Saturday, July 25, 2026

Crash Course in Cartooning

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 think funny is just the foundation. I don't really think, to some extent, funny is the absolute most important thing. It should also communicate some idea through the medium of cartooning. Just to be funny is... You know what, the things that you laugh hardest at aren't cartoons.

Robert Mankoff


Cartoonist Robert Mankoff was the New Yorker's cartoon editor for around twenty years, and he's done a lot of thinking about cartooning specifically and humor in general.

I've found that the most satisfying gags usually begin with a topic or premise. The cartoonist's job is to come up with a funny way of commenting on the subject matter. Of course, creating a cartoon from scratch every day, year after year requires multiple approaches to humor—some simple and straightforward and others more nuanced or pointed.

However, many readers would disagree with Mankoff. Cartoonists routinely receive online comments complaining about a gag being "political," which usually means it expresses an idea the reader doesn't like. 

We routinely see comments telling us to "stick to puns." Apparently some readers only want to see a specific type of gag, and when we hear from them, it's a sign that we've gotten an idea across. We rarely, if ever, receive this kind of response to a blog post or newsletter, and I believe that's because the relationship between the artist and the audience is more personal, and readers are aware that an actual human makes this material. 

If a reader tells us that a gag has upset them in some way, we can reply and hear what they have to say. These conversations are almost always positive experiences.

On public sites, there's more distance and a greater level of anonymity, so people might feel emboldened to be aggressive and demanding.

We're fortunate to have forums like blogs to exchange ideas directly with readers, and we have an engaged and lively readership, for which we are grateful every day.

Bizarro field correspondent JP of San Jose provided today's subtitled pipe pic; a screen grab from his television.


JP wrote:
I was watching two different things recently and saw pipes in both so I took a quick photo of each for you to use if you like. 
The first was from the show Star Next: The Next Generation season 1 episode 6. "Lonely Among Us," where Data first shows interest in Sherlock Holmes and takes on some of his mannerisms, including holding a pipe while solving a mystery on the Enterprise. I have been doing a rewatch of this series and this was an episode that I had completely forgotten. There are many more episodes later with Data imitating Sherlock, even having his best friend Geordi as Watson. 
A tip of the Bizarro beanie to JP for taking the time to snap some pipe pics for our entertainment. His other contribution will pop up at some time in the future.
At times, cartoonists generate multiple ideas on a particular topic. That was the case a few months ago when I was working on this batch. All six of the week's cartoons feature crash test dummies.

Let's see if any substantive ideas are lurking beneath the surface of silliness.

Everyone has their own way of seeing progress, and crash dummies might use a phrase like this.

"Yes, but make sure the tires are melted."

Literalizing the metaphorical is a venerable cartoon tradition.

There's a controversy within the dummy community regarding talcum powder versus cornstarch.

Is this dummy a doomsayer or an optimist?

Come to think of it, someone has already invented self-crashing vehicles. Unfortunately, they don't limit the destruction to research labs.

Thanks for visiting the cartoon refreshment stand. 

That wraps up Crash Test Dummy Week. Actually, I wrote more than six gags about the dummies. One of the leftovers will run next week, and a couple of rejects will appear in my next Substack newsletter.

See you in seven days, good buddies.

Sartorial Essentials
It's still summer, and the Comics Kingdom Summer Shop is open for business to help with your seasonal accessorizing.

Bonus Track

Dave Edmunds: "Crawling From the Wreckage"
from Repeat When Necessary
Swan Song Records LP, 1979


Graham Parker wrote "Crawling From the Wreckage" for his 1979 album Squeezing Out Sparks, but wasn't happy with the way it sounded, and suggested to Edmunds that he might want to record it. It turned out rather well.

The Repeat When Necessary album features Edmunds backed by Nick Lowe (bass), Billy Bremner (guitar) and Terry Williams (drums). The same four musicians recorded Lowe's 1979 LP Labour of Lust. Seconds of Pleasure came in 1980, under their collective band name, Rockpile.

Also in the summer of 1979, Rockpile played here in Pittsburgh, as the opening act for Blondie. That was the only time I saw Dave Edmunds perform live, but in the years since, I've been lucky enough to see Nick Lowe many times.


 

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Saturday, July 18, 2026

Back to the Fryer

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 

We humanists try to behave as decently, as fairly, and as honestly as we can without any expectation of rewards or punishments in the afterlife. The Creator of the Universe has been to us unknowable so far. We serve as best we can the only abstraction with which we have some understanding, which is ‘Community.’

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

In olden times, the Book of Face had a "religious views" profile item. I entered "secular humorist" as a pun on secular humanism, which was a bit of a joke, but a joke based on truth.

I'm well into my rereading of Vonnegut's novels, and one volume also included a timeline of his life. He was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association in 1992, and was invited to serve as Honorary President until his death. The quote came from his acceptance remarks.

Attempting to be decent, fair, and honest is how everyone ought to operate in the world, even though we all will fail in these areas during our lifetimes. Throughout human history, threats of punishment and promises of rewards in an afterlife have been an effective means of control, encouraging believers to look the other way when people (including themselves) are exploited, abused, or worse by those in power.

I'm taking a little detour from reading Vonnegut before diving back in, but I'm realizing that, while much of it was over my head in my younger years, it was possible to sense his wisdom, kindness, and basic humanity.

As with all great art, Vonnegut's work reveals more each time one encounters it, and I'm glad that it's still available to us.

I'm also grateful for our weird little cartoon community. Thanks for being part of it.

Today's tandem pipe pic comes to us courtesy of Thomas U, a Bizarro reader from Germany.


The puffing politicians are Herbert Wehner and Helmut Schmidt, in a shot taken sometime in the early 1970s.

Thomas wrote:
Herbert Wehner was caucus/faction leader of the Social Democrats in the German parliament Bundestag from 1969 to 1983, and was nicknamed "Uncle Herbert."

Helmut Schmidt, Social Democrat, was German Chancellor from 1974 to 1982.

Both smoked pipes and cigarettes during TV interviews and talk shows, so there are tons of pics of them with a pipe. Wehner owned more than 150 pipes.
I did a little searching and can confirm that there are indeed a great many photos of both Wehner and Schmidt smoking pipes.

Vielen Dank to Thomas for taking the time to send the photo and background info.

Recently, we featured a pipe image by cartoonist Roy Doty. Early this week, an LP cover by Doty popped up in one of my socials.
I don't recall seeing this record before, and I thought the cover was cool enough to share here, even without a pipe in sight.

The latest Bizarro cartoons may or may not reward repeated readings. I'll let you be the judge of that.

The herd might disagree.

Tuesday's panel shows a rare example of common ground.

What message would you deliver to yourself as a small fry?

Architectural incompatibility should be nipped in the bud.

The modern art character was loosely based on Figures au Bord de la Mer (Figures on a Beach), one of several surreal and erotic paintings Picasso made in 1931.

The gag exemplifies something Dan Piraro described in 2011 when talking about our collaboration.
Our sense of humor depends for the most part on a realistic scene with realistic people where something strange is happening to them.
Nailed it.

We wrapped up the week with one for the Hive Mind.

Thanks for checking in with us. For a deeper dive into the mind of your cartoonist, visit my free Substack newsletter.

Groovy Gear

Yes, we're still hyping the Comics Kingdom Summer Shop in the hopes that you'll consider grabbing some T-shirts or other swag that directly benefit your hardworking cartoonist pals.

Bonus Track

Dave Brubeck: "Jeepers Creepers"
from Jazz at the Blackhawk
Fantasy Records LP, 1956


This recording was included on the album with the Roy Doty cover, which was released in 1957 by Jazztone, a mail-order outfit that compiled and repackaged material from other labels in addition to issuing some of their own stuff.

They may have been a budget operation, but you gotta love that Doty album cover.


 

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Saturday, July 11, 2026

Gone With the Steam

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 

Greetings from the sunny climes of Hollywood Gardens, PA. 

Your cartoonist's schedule is heavily loaded this week and weekend, so we're going with a to-the-point blog entry today, starting with a vintage magazine ad as our pipe pic.
I stumbled upon this image while searching for something else on eBay. I discovered a seller who lists hundreds of tiny advertisements clipped from old magazines. One wonders if this person found an untapped market or just has a weird hobby.

Maybe one day, Bizarro cartoons snipped from newspapers will be offered for auction. Until then, you can read the latest batch in digital form.

The week kicked off with the latest in our floating sheet-ghost series. Although the art is sparse, every time I do one of these, I spend more time than I expected to on the drawing.

European starlings have lived in North America since the late 1800s, but this particular bird still embraces its roots.

Some sophisticated members of this species are less prone to laughing out loud compared to their unevolved cousins.

Focus groups thought the user instructions were "a little preachy."

Going down with the ship may have been a preferable option.

The cargo pockets come in handy at BYOB restaurants.

Thanks for stopping by. We do this thing every Saturday. If you'd like to be notified when there's a new post, you can subscribe to my free Substack newsletter, where you'll also see a teaser from an upcoming cartoon, samples of my pre-Bizarro art, and whatever else I can jam in there.

Fresh Fashions


The Comics Kingdom Summer Shop has been stocked with an assortment of Bizarro T-shirts, coffee mugs, water bottles, and insulated tumblers. Here's one of our understated Secret Symbol shirts for a sophisticated look.

Bonus Track

Golems of the Red Planet: "Hadrial"
from Masada Surf, 2026


Masada Surf has been in heavy rotation here at Bizarro Studios North. Here's all you need to know, from the band themselves:
GOLEMS OF THE RED PLANET is a 3rd wave surf exploration of John Zorn's MASADA songbooks. But let's back up... In l992-l993, composer John Zorn began composing a series of short melodies written in modes found in Ashkenazi Jewish music - a project he called MASADA. Now, over 25 years later, Zorn has composed 613 of these little ditties - the number of commandments found in the Torah. Each of these compositions is written on half a sheet of staff paper (no more than five staves) and written to be performed by any instrumentation. These pieces have been performed by genres as diverse as piano jazz, string quartet, hardcore, all female acapella, salsa, afrobeat, and many more .... but never SURF! And as many of us know, the best surf music uses middle-eastern scales. So we're exploring this vast songbook of new Jewish music and exploring it in a 3rd wave surf context - in the vein of bands like Man or Astro-Man? or Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. Shalom, motherfuckers!

I'm thrilled to share their music with you and looking forward to seeing them live at the end of the month.



 

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Saturday, July 04, 2026

Red Right Hand

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 

Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Today's pipe pic is a musical illustration by the late Roy Doty, and it comes to us from my old friend Candi S.


Doty (1922-2015) was a prolific cartoonist and illustrator, known for his clean line and densely packed crowd scenes.

He created the instructional cartoon "Wordless Workshop," which ran in Popular Science from 1954 through 1990.

In the late 1960s, Doty wrote and drew a newspaper comic strip spun off from the popular TV program, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, which is where I first encountered his work. In my childhood, I read newspaper comics every day, and I looked for the artists' names after I realized that there were people who actually made cartoons for a living.

I ran into Roy Doty several times at National Cartoonists Society functions. He was always fun to talk with, and he mischievously played the part of a crusty curmudgeon at NCS meetings. At one meeting, he gave a presentation on his long career, including video clips from his 1953 children's TV show.

Bill Griffith drew an homage to Doty for the 1990 Zippy calendar, titled "Zippy's Backyard Guernica." Prints are available from ZippyThePinhead.com.

Thanks to Candi for the image, and for the great bumper sticker photo featured in last week's blog post.

The latest Bizarro cartoons may not contain much common sense; a dollop of nonsense is more likely.

Foam fingers are for fair-weather fans.

What to expect when you post a job on monster.com.

Would the proper term be zombaby? Zombino?

Not only were they staring; they were also writing something in a little notebook.

Fleas were the primary vector for bubonic plague, but lice (head and crab) and ticks also admire them for their pioneering work.

Who's up for some threeflexology?

Thanks for checking out the blog. If you'd like to be notified when there's a new post, you can subscribe to my free Substack newsletter.

Fresh Fashions


By popular demand, the newest Bizarro T-shirts are available in ladies' V-neck styles, including this chess-themed panel. The Comics Kingdom Summer Shop also has coffee mugs, water bottles, and insulated tumblers to help you survive any heatwave.

Bonus Track

Jane Aire & the Belvederes: "Yankee Wheels"
Stiff Records single, 1978


It doesn't feel like summer until I hear "Yankee Wheels." 


 

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