Showing posts with label comic books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comic books. Show all posts

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Bang Zoom

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 


Happy Saturday, O cherished cartoon community.

I have no pithy intro or inspiring quote to offer today, so I'm skipping ahead to our pipe pic of the week. It's a screen grab from the "Save It For Later" music video by The [English] Beat.


Canadian Bizarro field correspondent Petri V sent the image and noted:
The song came up in the news recently, and I watched the video and found this image of a woman with a pipe looking at an album cover with a friend. From your blog posts, I know that you are more than just a little bit interested in music, so I thought I would share it with you.
The 1982 music video features the band performing at a tiny subterranean club for an audience of blasé hipsters, who are eventually won over by the catchy tune. I'm reasonably certain that the gentleman in the beret is not my partner in comics, Dan Piraro.

Naturally, I had to determine what that album was and found that it was a 1960 compilation of songs by French performer Juliette Gréco, released in the US and Canada.

A tip of the the cocoanut straw porkpie to Petri for the image and for reminding me how much I like that song.

If you're as overwhelmed by current events as your cartoonist, perhaps you'd like to visit this week's cartoons for a few moments of escape.

From the day I wrote this gag until I uploaded the file for publication, I ping-ponged between using "would" and "could" in the dialogue. The difference is subtle, and a case could be made for either word. If we didn't have deadlines, I'd most likely still be wavering.

One imagines that authors would be grateful if this sort of thing were limited to a couple of hours per day.

When sequencing a week of cartoons, I schedule my favorite for Friday, but now I think this gag is the strongest in the batch. I like the drawing, and the joke takes an extra beat or two to land. Also, the panel references a familiar character without showing him or even mentioning the name.

My newsletter for the week goes into detail about formatting the panel and strip versions of this gag, for those interested in the nuts and bolts.

In its original 1950s incarnation, kids were expected to use actual potatoes to play with this toy, and the potato was literally just the head.

The plastic facial features and hats were backed with sharp spikes. Potato Head-related injuries must have been common in those days.

Friday's highbrow/lowbrow gag is notable for its reduplicative caption and is based on fuzzy memories of impressionists on variety shows. It seems that phrases such as "It goes something like this" were mandated by the FCC.

The week ends with a play on two meanings of "orientation."

Thanks for dropping by. Come back again next Saturday for another six-pack of pictures with words. 

Please feel free to add your comments. I enjoy hearing from you!

Bonus Track

Todd Rundgren: "Onomatopoeia"
From Hermit of Mink Hollow
Bearsville Records LP, 1978


Rundgren made all of the noises on this album by himself.


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Saturday, February 28, 2026

The Honking of Hill House

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 

Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification.

Cory Doctorow


The  American Dialect Society selected Doctorow's coinage as its 2023 Word of the Year, so I'm a little behind the times in sharing the above. Facebook was one of Doctorow's earliest illustrative examples of the word, with good reason.

In addition to the barrage of advertising, the constant grasping for payments to "boost" posts, the harvesting and marketing of our data, and countless other annoyances, at some point, Facebook quietly deleted part of every user's profile information.

Until recently, profiles had a section called "More details about you," or something similar. I don't recall the exact designation, and can't check because it's not there anymore. I used this section to archive favorite quotations from people I admire and thought of it as an interesting way to personalize my profile. I tried to look up one of those quotes the other day, and found that the section had disappeared. The first two paragraphs now appear in a section called "Privacy and legal info," but the majority of my entry is gone.

There are more important issues at play in current times. Indeed, our very democracy is in danger of terminal enshittification at the hands of a kleptocratic regime. 

A mundane inconvenience can sometimes be disproportionately enraging because it's a miniature representation of a bigger problem; in this case, greedy billionaires dictating what we're allowed to see or share.

I quickly got over the loss of text I'd collected and saved in the "more details" section. I would gladly have deleted it in exchange for the rights of our fellow humans not being trampled and stripped away as they have over the past year.

Thanks for indulging the cranky rambling intro. I may complain about the inconsequential, but I try to take a longer, optimistic view of big things, and I do what I can to make a difference and to support those who can have a larger impact.

Addendum the Introduction: We voted on Tuesday in a special election to fill a vacant seat for our district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Our preferred candidate was a smart, dedicated, compassionate educator, and she won a beyond-decisive victory, by a margin of 81.7 percent to 18.3 percent of the votes cast. I'm hoping this local outcome will be a predictor of the upcoming primaries and midterms.

Our pipe pic model for this week is comic book writer and artist "Wild" Bill Everett, in a 1940s promotional photo for Timely Comics (later Marvel).

Eric S., a friend and fellow music fanatic, sent this my way.

Everett (1917-1973) is remembered for creating Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and co-creating Daredevil, both for Marvel Comics. I'm not very well-versed in comic book history, and I asked Eric for his comments on Bill Everett.
He was one of several terrific Golden Age artists, still in their prime, who found themselves being derided by snot-nosed 60s kids because they didn’t draw like Jack Kirby. I enjoyed his work on The Hulk in Tales to Astonish, and I must say, he was my favorite Kirby inker. He foreshadowed Mike Royer’s approach.
A tip of the old porkpie to Eric for the cool photo and his thoughts on the artist.

Consider these Bizarro gags part of an ongoing "More details about me" segment.

What's an accordion if not a bigger, louder harmonica?

For some reason, I felt the characters had to be English tea ladies.


Facebook's AI didn't get the joke.

To me, it looks more like a Yukon Goldendoodle.


This drawing was based on actual places I worked at in the past, and although the characters depicted aren't busy, your cartoonist was ambitious enough to squeeze seven Secret Symbols into the panel.


Ancient Greek mythology meets twenty-first century entitlement.


Snow White has appeared in Bizarro many times over the years. She seems to have moved from a woodland cottage to an apartment at some point.

That's the latest bucket of yuks from my Little Shop of Humor. Thanks for taking a peek, and be sure to come back next Saturday for more of this sort of foolishness.

Bonus Track

Clifton Chenier: "Eh, Petite Fille"
From Bayou Blues
Specialty Records LP, 1971


All kidding aside, accordions are as cool as any other musical instrument, particularly in the hands of a master like Clifton Chenier, the King of Zydeco music. 

Bayou Blues was my first exposure to his music and was a revelation.

Black Snake Blues (Arhoolie Records, 1967) is my favorite Clifton Chenier album. The music is great, and it boasts a wonderful cover photo of Clifton with his brother Cleveland on frottoir (rubboard). Clifton Chenier invented the instrument in 1946 while the brothers were working in an oil refinery. A co-worker named Willie Landry fabricated the first one, and it's now in the Smithsonian  Museum's permanent collection.


     

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Saturday, January 24, 2026

The Winter of Our Discontent

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 we had not winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

~Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)


As of this writing, with two-thirds of the country bracing for a severe winter storm, let's look forward to the arrival of spring with hope. Pittsburgh has been listed among a dozen cities that may be hit the hardest, so we're keeping our eyes on the sky.

Wherever you live, I hope you experience minimal impact and remain warm and secure from all threats to your safety, well-being, and happiness.

Today's slightly off-putting pipe pic is a folk art ventriloquist dummy.

I stumbled upon this bumpkin on an auction site last summer. We have a healthy backlog of pipe photos, but new submissions are always welcome.

Perhaps the latest Bizarro panels will offer a brief escape from concerns about snow and ice.

Monday's gruesome gag includes a nod to Pittsburgh's George A. Romero, often called the father of the modern zombie movie.


In the mid 1980s, we lived in the same Pittsburgh neighborhood as Romero's frequent makeup artist and stunt performer, Tom Savini. I'd often see him picking up supplies at the local hardware store or shopping at one of the Italian groceries in the area. He looked rather scary in person, but always offered a smile and a greeting.


Hey, it was worth a shot.


A couple of readers said this character reminded them of American Splendor comic writer Harvey Pekar. That wasn't my intention, and other than a hangdog expression, I don't see a resemblance, but since Pekar's comic persona was rendered by some of the best underground cartoonists, I'll take that as a compliment.


Among his other accomplishments, Pekar was a prolific music critic. He reviewed Charles Mingus's 1962 Oh Yeah album in Down Beat magazine, praising the musician's piano playing, but showing less enthusiasm for his singing.


Mingus took exception to this and shot off a letter of reply:

My efforts at blues singing were not meant to challenge such diverse masters as Joe Turner, Ray Charles or Big Bill Broonzy, and I don’t think their singing was meant as a challenge to each other or to me. No one could sing my blues but me (if you must call it singing), just as no one could holler for you if I decide to punch you in your mouth.


Mingus was uncompromising when it came to his music and was nicknamed "the Angry Man of Jazz." His written interaction with Pekar is an interesting intersection of the worlds of comix and jazz.

Wednesday's cartoon references another Pittsburgher: actor and comedian Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler in the 1966 Batman TV series and received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal. 


Gorshin was unhappy with the character's form-fitting unitard costume, and he came up with the suit and derby hat festooned with question marks. This outfit then began appearing in the comic books.


Their motto is "Cranky and Proud of It."


Unlike Tuesday's drawing, this one is meant to resemble two actual people.


We wrapped up the week with a variation on a familiar gag cartoon trope. We searched to see if someone had already done this joke, but couldn't find one out there.

Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read these renderings and ramblings. Stay warm and cozy!

Bonus Track

John Boutté: "Louisiana 1927"
Directed by Mark Bergeron


Randy Newman's song from his 1974 album Good Old Boys became associated with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. John Boutté turns in a lovely performance here.

At the 2026 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, we heard a heartbreaking version of the song by singer/pianist Marcia Ball.

Friend and colleague Michael Tisserand lived in New Orleans for many years and currently resides in Minnesota. Michael published an opinion piece in the New Orleans Times-Picayune this week comparing the post-Katrina period to current events. I highly recommend his thoughtful column.


     

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Saturday, January 03, 2026

Now We Are Eight


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 

No quotation today.*

~Wayno


Happy New Year from my Little Shop of Humor in Hollywood Gardens, PA. December 31 marked the end of my eighth year at Bizarro Studios, and I look forward to making more cartoons for you.

I usually write these posts a day or two in advance, but I'm doing (or I did) this one more than a week ago. I want to take a couple of days off to welcome 2026, and ask it to behave better than its predecessor.

Our pipe pic is another vintage print ad. I assume it was published in the early 1940s since it also promoted War Bonds.

I can't identify the cartoonist who illustrated the ad.

If you recognize the signature in this enlargement, please let me know.

Here's a view of the full-page ad for the insatiably curious.

Let's see how the first Bizarro gags of the new year compare to the last ones of 2025.

I'm not a biblical scholar, but I believe this makes scriptural sense.


One must admire the Luddite dedication to analog technology.


I'm not a Marvel comics expert, either, but I did my homework before drawing the final art for this gag. I  initially wrote it for the characters Hulk and She-Hulk, but learned that in their human forms, they were cousins, so I decided to change it.


After more digging, I found that the Hulk and Black Widow had a romantic relationship in a recent Marvel movie. If this isn't strictly correct, I'm sure I'll hear about it.


Also, I gave the editors at King Features an early look at my sketch to see if it might be considered too racy for the papers, but they told me to go with it. 


Comics aren't just for kids anymore!


Besides, Kelly's Bar isn't an in-network provider.


I apologize if I unknowingly drew any inappropriate hieroglyphics.

My friend Tom McDermott is a pianist, composer, and music historian based in New Orleans. He also draws terrific caricatures and writes limericks. I gave him this cartoon's caption as a prompt, and he turned it into a complete limerick, shared here with his permission.

There once was a pharaoh named Tut,
Who found himself in a rut.
He tried and he cried
But could not find a bride.
He gave up and turned on to smut.

I highly recommend Tom's book of limericks and sketches, Five Lines No Waiting, as well as his many excellent recordings.

T McD's live album with Aurora Nealand features his art on the cover.

There's psychology afoot!

Thanks for riding along with Dan Piraro and me for another year of cartoons, blogs, newsletters, secret symbols, T-shirts, laughs, chuckles, guffaws, and groans.

* Pardon the self-contradiction.

Bonus Track

Louis Armstrong: "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams"
Okeh Records, 1931


I listen to Louis Armstrong's music regularly, and this 1931 gem is one of my all-time favorites.


Copious Crates of Bizarro Content

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


     

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