Sustainability Squared (Bizarro Guest Week Day 6)

Today's offering includes a relatively new term, which was the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2007.

Tune in tomorrow for the hellish finale to my temporary takeover.

Funambulist's Physical (Bizarro Guest Week Day 5)

Today's comic rips the lid off the hidden health hazards in the circus racket.

Balloon animal allergies are also on the increase.

Family Dynamics (Bizarro Guest Week Day 4)

Today's cartoon explores the long history of tensions that develop when relatives overstay their welcomes during the holidays.

Tip for aspiring cartoonists: Think twice before doing a gag involving a swarm of insects or a character sitting cross-legged in a chair.

Supply Sergeant (Bizarro Guest Week Day 3)

As we hit the middle of this week's siege of Bizarro, we present a little-known military item.

These usually sell out quickly at Swiss Army surplus stores.

The Best to You Each Morning (Bizarro Guest Week Day 2)

Today's gag shows us the rejected prototypes of a trio of familiar advertising icons.

These guys had a certain grubby charm, don't you think?

Rat Race (Bizarro Guest Week Day 1)

Welcome to Day 1 of my second temporary takeover of Bizarro. We tried this out in May, when Dan Piraro took a few days off, and received very few death threats, so we're doing it again.

Today's gag features a fat cat who's actually a rodent.

I'll post each day's comic throughout the week, but will forgo my usual explanation of the genesis of the gag and how it progressed from sketch to final art. I will however mention that, although the purpose of my subbing was to allow Dan some time off, he was very involved in the selection and creation of all seven gags. We started with a group of about 30 submissions, and narrowed them down to those we agreed on as the best of the bunch. Dan reviewed my pencil sketches and inked art, and gave many helpful suggestions regarding composition and color, as well as editing and refining the text.

Both of these guest week stints have been educational experiences for me, the equivalent of attending a master cartooning class in which I was the only student. My sincere thanks go to Dan for this opportunity, and to his editors at King Features Syndicate for giving us the go-ahead.

Thanks for reading. Please come back and read the subsequent installments, which will wind up on New Year's Day 2012.

Our previous collaborations, which now number over seventy gags, are still archived here under the Bizarro label.

If you're a new reader, please check out my FaceThing and Twitterations.

Blog comments are welcomed and appreciated!

Flavor Crystals

Today's insectivorous Bizarro cartoon looks suspiciously similar to one of my previous gags. Here, we offer another twist on the cliché of a customer complaining about a fly in the soup.

This time around, Dan Piraro's finished art is very similar to my submission, so I must have done a better than usual job on the sketch. Or, maybe he was facing an extra-tight deadline.

My favorite aspect of this cartoon is the unsettling image of a giant Venus fly-trap sitting at a table wearing a bib, with the human waiter acting as if it's perfectly normal. I also love the way Dan gave the plant vestigial "shoulders" to hold up the napkin. 

This cartoon might work well as a short animated sequence. The plant would be perfectly still, maw agape, giving no indication of human-like behavior. There would be no soundtrack music, just the crackly hum present in very old films, or the work of David Lynch.

I've played with this motif before. Here's an unpublished cartoon from 2007:

Oh, those waggish dealers in notions!

If you enjoy these collaborations, please feel free to browse this blog's Bizarro archive.

Thank you for following these posts. This blog's been sputtering along since early 2006, and I look forward to sharing more art and miscellaneous musings as we move into the last year on the Mayan calendar.

I'll be in training for the next two weeks, preparing for another run as Bizarro's  guest cartoonist (December 26 - January 1). While you're watching the preserved head of Dick Clark count down the final seconds of the year, think about your friend the cartoonist, who spent the night slaving away to get the Sunday comic written, drawn, colored and uploaded for your New Year's Day amusement. We're here for you, dear reader.

No Funny Stuff!

Today's adorable Bizarro features the world's most maddeningly-recognizable character getting a small measure of comeuppance.

This gag has undergone a few changes since I first sketched it. My initial version showed the mugger accosting a clown.

That wasn't bad, but it didn't really deliver a satisfying laugh, either. I then thought of substituting the line "don't try anything cute" and showing a ridiculously cloying character being robbed. This turned out a little better, but still wasn't quite there.

For the "cute" sketch, I flopped the composition, placing the victim on the right, so the reader would encounter it after reading the line of text. This idea of placing the payoff at stage right is a rule of thumb I picked up from Dan Piraro, which has been discussed here before.

After we both stewed on the idea, Dan finally thought of using Hello Kitty, the absolute epitome of excessive cuteness. That breakthrough was just what the gag needed. It was an obvious choice, but it took a year before it occurred to either of us.

I'm particularly happy with the coloring on this one, especially the shadows on HK's head.

At some point in the distant past, I drew a comic showing Albert Einstein being kidnapped by two gangsters, with one of them saying "Dis guy knows too much." I've been unable to locate that old sketch, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Our next collaborative cartoon will appear on Saturday, December 10. After that, my name won't appear in Bizarro until the start of my weeklong stint as guest cartoonist, which begins on Monday, December 26.

Press Release: Bizarro Guest Cartoonist 12/26/11 - 01/01/12

December 5, 2011 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Wayno Returns as Guest Cartoonist for Dan Piraro's Bizarro

December 26, 2011 through January 1, 2012 

Bizarro, Dan Piraro's aptly titled outlier of the daily comics page, will again showcase the cartoon work of Wayno during the week of December 26, 2011 through January 1, 2012. While Piraro takes a break Wayno will fill in with his own quirky take on the world at large. 

The two artists began collaborating in 2009, with Wayno serving as a regular gag writer, and early this year, becoming Bizarro's weekday colorist. 

Since the cartoon feature was launched in 1985, Wayno is only the second artist to sit in for Piraro. Cartoonist and television writer Francesco Marciuliano substituted for Piraro in July of 2008. Wayno's first appearance as guest cartoonist was in May of 2011. 

Piraro will spend the week in his underground laboratory, where the Bizarro Research Team is working to develop a Scotch-flavored cigar, or possibly a cigar-flavored Scotch. Speaking of his guest, Piraro said, "Apparently, our first choice, Nancy cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller, is still dead. Wayno wrapped some acceptable scribbles around a brick that recently came through our window, so we decided to print them." 

Wayno remarked, "I'm grateful for this opportunity to mind the store for Dan, and this time I promise to lock the door securely on my way out." Wayno's new batch of cartoons explores such topics as the local-food movement, health risks in the clowning industry, and family dynamics in ancient Egypt. The week concludes with what he claims to be the first Sunday newspaper comic to feature jazz great Miles Davis. 

•••

Dan Piraro is the cartoonist behind Bizarro, a columnist for VegNews, a musician, and stand-up comic. Piraro was named Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year 2010 by the National Cartoonists Society, and received their prestigious Reuben Award. Bizarro is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and appears internationally in 350 newspapers. 

Wayno is a cartoonist, illustrator, pop artist, and writer based in Pittsburgh, PA. He is a member of the National Cartoonists Society, and one of the ToonSeum's founding board members. In 2010, Animal Friends selected him as their Honorary Artist for Black Tie & Tails, which raised over $400,000 for the pet adoption & resource center. 

For more information, visit the artists' blogs and Twitter feeds: 

Bizarro Blog • WaynoBlog • @waynocartoons • @pirarobizarro 

#### 

12/05/11 ndp

Sketch Fest 3

Here are a couple of recent scribbles from my current sketchbook:

Divas • 11/08/11 • Pencil & Ink

I loved the composition of this New York Times photo and the singers' facial expressions. I didn't quite capture the exuberant feel of Ruth Fremson's dynamic shot, but it was a satisfying exercise.

Scott Thompson • 12/01/11 • Ink & Colored Pencil

As an experiment, I made this caricature of the comedian known as Carrot Top strictly from memory. Later, I ran an image search and discovered that the drawing should have been much more grotesque. Live and learn!

These drawings were both made without undergoing plastic surgery or using anabolic steroids.

Heävy Lifting

Today's Bizarro comic reminds us to read a contract thoroughly before signing or clicking the "I agree" button.

Dan's final art is very close to the submission sketch (below), cropped in a little, with more appropriate (and funnier) characters.

 

The idea of wannabe rock stars attending a camp with actual musicians (who could use some extra cash) was neatly parodied in a 2002 episode of The Simpsons. However, the counselors at Springfield's camp were for the most part of a higher caliber than those who generally appear at these things.

Check in next week (December 8 and 10) for two new Piraro/Wayno collaborations, and get your round-edge scissors ready to clip the comics from my upcoming Bizarro guest week (December 26, 2011 through January 1, 2012).