For Crying Out Loud

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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I've always heard people's criticisms twice as loudly as their praise.

Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi is best known (and was probably best compensated) for directing three Spider-Man films. Earlier in his career, his Evil Dead trilogy served up a unique combination of horror and humor. Darkman (which he directed and co-wrote) is the only superhero movie I'd willingly view.

I don't know exactly when he expressed the sentiment above, or whether he said it at all, given the amount of misinformation on the web, but it's certainly something most artists have felt.

Social networks and the internet make it much too easy for unqualified and uninformed would-be critics to spout off unsolicited opinions, but at least it helps us all develop thicker skins.

If I ever see Mr Raimi, I'll yell as loudly as I am able, "Great work, Sam!"

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Double Pipe Pic

These jaunty 1960s Halloween decorations were made by the Beistle Company, which is still operating in the south-central Pennsylvania city of Shippensburg.

I found the image on an auction site and knew it was destined for this week's blog entry.

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I hope this week's Bizarro panels are more humorous than horrible, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

A truly dedicated collector wears white cotton gloves even when handling a protective Lucite case.

I was never a member of any branch of the military but if I were, I'd welcome an assignment like this. 

A couple of waggish Jazz Pickles commented that the patient might have simply been fatigued. I tip my leafy helmet to Dave M and Alyn H for the excellent pun, which I hadn't thought of.

This establishment no longer places candles on the tables after an unfortunate incident resulting in a large hole in the outer wall the same size and shape as our server. 

Although it has no dialog or caption, I suppose this one doesn't precisely qualify as a wordless panel.

As a fellow service animal, I can confirm that the rewards of the job are worth all of the work.

Saturday's pet-related comic is somewhat autobiographical. Our beloved feline family member had a long bout of anxiety and would wake us several times throughout the night (though not as often as every thirty minutes). He's mostly gotten over it, but the first few nights that he slept peacefully, we lay awake, wondering if he was all right.

That's the latest output from Bizarro Studios North. Feel free to praise or criticize, but please be gentle.

Thanks for ringing the studio's doorbell and showing off your costumes. See you next week.

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Plugola 

Have I mentioned that my free weekly newsletter magically appears in your inbox to let you know when a fresh blog entry is available?

Each edition includes a graphic artifact from my past and an exclusive sneak preview of an upcoming Bizarro gag; or at least a small piece of it. Here's a recent preview, snipped from a gag that will run in December.

And, this is one of the historical images from a recent newsletter:

It's a drawing of the actress Karen Black (1939-2013), as she appeared in the 1970 film Five Easy Pieces. The sketch was based on a photo from her New York Times obituary in August of 2013. When I have time to linger over coffee, I'll sometimes warm up by drawing something from the newspaper, trying to pencil as little as possible, and just draw what I see. This is one of those early morning sketches.

If this sort of thing intrigues you, I hope you'll check it out. You can always unsubscribe, and it won't hurt my feelings much.

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Bonus Track 

Michael Hurley
"The Werewolf Song"
from the album First Songs

Folkways Records, 1964

Michael Hurley (born 1941) recorded this composition at least two times, and it's been covered by artists such as Cat Power, the Holy Modal Rounders, and Tin Men, a New Orleans guitar/sousaphone/washboard trio.

Hurley's first recording is a favorite around here, but I enjoyed every version I've encountered.

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Additional Bizarro Resources

If you enjoy what we do, and appreciate that it all comes to you free, we encourage you to explore any or all of the following links. Thanks!

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

 Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan's Tip Jar

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

Official Bizarro Shop

King Features Subscription & Archive Access

Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®  

Everyday Surrealism

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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By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.
William Shakespeare's Macbeth

A Halloween tradition in our house is to order from a favorite pizza shop and watch the 1983 film Something Wicked This Way Comes. The script was co-written by Ray Bradbury (and adapted from his novel) and the stellar cast includes Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd, Royal Dano, and Pam Grier. It doesn't actually take place on Halloween or even reference it, but is definitely autumnal and wonderfully creepy.

A new tradition here in Hollywood Gardens is visiting the haunted yard of a young neighbor named Noah. He's a great kid who foregoes trick-or-treating to raise funds for cancer research. We're lucky to have this inspiring lad living nearby.

Cartoons Are Good For You

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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Ninety-eight percent of the people who get the magazine say they read the cartoons first and the other two percent are lying.
David Remnick, Editor of The New Yorker

If you're reading today's blog post, congratulations on making it safely through another Friday the 13th. Whether or not David Remnick of The New Yorker actually made the statement quoted above, there's an element of truth in it. I can't imagine picking up a copy of the magazine and not reading all of the cartoons first.

Readers love cartoons, and cartoonists love making them. Sectors of the publishing world have a more complicated relationship with the art form, seeming to believe that all cartoons are interchangeable and that they're worth having, but not necessarily worth paying for. That's become the case with all writing, music, art, etc., which is now lumped together as "content."

Editorial cartoonists have to contend with more in the way of suppression (and worse) than those of us who deal in non-political gags. I found the Remnick quote on the Instagram account of the nonprofit Cartoonists Rights Network. They define their mission as follows:

Cartoonists Rights is dedicated to fostering a global community of cartoonists, advocating for the protection of their human rights, and providing support for the defense of those facing threats as a result of their work.

With the rise in our country of legislated censorship, whitewashing of history, organized disinformation, and embrace of totalitarianism, we need our editorial cartoonists more than ever, and an organization like Cartoonists Rights is doing valuable work.

Big Boom Theory

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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One has to look out for engineers—they begin with sewing machines and end up with the atomic bomb.
Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974)

Marcel Pagnol was a French playwright, novelist, and film director, and the source of the pithy quote above. Surprisingly, humanity survived the Cold War period (late 1940s to around 1991) without blowing up the planet, although people's lives were probably shortened by stress brought on by the constant dread of nuclear annihilation.

Unfortunately, the human race instead opted for a prolonged form of self-destruction built on (among other factors) good old-fashioned fossil fuels. Take that, atomic energy.

Pagnol generalizes, but there are exceptions. Your cartoonist actually obtained an engineering degree (if just barely) but eventually managed to escape that unsuitable environment. So in my case, it was circuit boards to the drawing board. I'm much happier here, and, I hope, doing a better job than I did in that other world.

These musings were prompted by one of the week's cartoons, which we'll get to in a bit, but first, we have a monumental pipe pic to share.

This magnificent thing is located in Saint Claude, Manitoba, Canada. It was built in commemoration of early settlers who came from Saint-Claude, France, where the main industry was the manufacture of smoking pipes. This one is 19 feet long and 5 feet high and weighs just over 400 pounds.

For scale, here's a small human in front of the giant pipe.

Big thanks to Bizarro Jazz Pickle Joe S for hipping me to the Saint Claude pipe, and for reminding me that a few years ago, I posed in front of a giant coffee pot on Route 30 in Bedford, Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, it's no longer an operating coffee shop, but it does make for a fun souvenir photo.

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This week's Bizarro cartoons were definitely fueled by the consumption of caffeinated beverages. Let's see if your cartoonist had a steady hand.

Monday's comic commemorates an early version of remote working.

Next, would you post a review?

Generally, we try to be economical with our word balloons, but occasionally verbosity is called for. The most difficult part of writing this was editing the text to fill the balloon while having relatively uniform line breaks. I did not want to add hyphens to the mix.

I'll sometimes place a character in front of their word balloon to provide a little more airspace around the text. This is the first time two characters overlap the balloon.

I reversed the staging for the strip version so the reader would encounter the name Waffle House only after reading the long-winded dialog.

If Thursday's panel had run prior to July of this year, I suspect that fewer readers would get the caption, so I'd like to thank the makers of the Oppenheimer film for giving me the opportunity to make this joke.

The cartoon prompted a Reader Comment of the Week, which came from my old pal Mark J:

Have we forgotten the legacy of John Jacob Oppenheimer Schmidt? His bomb is my bomb too.

Thanks for the earworm, buddy.

Their intro music is a classical piece, The Abdominal Membrane Variations.

Reality plus the tiniest bit of exaggeration equals Saturday's panel.

That wraps up yet another week of gags from Bizarro Studios North.

Thanks for reading the comics, the blog, and the newsletter. We hope to have you back next week with an offering of more words and pictures.

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Bonus Track #1 

The Pilgrim Travelers
"Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb"
Specialty Records, 1950

This might be the most threatening gospel song ever recorded.

Bonus Track #2 

Dr. Feelgood
"Boom Boom"
from The Geordie Scene, Tyne Tees Television 1975

The greatest pub rock band of all time with a live version of John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom." On this number, the group's guitarist and songwriter, Wilko Johnson, handles lead vocals while the regular singer, Lee Brilleaux, wails on harmonica.

The clip features the Feelgoods' four founding members: Wilko and Brilleaux with bassist John B Sparks and drummer The Big Figure. The band was formed in 1971, and a version with no original members still records and tours, but no configuration has ever matched the classic original lineup.

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Even More Bizarro "Content"

 Wayno's Weekly Bizarro Newsletter

 Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan's Tip Jar

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

Official Bizarro Shop

King Features Subscription & Archive Access

Support Your Local Humorist

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®