like a bunch of weenies to me. However, they released a great comedy album called Alive at the Johnny Mack Brown High School under the pseudonym Lester "Roadhog" Moran and the Cadillac Cowboys, which I like a lot. Ostensibly a send-up of inept musicians, this CD (which collects two rare LPs) is infinitely more enjoyable than any of their "legitimate" releases. As comedic country music goes, they're still not in Homer & Jethro's league.

10. What is one record/CD that you think everyone should have in their collection?

Esquivel's Exploring New Sounds in Stereo. This was the album where Juan Garcia Esquivel really nailed his signature arranging style, and it's a joy to experience his playful genius.

His reinventions of familiar tunes ("Third Man Theme," "All of Me," "My Blue Heaven") were as radical as anything happening in any musical genre. It also includes "Whatchamacallit," an Esquivel original that I never get tired of hearing. I'm a big fan of Hoagy Carmichael, so Esquivel's unique take on Hoagy's "Lazy Bones" is yet another reason to find this album, in any format. The mono version of the LP was titled Exploring New Sounds in Hi-Fi. I find the "Hi-Fi" version of the cover art to be more visually pleasing.

I once heard an Esquivel tune on a radio show featuring John Zorn playing music that influenced him, and he described Esquivel's music as "a beautiful pop mutation," that's about the best description I've ever come across.

Pop Art

Vintage Wayno brand soda bottles, photographed in my studio by Brian Cohen for a profile in Pop City.

Photo © 2008 by Brian Cohen

Acrylic Noir

Here's a look at a new painting.

This is the first of a series of eight that will form a short narrative. The full series will be displayed, along with other new and recent works, at an upcoming show at Zombo Gallery in July.

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Updated March 19: Part of my drawing table showing a layout sketch for this piece:

Photo © by Brian Cohen, courtesy of Pop City