Breaking and Entering

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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Happy Pride Month

Before we get to our regular content, we want to pause to acknowledge the years of struggle for civil rights and equal justice under the law for everyone in the LGBTQ community and to celebrate their achievements throughout the year.

There's still a long way to go, and certain forces are working to reverse progress in this important area. We at Bizarro support the goal of becoming a society that's tolerant of and welcoming to everyone.

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 Humor is how you change people’s opinions, and if you can make someone laugh, they’ll listen, even if they hate you. 

John Waters

Sharing quotations is tricky. Much of what we find on the web is questionable, but this sounds like something John Waters would say. I found it while searching for something else I thought he said. The quote I was seeking, whether real or imagined, was about pursuing what you want to do despite those who'd discourage you. It was something along the lines of, "After ten years, they'll realize they can't get rid of you."

I was thinking about that milestone since I'm now in my sixth year as Bizarro's daily cartoonist, fourteen years after my first published contribution. And I've spent almost four decades as a professional artist/illustrator/cartoonist.

I have a birthday coming up this weekend, so that may account in part for my backward glance. 

Looking into the more recent past, I retract last week's claim about overcoming artistic self-doubt. That was optimism or hubris talking, because a day after the post, I looked at a panel I'd drawn and decided that it was so terrible, it wasn't worth trying to fix in Photoshop. I filed it away and did a completely different drawing for the gag. That'll learn me.

The quote attributed to John Waters is mostly true but has its limitations, in that it assumes a sense of humor in the person who disagrees with you. There are an awful lot of people (or a lot of awful people) who refuse to recognize anything contrary to their particular beliefs/obsessions and also lack any sense of humor.

If there's a point to this intro, I suppose it's that self-questioning is probably healthy and that a true sense of humor is rooted in the ability to laugh at oneself rather than at others.

Okay, that's enough of a cartoonist's two-bit philosophy. Let's get back to something fun, like this week's pipe pic, a delightful panel by Ernie Bushmiller.

Nancy's creator is the subject of an upcoming graphic biography by the great Bill Griffith.

The book is to be released in late August and is now available for pre-order. I hope to see the author in the fall, so I can get my copy autographed.

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While contemplating the sublime perfection of Bushmiller's art, let's look at the work of a lesser mortal, in the form of this week's Bizarro panels.

The character in the suit is a Lagotto Romagnolo, Italy's truffle-seeking dog breed.

As an observer of human behavior, I'm often amused by online comments about comics, particularly those engaging in speculative fact-checking. The truffle dog comic prompted this exchange:

Reader A: But that's a pig's job. Not a dog's.

Reader B: Supposedly there are truffle dogs also.

Reader C: You could be right about that.

If only there were some way to find the answer...

The weapons in Tuesday's gag may look smaller than they should, but they're actually dueling swatters, also known among flies as derringers.

Perhaps one day we'll do a book collecting all of our comics that employ inanimate objects as characters.

I knew in advance that I'd do this one as a vertical strip, but didn't realize that the thought balloon would have to be placed at the bottom until I started working on the layout.

A wooden fence is just a rustic version of a velvet rope.

Friday's panel shows Victor Frankenstein as a pioneer of forensic monsterology.

We closed out the week with a bit of visual misdirection.

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My good pal and colleague Dave Blazek surprised me on Thursday, in his award-winning comic, Loose Parts.

Loose Parts is one of the many comics I read every morning, and I nearly spit my coffee when I saw my name in the window of this tavern. We welcome all sorts of barthropods at Wayno's. Thanks to Dave for the extra, personal laugh.

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Beer Here!

This label was done for a brew celebrating East End Brewing Company's fifth anniversary, back in 2009. I remember spending considerable time distorting the wooden nickel image, so it would look circular when the label was wrapped around the bottle.

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Bonus Track

The Bostweeds: "Faster Pussycat!"
Eve Productions, 45 RPM single, 1966

In the early 1980s, I lived less than a hundred yards from the city's coolest record store, which was owned by my good friend Jim. I spent way too much time and money there and loved every minute of it. It was the home base of our self-published music zine and tiny independent record label, rehearsal space for our bands, and the spot where I met and hung out with a ton of musicians, including the Replacements, the Ramones, Snakefinger, and many others.

One day we were sorting a huge lot of old 45s that Jim had acquired and found a copy of "Faster Pussycat!" by the Bostweeds. It was used as the theme for Russ Meyer's notorious film, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Unfortunately, the version in the film included sound effects of revving motorcycles and fight scenes, and the recording of the song alone, was hard to find. Jim and I recalled reading an interview with John Waters where he mentioned how much he wanted a copy of the record. We called Baltimore's directory assistance and got the director's phone number, dialed it, and Waters himself answered the phone. We told him we were fans and asked if he'd ever found a copy "Faster Pussycat!" We were thrilled to speak with him and happy to send him the record. I think he offered to buy it, but we insisted on sending it to him as a gift, which he graciously accepted. 

No copies of the record are currently for sale on Discogs. In the past, they've sold $735 to $1,000.

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Alternate Sources of Bizarro Goodness

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

  Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

 

That's the latest from the Little Shop of Humor at Bizarro Studios North. Stop by for a visit any time.
 

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