Color and Commentary

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

Wayno

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Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
(attributed to Blaise Pascal)

The (possibly mistranslated) words of Pascal (1623-1662) ring truer than ever four centuries later. Whether he actually wrote or intended them to be read as above could be questioned, like everything we see on the web. Regardless of the source, it's a valid statement.

I'd composed a follow-up paragraph listing current examples but deleted it because 1) it would inevitably be incomplete, and 2) Pascal's words are elegant and effective as they stand.

I will simply say: Remember to vote, kids, no matter how many obstacles they try to put in your way.

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Our pipe pic is a shot of a New Zealand soldier in the Egyptian Desert during World War II. Longtime Bizarro reader Alyn H linked me to it.

 

It appeared under the breathless heading 27 Amazing Photos of World War Two in Color. The page featured colorized versions of original black & white photos, which I found laughable for a site called "History Defined." 

 

The US Office of War Information did shoot hundreds of color photos of the mobilization efforts for World War II, which would have been more interesting (and accurate) than colorized black and white images, but as we've seen, a lot of people view history as malleable.

 

The picture of our pipe-smoking New Zealander would have been perfect in its original form. Even with technological advances, colorized black & white photos still look like colorized black & white photos.

Despite the curmudgeonly digression, I appreciate receiving the link and tip my hat to Alyn for spotting and sending it.

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Let's see if I stayed inside the lines when colorizing this week's Bizarro comics.

During the Paleolithic age, paints were available in a more limited palette than we have today.

He had a hunch this might happen.

The latest in my ongoing series of inanimate objects as cartoon protagonists. I can't explain why I enjoy gags like these, so I won't try. I can, however, promise more of them in the future.

I took a risk by starting with such a vertically oriented image, but the strip conversion wasn't difficult once I realized that the guitar was recognizable even with most of the neck out of frame.

The dentist will also wear a surgical mask when working on Patreon supporters.

Tell me you didn't hear the Morricone soundtrack music when you read this one, I dare you.

We ended the week with another panel that might create a sound in the reader's head.

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Beer Here!

 

I worked with East End Brewing Company on all four releases of a special brew called Illustration Ale. Batches were sold in 2010, 2011, and 2013 as fundraisers for a now-defunct cartoon museum here in Pittsburgh.

Each release featured labels designed by a six-pack of Pittsburgh cartoonists and illustrators. My job was to help choose and contact participating artists, create a template for the labels, and coordinate submitting them to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for review and approval.

East End's founder, Scott Smith revived the project for 2017 and gave me a list of six artists he wanted to be included. I was surprised and thrilled to find my name on that list. The 2017 release raised money for HEARTH Pittsburgh, a worthy organization providing much-needed services to local families.

If another Illustration Ale release turns up sometime in the future, I'll look forward to the art and the beer.

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Bonus Track #1

Aurora Nealand & Tom McDermott
"Broken Windmill"
Live at Buffa's Lounge, New Orleans, 2013

Bonus Track #2

Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers
"Let's Have a Party"
Live at the Toulouse Theater, New Orleans, 2022

 

A few weekends back, I made a quick visit to New Orleans to catch some music at the French Quarter Festival. The friend I accompanied told me not to miss a band called Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers. Their show on Sunday afternoon was a wild mix of rock, rockabilly, comedy, theatre, and performance art, and was my favorite of the many great sets I saw that weekend.

Rory Danger is the alter ego of Aurora Nealand, an accomplished vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. In the first video, she performs with my friend, pianist Tom McDermott, who also writes a fine limerick. The second video features Rory Danger wailing on Wanda Jackson's "Let's Have a Party." It's a terrific video but doesn't compare to seeing this band in person.

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Alternate Bizarro Locations

Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

 

Stop by next week for more gags and gabbing from your cartoonist.
 

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Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®

Ham & Existentialism

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

Wayno

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Laughter is a reflex, but unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose; one might call it a luxury reflex. Its only utilitarian function, as far as one can see, is to provide temporary relief from utilitarian pressures. On the evolutionary level, when laughter arises, an element of frivolity seems to creep into a humorless universe governed by the laws of thermodynamics and the survival of the fittest.

Arthur Koestler

In his book The Act of Creation, Koestler uses dense academia-speak to say that humor has psychological benefits. It's a wordy but welcome reminder for those of us in the humor biz, who sometimes wonder why we're drawing silly pictures or telling funny stories when there's so much hate, corruption, and bigotry in the world. Maybe we are indeed helping in a small way. I hope so.

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Today’s pipe pic is from the CIA Museum. This pipe contained a subminiature radio receiver. The user would bite down on the stem and hear the sound via "bone conduction" from the jaw to the ear canal.

The photo was brought to my attention by my friend Black Mold, who has a wild weekly radio program on WWOZ in New Orleans. Check out recent episodes on 'OZ's two-week archive.

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You don't need special spy equipment to read our latest comics, just the web browser you're already using.

Cartoonist Bruce Carleton, whose art has knocked me out since I first encountered it in PUNK Magazine, posted the Comment of the Week regarding Monday's panel:

This is very funny if you don’t think too much about it, and very disturbing if you do, and then very funny again.

Readers in the hospitality business would attest that this wouldn't be their highest-maintenance customer on any giver day.

According to Bizarro reader Jeff J., this practice is properly called multilevel marinating.

The author's self-designated title is Chief Altruism Officer.

Any time I come up with a wordless gag, it's a safe bet that it'll run on a Friday. This peek at a stick figure drawing class is no exception. I liked the gag so much that I held back on the Secret Symbols.

The strip layout involved more shuffling and resizing than usual.

Saturday's panel featured nonstandard Secret Symbols, including a musical Inverted Bird, the Bunny of Exuberance in its guise as the logo for Bizarro's fictional heavy metal band, Iron Bunnies of Doom, and a K2 (with umlaut) modeled on the logo of the band Dokken, whose music I've never heard.

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Beer Here!

This label design for East End Brewing Company was a collaboration with EEBC's founder, Scott Smith.

Scott created a flow chart describing the process that led to the creation of Sketchy Beer. It began as a batch of Illustration Ale (which we'll discuss in a future post). I added some text and lettering I scanned from a letterpress print. The design work was a minimalist delivery system for Scott's charming diagram.

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Bonus Track

Danny Barker: "Ham and Eggs"
Orleans Records, 1988

Danny Barker (1909 – 1994) was a New Orleans musician, vocalist, songwriter, author, and historian. Among his compositions is "Save the Bones for Henry Jones," famously recorded by Nat King Cole and Johnny Mercer in the late 1940s.

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Alternate Bizarro Locations

Dan Piraro's Bizarro Blog
Dan's Sunday page, cartoon commentary, and a discussion of the travails of modern travel

 Wayno's Bizarro Newsletter
An addendum to the blog, with a preview of a future gag and some ancient art from the files

Peyote Cowboy

Dan "Diego" Piraro's epic, award-winning surreal Western graphic novel

 

Thanks for checking out the blog. Drop by again next week, why don't you?
 

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Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®

 

Fertile Crescent

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

Wayno

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If I knew where the good songs come from, I'd go there more often.
Leonard Cohen

I'm not sure, but I'm almost positive that all music came from New Orleans.
Ernie K-Doe

Two favorite performers express their views on the origins of music, one metaphysical and one geographic. Each quote is fanciful in its way, and the sentiments reflect the individual speakers. Cohen was a spiritual craftsman; K-Doe an over-the-top jokester.

Cohen articulates the feeling that art arrives from an external place, seeking a willing vessel to manifest it. That's a rather mystical reframing of an artist's ability to find inspiration and recognize material that might be shaped into something. Ernie K-Doe always spoke in hyperbole, and certainly, for him, all music did come from New Orleans. He was fortunate enough to record many songs written by the legendary New Orleans musician, composer, and producer Allen Toussaint.

Music is a mysterious and necessary force, crucial to our well-being, wherever it comes from. I'm planning to bask in even more music than usual this weekend and encourage you to do the same.

I'll close this intro with a third quote, from my dear friend Tim W, whom I'm meeting for coffee this very morning:

Music improves the human condition.

Amen to that, Brother Tim.

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This week's pipe pic is another mystery, found on the web. All I can gather is that it was published by Currier & Ives in the late 19th century.

While we ponder its possible backstory, let us review the week's Bizarro comics.

Snow folk returned to the comic on Monday, with some unimpressive fortunetelling.

We occasionally nod to the 15th-century ruler of Wallachia. In previous Bizarro gags he's appeared as the Explainer, the Implier, and the Inhaler.

This appearance resulted in one of our infrequent vertical strip layouts.

The secret is to wait until after you've filed your return.

As a veteran second-guesser, I wish I had done this gag differently. If I were drawing it today, I'd cast a pair of smiling grandparent/tourist types in place of the hipster couple.

Our panel for Waterfowl Friday has a pleasant community vibe.

It's not exactly untrue.

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Beer Here!

Continuing our exploration of my work with East End Brewing Company, we present a label from 2006.

Ugly American was released again two years later, with an updated label.

This is a coincidental callback to New Orleans, as the medal the former President wears referred to a clumsy comment he made to his FEMA chief when visiting the area that was hit by Hurricane Katrina.

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Bonus Track

Ernie K-Doe: "Here Come the Girls"
Original release, Janus Records 45 (1971)

One of K-Doe's great records written and produced by Allen Toussaint.

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More Bizarro Stuff

Dan Piraro's Bizarro Blog
Dan's Sunday page, plus cartoon commentary and some thoughts on fairy stories and baloney

 Wayno's Bizarro Newsletter
A supplement to the blog, with a peek at an upcoming gag and a graphic image from my past

Peyote Cowboy

Dan "Diego" Piraro's epic, award-winning surreal Western graphic novel

 

Thank you for visiting. Please stop by again next week, and feel free to drop your current musical inspiration in the comments section.
 

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Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®

 

Comfort Food

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

Wayno

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Perfection is finally attained, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I recently encountered this quote from the French aviator, poet, journalist, and writer best known as the author of The Little Prince. I've seen the same idea expressed by many other artists and writers, and I try to apply it to my art. It's sometimes difficult but is always at least worth considering.

This week, as I was about to upload a batch of comics, I stopped and tweaked a word balloon, trimming twelve words down to seven. I had to change all four files for that day (color panel, color strip, black & white panel, and black & white strip) which was slightly painful, but it improved the gag.

When my musical trio learns and rehearses new material, we often talk about leaving spaces for silence in the arrangements.

These insights aren't revolutionary. I mention them mostly as reminders for myself.

Our pipe pic for the week is a vintage graphic from Finland.

Sometimes the Rule of Three beats the philosophy of brevity, as in this fine design. I do wonder what the word "impregnated" means regarding safety matches.

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As we review the week's Bizarro comics, let's see if there's anything I should have left out.

Suzanne P, a Facebook friend asked if the Inquisitor shown was the Archbishop of Cadbury, which made me laugh.

Tuesday's gag is based on the real-world phenomenon of crows learning that scarecrows are usually located near food. It's mentioned in Mary Roach's informative and funny book Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.

 

 

Speaking of real-world conditions, this optometrist adapted vision testing to the way many people read.

Hasbro is proud to introduce Mister Reassuring Head.

As usual, my favorite gag is in the Friday slot. I have an affinity for using inanimate objects as characters in Bizarro. I especially like to draw them simply as the objects they are, without adding human-like features. I may have been partly influenced by Ernie Kovacs.

I was also pleased with the strip layout.

We wrapped up the week with what might be called an optical pun. When the caption is read aloud, "faster" doesn't sound close enough to "Easter" to qualify as a pun. However, the reader's default mode network might initially process the caption as "The Easter Bunny," before noticing the word substitution. It's an unusual form of wordplay, whatever it's called.

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Beer Here!

Because someone asked, here's another beer label design from my archives.

Our pals at East End Brewing Company made and bottled this delicious beer three times, and we changed the label's color palette for each batch.

Back in 2012, I shared all three versions, along with concept sketches on this very blog.

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Bonus Track

The Hoffman Brothers: "Unbroken But Blue"
From the album All Ears (2023)

 

I’m fortunate to have many friends who are excellent musicians. Some even let me perform with them, though I'm an advanced beginner at best.

The Hoffman Brothers (Gary, Mark, and Jeff) are veteran Pittsburgh musicians and educators. Mark is an old friend with whom I've had memorable adventures, including a trip to New York to see the Residents on their Cube-E tour. Many years ago, I was in a short-lived band with Gary and was in awe of his powerful drumming and singing. I don't know Jeff, but I know he comes from good stock.

This new song is a beautifully crafted piece of guitar-based vocal pop and has become my latest earworm, which I now share with you.

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Alternate Bizarro Locations

Dan Piraro's Bizarro Blog
Dan's Sunday page, plus comics commentary and a reminder that it's not cool to steal someone else's work

 Wayno's Bizarro Newsletter
A supplement to the blog, with a peek at an upcoming gag and a graphic image from my past

Peyote Cowboy

Dan "Diego" Piraro's epic, award-winning surreal Western graphic novel

 

Thanks for stopping by and reading more words than are probably necessary. I hope you'll visit us again next week.
 

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Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®