Fantasy Phobia League

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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Sometimes the creative process is just trying to catch yourself off guard.
Robbie Robertson

I recently watched the documentary Once Were Brothers, Robbie Robertson's autobiography in the form of a film. It was based primarily on his memoir, Testimony. The bulk of the film chronicles the formation, career, and breakup of The Band, told from Robertson's perspective.

Robertson may have indulged in a bit of self-mythologizing, but that's true of anyone telling their own story, and he certainly had the goods to back up his account. Any group relationship is complex, with each member having their own recollections and perceptions. I don't think that Robertson was the villain some of his bandmates claimed him to be. He was a stellar songwriter and a great guitarist and was aware enough of his own limitations as a singer to cede the vocal spotlight to Band members Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel.

I pulled the quote above from a discussion of his songwriting process. It applies to any creative endeavor. At times, you simply have to get out of your own way. That's as true of cartooning as anything else.

After spending several days fighting off a virus, I had a productive week in the studio, with a breakthrough writing day when I came up with enough usable gags for more than two weeks. I'm usually able to write just enough for any given week, but the ideas were flowing, and I tried to allow them to keep coming and get them down on paper. It's a satisfying feeling, to be relished when it comes along because soon enough, there will be another day of struggle to create a batch of gags.

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I snapped today's pipe pic while attending the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Awards earlier in the month.

It's a 1950 sales brochure for the then-new Beetle Bailey comic strip. For the first year of the strip's run, Beetle was a college student, and he was frequently depicted smoking a pipe. Cartoonist Mort Walker had the distinction of producing the last comic strip personally approved by William Randolph Hearst.

Walker would have turned 100 this month, and his son Brian (also a cartoonist and a comics historian) presented a retrospective of Mort's career.

I was able to visit a centennial exhibit of Mort's work at the Society of Illustrators during my time in New York, and I was impressed with his drawing, which I haven't seen in a long time.

Happy hundredth, Mort, wherever you are.

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For some more recent comic art, let's review the latest Bizarro cartoons.

This is a highly specific personal Hell.

And there's always an encore.

Wednesday's gag explores the mentality of certain collector types. There's a point where some people's interest goes beyond enjoying and appreciating something and turns into an unhealthy need to feel that others are denied that enjoyment. A related strain of this pathology is anger that the rest of the world isn't interested in one's fetish objects.

Not to paint all collectors with the same roller, but there is a practice of "slabbing" comic books in an unopenable plastic container to preserve them in whatever condition they've been appraised at—comics as commodities.

On a lighter note, the gag prompted Dee Fish, a cartoonist friend, to post this delightful sketch with a comment that she wished she could read a Weird Mammal comic book.

Dee is the creator of a semi-autobiographical webcomic, Finding Dee, which humorously chronicles her experiences coming out as transgender while pursuing her career as a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer. Recently, she has applied her impressive inking skills to the daily Dick Tracy comic strip.

A tip of the Bizarro fedora to Dee for her excellent drawing of the Bunny of Exuberance. Thank you, Dee!

Thursday's panel offered a look at current affairs.

Machine learning has a long way to go.

I recently spoke with a friend about the arms race among makers of hot sauce to develop the most chemically pure pain experience. 

I'm sure our character washed that pepper down with an outrageously hoppy IPA.

That's the latest from Bizarro Studios North. Thanks for taking the time to read these ramblings. There will be more for you next week.

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Bonus Track 

The Kinks "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues"
Live on In Concert
ABC Television, 1973

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Additional Bizarro Material for Your Enjoyment

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

 Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

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