Saturday, March 28, 2026

My Back Pages

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 earth cannot move without music. The earth moves in a certain rhythm, a certain sound, a certain note. When the music stops, the earth will stop, and everything upon it will die.

Sun Ra, Space is the Place


Sun Ra was one of the most prolific recording artists of all time. He released more than 100 albums in his lifetime. That's a conservative estimate. I have around forty Sun Ra discs in my music library, and I revisit them regularly.

Ra left the earthly plane in 1993 at age 79, and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Allen, who will soon be 102, continues to lead the Sun Ra Arkestra. 

I usually listen to music while working, and I believe that live music is beneficial to one's well-being, so Sun Ra's words resonate with me. 

This month, I attended three terrific musical performances. On March 3, I saw Jonathan Richman, and more recently, two great shows at a favorite venue, The Original Pittsburgh Winery: The Town Pants, a Celtic/Roots/Rock band from Canada, and the Rebirth Brass Band from New Orleans.

After spending a good part of my adult life in loud clubs, in the audience, and sometimes onstage, I now have some hearing loss. It's not bad enough to require hearing aids, but I'm protective of what remains. Jonathan Richman's show was minimally amplified, so I didn't wear hearing protection that night.

I have earplugs with three sets of filters for different levels of noise reduction. At the Town Pants show, I realized I was wearing the strongest filters, which I used when running a snow blower. The show sounded a bit muffled, but we still had a great time.

Do yourself a favor and check out some live music. Even if it's not something you'd normally listen to at home, it's always worthwhile to hear accomplished players who do it every day.

Today's pipe pic is a portrait of Chinese cartoonist Hua Junwu, whom I learned about from Richard G's informative blog, Who's Out There?


A digital version of Chinese Satire and Humor, a collection of Hua's cartoons, is available here. 

The cartoons I've seen are funny and satirical, and it seems his sharp humor was tempered by a friendly drawing style and beautiful brushwork.

Many of his cartoons are wordless with only a short title, and they translate well. Big thanks to Richard for introducing me to Hua's work.


This week's Bizarro gags might look rather odd, in part because there are almost no Secret Symbols. In early January, the symbols took a week of sick leave, and they're almost totally absent in this batch. Since then, they've been working at full strength.

This one reminds me of my days at a series of normal office jobs.

If the art looks different, it's because I did this week's gags in 2011, when I filled in for Dan Piraro as guest cartoonist. I inked with a heavier line than I do today. At that time, I was also assisting Dan by coloring his black-and-white art, and I used his more elaborate shading technique.

When the Secret Symbols were fighting off that virus, they passed it on to me—we work in a small studio space—and while I recovered, we pulled this batch of gags out of the storage unit.

Fifteen years ago, felonious fashion was a thing.

The Bunny of Exuberance was the last symbol to be knocked out by the illness. Apparently, an all-carrot diet provided some immunity.

I don't think I'd cram as many words into one panel today, and I hope I wouldn't be as snarky.


Clowns in one of my gags? Shocking.


This wasn't meant as a political statement in 2011. I'm not sure how it will be received today, but the online comments will let us know soon enough.


Thanks for indulging me while I recovered three months ago. We'll be back next week with new, improved gags, and the usual complement of Secret Symbols.

Bonus Track

Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns
"Would You Believe It? (I have a Cold)"
Ace Records single, 1959


This is a lesser-known Huey Smith song, with a great vocal by Bobby Marchan.


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Saturday, March 21, 2026

Nurture, Nature, or Nomenclature?

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 

Simplicity shows respect for the viewer. You don’t give them more than what the mind needs, nor less than what the eye deserves.

R.O. Blechman


R.O. (Bob) Blechman, born in 1930, has done just about everything an artist might aspire to. The Norman Rockwell Museum describes him as "a celebrated illustrator, animator, children’s book author, graphic novelist, and editorial cartoonist."

Blechman elegantly expresses the balance cartoonists try to achieve. Here at Bizarro Studios, the gag itself is always the reason for the panel to exist, but we also throw in some of our Secret Symbols, those little Easter eggs that many of our readers have come to expect. 

It's easy to get carried away with superfluous details, which can distract readers from the joke, but the art must contain enough visual information to make the setup recognizable. 

Sometimes I think I've hit the mark, but just as often, I worry I've gone too far in one direction or the other. Second-guessing is probably integral to the artist's psyche, and all we can do is try our best every day. 

Thankfully, we have deadlines, so we can't fuss over a gag too awfully long.

Regarding Mr. Blechman, you may not know his name, but you've likely seen his work in some form His animated Christmas greeting for CBS Television has remained popular since it was first aired in 1966, and in a 2018 interview with J.J. Sedelmaier, Blechman said, "People introduce me as the guy who did the [1967] Alka-Seltzer spot, isn't that interesting?"

Hats off to R.O. Blechman for his long and influential career and his many well-deserved awards.
Today's pipe pic, found online, is a vintage print advertisement for Old Briar tobacco.

The ad makes not-so-subtle suggestive claims about the product. If the copy doesn't get their point across, the before-and-after photos make the message clear.

I sincerely hope that the latest Bizarro gags give your mind what it needs and your eyes what they deserve.

A few readers told me that the Disney characters Dopey and Goofy were originally named Deafy and Dippy Dawg. There's plenty of confirmation available about Dippy, but the Deafy claim is mistaken. 

In 2016, The Guardian reported on an auction of Disney art featuring proposed character sketches for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The animation team had brainstormed around fifty names, and the art included a Deafy, but there was also a Dopey. They were two separate characters, one of which was rejected. AI search results hallucinate the "originally named" story. 

Some other rejected names were Jumpy, Dizzey, Hickey, Wheezy, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Swift, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Tubby, Shorty, and Burpy.

Remember, you can't always trust AI's answers. Don't be like Hasty (another rejected dwarf).

I usually don't add human features to inanimate objects, but I broke my rule with this skeptical sausage.


"But we'd have to split the money four ways."


Some gags almost write themselves.


Friday's panel depicts a small, but very real subset of collector culture.

One of the Secret Symbols in this panel is difficult to recognize, so if you only find four, you may still give yourself a score of a hundred percent.

Thanks for checking in. See you in a week with more kooky quadrilaterals.

Bonus Track

Ringo Starr & Herb Alpert:
"When You Wish Upon a Star"
from Stay Awake
A&M Records, 1988



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Saturday, March 14, 2026

You're Not the Bosc of Me

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



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Saturday, March 07, 2026

Death of a Wheelman

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 

There is nothing worse than the obligation to be funny.
Crockett Johnson


I'm currently reading a double biography with a lengthy title: Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature.

Johnson and Krauss, individually and in collaboration, created many classic children's books. Johnson is best known for the book Harold and the Purple Crayon. His quote about the obligation to be funny refers to his brilliant daily comic strip, Barnaby.

I suspect Johnson was speaking hyperbolically, and his famous perfectionism may have been a factor.

The strip ran from 1942 to 1952, and when Johnson began to concentrate more on children's books around 1946, the comic was drawn by artist Jack Morley and written by Ted Ferro. Unhappy with the storylines under Ferro, in 1947, Johnson returned to writing and making some sketches to guide Morley, who continued to draw the strip.

I wouldn't use the phrase "nothing worse" to describe the job, but one of the most difficult aspects of producing humor on schedule is the fact that you still have to be funny at times when you don't feel particularly lighthearted. 

When dealing with personal difficulties, illness, or grief, it's harder to come up with jokes, and we have to dig deep to make others laugh, if not ourselves. It's more of an intellectual than joyful pursuit during those times.

To me, making cartoons is better than any other job or freelance gig I've ever had, and I'm grateful to be doing it. 

A reader's laugh is a cartoonist's greatest reward. 

Maybe Crockett Johnson should have tried drawing a happier version of himself using Harold's crayon. One hopes he realized that his work helped to make the world a little better for many people.

Bizarro field correspondent John H. of Wisconsin sent me today's pipe pic, an agricultural homage to surrealist René Magritte.

John wrote:
I lifted the pic from a Minnesota public radio news page reporting on the Minnesota State Fair. Seeds glued up to make pictures is apparently popular at the fair. Might be a midwestern farmer thing.

The term "seed art" made me think of Kurt Vonnegut's quote, "Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow."
A tip of the Bizarro feed-store cap to John for the photo, the background info, and the inspiring words from Vonnegut.

You can read the full story of "This is Not a Corncob Pipe" on MPR's site.

When I made this batch of comics back in December, I don't remember enduring any difficulties other than general angst over current events.

For those who've been there.

Friend and hometown dude Rob C. offered this comment:
So searingly accurate and one of your best, IMHO. I flee every arts-event Q&A before they even begin…

I'm blushing here, Rob!

The latest automotive technology is built with Artificial Abetting.


It's a good day for a cartoonist when they're able to squeeze out one more fly-in-the-soup gag.


March 5 was the day kidlit characters collided.


File this under "unintentionally timely." The gag, created last year, was inspired by a different set of questionable operations and evolving explanations.


I'd like to see the projects submitted for the Surrealism badge.

That wraps up another week of words and pictures from your humble ink-monkey. Drop by next week for some corned beef and a pint of stout, or at least another six-pack of cartoons.

Bonus Track

Pete Seeger: "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"
from The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
CBS Television, February 25, 1968



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