Don't Take That Tone with Me

We hope you had a suitably romantic Valentine's Day, if you go in for that particular celebration. Like many modern holidays, it appears to have been based on an old pagan festival. History.com describes the original fest, Lupercalia, as "a bloody, violent and sexually-charged celebration awash with animal sacrifice, random matchmaking and coupling in the hopes of warding off evil spirits and infertility."

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Let's see if this week's Bizarro cartoons can get some love.

Perhaps we'll see if  we can get #MondayPunday to trend.

Well, maybe not.

I carry a sketchbook and draw or write something in it every day. When I'm ready to start working on a new week of Bizarro cartoons, I'll flip through it to see what sparks ideas for gags. This one sprang from a scribbled note reading "word balloon part of physical reality." 

That's not exactly what I did in the gag, but that note provided a starting point for a series of mental stepping stones that eventually led to the idea of presenting the reader with a balloon resembling a chalkboard to represent the character's "teacher voice."

Sometimes tidying up gets complicated.

On Wednesday, we leapt from teacher voice to mom voice. I've heard parents say that they feel like ATMs, and wondered if the opposite could be true.

My favorite little extra in this gag is the bathroom sign. A couple of readers commented that this must be a "Residents Only" restroom. Of course if that were true, the figure on the sign would have been wearing a top hat.

For Valentine's Day, we offered a Bizarro version of a romance comic book.

We all know that domestic dogs and cats are masters at manipulating their human companions. Saturday's gag showcases a classic technique.

Please don't let my cats know that I revealed this.

Don't forget to take a peek at Dan Piraro's weekly blog post, and fall in love with his latest Bizarro Sunday page. Unfortunately, something went wrong when he was composing this post, and all of his comments on the cartoons were lost. So, this week, you'll have to take my word on all of these gags.

Bonus Track

The wonderful musician and singer Petra Haden covers the "God Only Knows," one of the most achingly beautiful and melancholy love songs ever written.