Sealed In

This is the weekly communiqué from Bizarro Studios North, where I (Wayno®) have been writing and drawing the Monday through Saturday Bizarro comics since 2018. My partner and friend, Dan Piraro, who created Bizarro in the late twentieth century, continues to do the Sunday comic from Rancho Bizarro in Mexico.

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Greetings from Hollywood Gardens, PA, where we're welcoming Spring with our fingers crossed. There's a possibility of snow tonight, but we're cautiously optimistic that it won't amount to much. As is our custom, we're kicking off the blog with a pipe pic, and today's has a fascinating connection to a well-known artist.

Thanks are due to Bizarro reader Mike L for sending us this double portrait of illustrator, artist and printmaker M.C. Escher, which was done as a linocut by Escher's friend Bas Kist.

The image on the left is Kist's original. Escher revised it by cutting away the border and leaving part as a wisp of smoke.

Escher's own art was often packed with detail in every square inch, so it's a little surprising that he chose to simplify his friend's work by removing the border, rather than filling it with tiny patterns.

I understand MC's instinct. When I see my own published work, I usually notice details (or words) that I wish I'd removed. 

Let's see what could've been edited out of this week's Bizarro comics.

Punday Monday toyed with dual meanings of the word hex. A hex wrench (or hex key, or Allen wrench) is a tool for driving a bolt with a hexagonal socket. The other meaning of hex referenced here is a magic spell or curse.

I learned from a reader's comment that the magical definition of hex is related to the German word, Hexe, meaning witch.

Perhaps the young Reaper's implement might be used to harvest the souls of plush toys.

In my initial sketch I called it a wiffle scythe, naming it after those plastic baseballs and bats. Wearing his editor's hat, Dan Piraro wondered if readers would recognize the term, and whether I might want to change it to Nerf. I thought the word Wiffle sounded funnier sound Nerf, but a soft, spongy scythe could make for a better visual.

Web research revealed that the Wiffle company is still in business, but its annual sales are a fraction of Nerf's ($2.5 million versus $400 million), so it was clear that Nerf was the way to go.

Wikipedia also mentioned this incident involving a Gary Larson cartoon:

In his 2003 book The Complete Far Side, cartoonist Gary Larson reproduces a letter he received after including a "wiffle swatter" in his cartoon. The letter contains language from Wiffle Ball Incorporated's attorneys: "In the future, when you use the brand name WIFFLE, the entire brand should be capitalized, and it should only be used in reference to a product currently manufactured by The Wiffle Ball, Inc."

I'd love to have received a letter like that.

Wednesday's gag adds a comma to the opening line of a classic novel, and suggests an entirely new scenario. My apologies to Melville. And to Ahab.

We followed up with another literary reference, this time to good ol' Edgar Allan Poe.

 

 

Friday's panel casts the familiar image of a seal balancing a beach ball on its nose as an apt representation of the cruelty of removing an animal from its habitat for human entertainment.

Remember, kids: clowns choose to perform in circuses, but sea lions, elephants, apes, and other animals do not.

 

This one's an inside joke for music lovers, tweaking the fact that sooner or later nearly every pop/rock singer ends up interpreting "The Great American Songbook." Never one for understatement, Rod Stewart made five albums of standards between 2002 and 2006.

When I drew the comic last December, I gave the guitarist a green wool hat as a nod to Michael Nesmith, who had departed our plane of existence that month, and whose musical accomplishments both preceded and followed his fine work with The Monkees.

That's the latest from your cartoonist. Dan Piraro also recaps the week's gags on his blog, where he displays his latest Bizarro Sunday page. It's always worth a visit.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week, with a new batch of cartoons, including the eagerly-awaited April Fools' Day Bizarro.

Bonus Track

Michael Nesmith
Some of Shelly's Blues
from Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash
RCA Records, 1973

This is my favorite recording from Nesmith's post-Monkees output. It always sounds fresh to me, and I hope you enjoy it.

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