Breaking Up the 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

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The worry is that, for the companies that shape so much of our cultural life, A.I. will function first and foremost as a way to keep pushing out recycled goods rather than investing in innovations and experiments from people who don’t yet have a well-known back catalog to capitalize on. I hope I am wrong.

Peter C. Baker

Last week the New York Times ran an insightful article by Peter C. Baker on artificial intelligence and its use in the creation of the recently released Beatles record "Now and Then." Baker is a fan of the group's music and enjoyed the heavily processed single and its accompanying promotional video, but the project raises questions about how A.I. could affect the arts.

I'm not here to critique "Now and Then," and have not heard it. People like it, and many find it profoundly moving, and that's perfectly cool. 

However, the project also portends profit-driven corporations using A.I. to reuse, remix, recombine, and simulate existing "content" to the detriment of new creative works is at least troubling and worthy of discussion. Popular culture is already dominated by endless remakes and "franchise" entertainment. If consumers are continually fed variants of what they already like, and it can be pieced together from existing materials, it will become that much harder for new creative works to find their audience. 

Perhaps doomsaying isn't called for yet, but the entertainment-industrial complex is already replicating footage of actors to fill in crowd scenes and the theft of visual art using A.I. is happening daiy.

A.I.'s facility in stealing existing art without permission and spreading disinformation is another matter, which we won't get into here.

Rather, we'll soothe our nerves with a somewhat mysterious pipe pic.

This appears to be an advertising image for Amphora pipe tobacco done in the style of René Magritte, but I've been unable to find any information confirming or denying that.

The URL in the lower right corner is a Swedish blog about poker. An image search turned up just one other occurrence, on a pipe-smoking blog with several pages of vintage ads, but no info on any of them.

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The following images of the week's Bizarro comics have no shortage of information, as your cartoonist loves to talk about his work; maybe too much.

The week kicked off with what I like to call semiautobiofiction.

I rarely read the local newspaper but picked up a copy this week to look at Bizarro in its halftoned newsprint form. I was pleased to see that it hadn't been reduced to unreadability but noticed that it had been squeezed horizontally. Naturally, I had to do a comparison.

The printed version, represented by the red art, overlaid on the panel in its original aspect ratio revealed that the horizontal dimension had been reduced by about ten percent. That's not too bad compared to some papers, which print the comic at about the size of a postage stamp. At least they used the correct byline.

This stageplay in question is Web of Deceit.

Fortunately, this puzzle is water-solvable.

Technology was so much simpler in the old days, wasn't it.

We never pass up an opportunity to draw Frankenstein's monster. In this panel, we imagine the doctor is conducting market research for future experiments. 

We ended the week with a parent's final backhanded compliment.

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Shameless Self-Promotion

Hey, kids! My musical trio has finally finished and released our second album, Breaking Up the House, and it's available on compact disc now. Click HERE to order yours.

The discs are manufactured on demand and usually ship a couple days after an order is placed.

It will soon be available on the usual download and streaming platforms. That requires extra work (and extra money) clearing licenses and paying the distributor, and it should appear the week of December 4.

We're pretty happy with it and are looking forward to seeing how it's received by music lovers.

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Bonus Track 

The Rolling Stones: "The Spider and the Fly"
From the album Out of Our Heads

Abcko Records, 1965

One of the earliest Jagger/Richards original compositions, which is charming in its knuckleheaded simplicity and understated arrangement.

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More Bizarro For Your Enjoyment

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. 

Thanks!

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

 Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan's Tip Jar

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

Official Bizarro Shop

King Features Subscription & Archive Access

Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®  

Overstuffed With Gratitude

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

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Hello to all from Bizarro Studios North in scenic Hollywood Gardens, PA.

This is Thanksgiving weekend, when Americans celebrate a holiday whose origins are popularly associated with myths more than facts.

Dubious history aside, expressing thanks for the good people and things in one's life is never a bad idea, so that's what I'll try to focus on.

Since it's a holiday weekend, I'll keep today's post as brief as I can, but not so short as to neglect sharing a pipe pic.

This is a photo of a Brütsch Mopetta, a 1950s German single-seat car. According to the Silodrome Gasoline Culture site, only fourteen were produced, and fewer than five are thought to exist today.

Thanks to Bizarro reader Peter S for bringing the Mopetta to my attention.

Speaking of gratitude, I'd like to mention how thankful I am for the privilege of creating six Bizarro comics every week since 2018. I'm beyond fortunate to work with Dan Piraro and to be part of the community of Bizarro readers. 

Thanks to each of you for the part you play.

The other day, my Facebook "Memories" page featured this photo of Dan and me from October 2010, attending a Festival of Cartoons at Ohio State University. At that time we may have started the discussions which led to my eventual role as the feature's daily cartoonist. It's hard to say for sure though, as our memories are clouded by swirls of cigar smoke and Scotch whisky.

I'm happy to say that Dan has long since given up smoking. I was an infrequent partaker in the past. I've probably had a dozen cigars in my entire life, and each time, immediately wondered what I was thinking. I think my personal record was lasting through the first twenty percent of any cigar I ever tried.

Regarding the photo, I have no recollection as to why I was wearing some sort of paper hat.

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Let's review my offerings of the past week and see if they rate a "thanks" or "no thanks."

The Washington Post recently ran a column on current phone etiquette, mentioning that in most cases it's polite to text first to see if a person is free for a call, as calls are considered to be somewhat intrusive.

I know that I feel a twinge of anxiety when I hear a ringtone, and speaking with a human in real time is the least used feature of my phone.

When Dan Piraro shared Tuesday's panel, he observed that holiday humor is always the darkest. 

Holidays can also provide fodder for multiple jokes, as evidenced by the next two panels, which are also turkey-based.

The turducken could only have been invented here in America.

On Thanksgiving morning, my brother informed me that in bowling, scoring three consecutive strikes is called a turkey. I wasn't aware of that term, but I'm now declaring that three consecutive turkey gags shall be called a strike.

Actually, he works for Western Electric.

Here I employed a workaround I sometimes rely on when a panel is crowded and the text needs "air space." Tucking part of a word balloon behind a character is a handy trick I discovered a couple of years back. 

That's the latest output from your cartoonist. 

Thank you for checking in. See you next week.

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Bonus Track 

The Kinks: "Days"
Pye Records (UK) single, June 1968

A beautiful song about gratitude by the mighty Kinks. 

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More Bizarro Stuff

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. 

With newspapers dropping comics or disappearing completely, your encouragement and support means more than ever. 

Thanks!

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

 Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan's Tip Jar

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

Official Bizarro Shop

King Features Subscription & Archive Access

Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®  

The Cheap Crusader

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

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Takers and fakers and talkers won't tell you
Teachers and preachers will just buy and sell you
When no one can tempt you with heaven or hell

You'll be a lucky man.

Alan Price, from the song "O Lucky Man!"

I've quoted Price's title song from the 1973 film O Lucky Man! in the past and will probably do so again. The tune has been playing in my head as we observe certain people doing their damnedest to reshape the country into an oppressive theocracy (pardon the redundancy). One of these maniacs, recently elevated to a high governmental position, was described by the Guardian as "a fevered zealot; in thrall of baroque and morbid religious fantasies; beholden to a regressive, bigoted and morbid worldview; and above all, obsessed – with a lurid and creepy enthusiasm – with sex, and how he thinks it should be done."

The recent elections yielded some hopeful results (Yay, Ohio!), so perhaps all is not lost yet.

Apologies for the gloomy intro. Sometimes a dread for humanity has to be expressed rather than bottled up.

But my job in this weird old world is to try to bring some levity to our readers, which we'll get to after today's pipe pic.

This one comes from my friend Paul Nesja, a co-host of the excellent New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast, who found this pipe-shaped planter at a relative's home. 

I wonder what sort of plant it once held?

Thanks to Paul for sharing this with us.

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Okay, let's see if this week's comics can lessen any feelings of existential angst.

The vest and boots are made of vegan leatherette.

This gag was a natural for a vertical strip layout and was the first of two in this week's comics. 

This feature is especially popular when announcing gate changes.

Jim S, a Facebook connection pointed out that this gag ran on National Bundt Day. I had not planned it and was completely unaware of the holiday, but Wikipedia confirmed it and provided the following info:

[It] did not gain real popularity until 1966, when a Bundt cake called the "Tunnel of Fudge", baked by Ella Helfrich, took second place at the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off and won its baker $5,000.

Is it just me or does "Tunnel of Fudge" sound like a horrific carnival ride?

The gag was also our second vertical strip of the week. 

When I learned that it ran National Bundt Day, my first thought was, "What are the odds?" My second thought was, "Oh yeah, one in three hundred sixty-five."

The day I drew this cartoon, I learned the correct spelling of Whac-a-Mole.

A second superhero gag arrived on Friday, giving equal time to the big two comic book juggernauts. 

Another Facebook buddy, Michael G, came up with "The Cheap Crusader," which I've appropriated as this post's title. Muchas gracias, Michael!

Normally, converting a panel into a strip involves shuffling and repositioning multiple elements using Photoshop, but in a rare instance of advanced planning, my original art (mostly) worked in both formats. It wasn't exactly a seamless conversion, but it needed very little tweaking.

As this scan of the original drawing shows, I decided to change Frankie's jacket to a scouting uniform and thought his head was too small. It's always something.

That's the latest from our Little Shop of Humor. Thanks for checking in. We'll have more humorous distractions from reality next week. 

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Bonus Track 

The Liverpool Scene: "Batpoem"
Live on an unidentified TV program

February, 1969

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Other Sources of Bizarro "Content"

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. With newspapers dropping comics or disappearing completely, your encouragement and support means more than ever. 

Thanks!

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

 Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan's Tip Jar

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

Official Bizarro Shop

King Features Subscription & Archive Access

Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®