Friday, March 18, 2011

Exaggerated Immune Response

Today's Bizarro is the latest in an ever-growing pile of collaborative works I've done with Dan Piraro.

This one, much like another recent gag, started as a half-conscious doodle that struck me as a funny image. I couldn't think of any dialog for it, so after scanning the sketch, I dropped in a line of text below it as a placeholder, toying with the idea of running it as a caption contest.
A few days later, I came up with a line where the female character is breaking up with her leguminous boyfriend: It's not you, it's my allergies.

Dan and I both liked it, but he did some additional research that goaded me to take it a step further:
Just for kicks, I looked up peanut allergies in Wikipedia and saw that they give epinephrine to people with extreme allergies who go into anaphylactic shock. Maybe there is a way to take the gag one step further, mentioning the drug? Sometimes leaving something simple is better, but I'm always looking for ways to alienate half my readership.
That reference provided the extra punch that the final comic needed.
As a trivial tidbit, I'll mention that I colored Dan's art for this piece. As described in my prevous post, I've started doing the digital color on the daily Bizarros, so if anything looks wrong Monday through Saturday, it's not his fault.


Sheriff Dan and I have some other ventures planned, including a joint art show in early 2012. You'll hear about it here first. Or maybe here. Possibly here.


Also, it looks like I'll be writing material for another very funny cartoonist. We're still talking things over, and I'll blab about it as soon as it's a definite "go."

Since you're probably killing time at the office, you might enjoy browsing my little online store.


As always, you can check out the history of the Piraro-Wayno partnership by clicking on the Bizarro label.

7 comments:

  1. I like the final version. Because you KNOW she's lying like a Persian rug.

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  2. For the caption contest, I'd like to enter, "I want to put your nuts in my mouth."

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  3. "Since my self-esteem counseling, I will no longer work for mere peanuts."

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  4. "You smeared peanut butter all over the sheets again."

    or

    "I'm pregnant--I thought you said you were dry roasted!"

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  5. "I was brought up to believe impregnation was more likely if two nuts were involved..."

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  6. "I'm so sorry for last night - I thought you'd said your PEANUT was brittle."

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  7. From the possibly over-simple to the possibly over-complex ...

    You said you were nuts for me, you lying legume!

    You told me you loved me for my brains, but you're just a chestnut.

    I'm sorry, but I want children and you're an amphidiploid self-pollinator.

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