Poop Deck

Today's Bizarro is not only a clown gag, but also completely wordless—a bit of a one-two punch!

It's rare for this writer to produce a purely visual gag, so when it happens, it's particularly satisfying. I've managed to pull it off twice before. 

It will be interesting to see what sort of reaction this one gets. To my mind it's a rather gentle gag playing on the idea of stuffing a large number of passengers into a vehicle that couldn't possibly contain them all. Our would-be sailor seems to have come to the conclusion that a waist high boat is no less likely to hold two of every species on earth than the largest vessel that could be built by a small family using hand tools, but there's always the possibility of righteous blowback. We'll see.

Dan's finished layout is very similar to my submission sketch, though he's added some amusing little extras. 

My favorite of his additions is the very funny depiction of our man's extra-large "shoes," which are actually a pair of giant sandaled feet. This one was submitted as a photo snapped right from the sketchbook. I was away from the studio, and didn't want to wait to get back to tune it up and lay it out in a portrait-oriented panel.

Mister Piraro and I have more collaborative funnies lined up in the coming weeks, including, coincidentally, another with scriptural inspiration. 

All of our earlier joint efforts are available for viewing in this blog's Bizarro Archive.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

They're Coming to Get You, Barbara!

I recently worked on a somewhat different project for my hometown publication, Pittsburgh Magazine. I'm a regular contributor, and do a monthly spot for the PittGirl's Last Laugh column.

This time around, I was also able to play with a two-page spread for a Halloween feature, The Ultimate Pittsburgh Zombie Hunt.

(click images for a larger view)

In order to accommodate the text and not have most of the illustrations squeezed into the lower half of the image, we decided to forgo geographical accuracy, and make it look more like a treasure map.

Sean Collier, the writer of the piece, included six must-visit locations for any connoisseur of the undead visiting the area.

 House of the Dead, a store catering to all of your zombie needs.

The Evans City Cemetery (shooting location for George Romero's 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead)

Monroeville Mall (shooting location for Romero's 1978 sequel, Dawn of the Dead)

Kennywood Park, home of many scary thrill rides

 Allegheny Cemetery, the final resting place of Stephen Foster

The Scarehouse, a Halloween attraction featuring a deranged bunny mascot

Any type of illustration involving a map has the potential to turn into a design nightmare, but putting this together turned out to be a lot of fun, thanks to the flexibility of the magazine's Art Director, Chuck Beard.