Today's surreal Bizarro comic is yet another joint effort by Dan Piraro and yours truly.
Magritte has been the subject of quite a few New Yorker cartoons, but I believe he's a rarity in the daily comics. Had this run in the New Yorker, the explanatory label "surrealist" would probably have been unnecessary.
The tattoo is a reference to Magritte's painting The Treachery of Images, and the apple is
from his famous 1964 work The Son of Man, a favorite of the New Yorker cartoonists.
Here's my original sketch:
A few days later, Dan sent me this brilliantly revised version:
Perfect! Mister P found a way to incorporate the apple in front of the guy's face, and retain the "Muscle Beach" feel of the gag. This added layer enriches the joke (which, sadly, is probably lost on most readers of the funny pages).
Check out our previous collaborations here.
