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Saturday, November 18, 2023

The Cheap Crusader

Wayno

Takers and fakers and talkers won't tell you
Teachers and preachers will just buy and sell you
When no one can tempt you with heaven or hell

You'll be a lucky man.

Alan Price, from the song "O Lucky Man!"

I've quoted Price's title song from the 1973 film O Lucky Man! in the past and will probably do so again. The tune has been playing in my head as we observe certain people doing their damnedest to reshape the country into an oppressive theocracy (pardon the redundancy). One of these maniacs, recently elevated to a high governmental position, was described by the Guardian as "a fevered zealot; in thrall of baroque and morbid religious fantasies; beholden to a regressive, bigoted and morbid worldview; and above all, obsessed – with a lurid and creepy enthusiasm – with sex, and how he thinks it should be done."

The recent elections yielded some hopeful results (Yay, Ohio!), so perhaps all is not lost yet.

Apologies for the gloomy intro. Sometimes a dread for humanity has to be expressed rather than bottled up.

But my job in this weird old world is to try to bring some levity to our readers, which we'll get to after today's pipe pic.

This one comes from my friend Paul Nesja, a co-host of the excellent New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast, who found this pipe-shaped planter at a relative's home.

I wonder what sort of plant it once held?

Thanks to Paul for sharing this with us.

Okay, let's see if this week's comics can lessen any feelings of existential angst.

The vest and boots are made of vegan leatherette.

This gag was a natural for a vertical strip layout and was the first of two in this week's comics.

This feature is especially popular when announcing gate changes.

Jim S, a Facebook connection pointed out that this gag ran on National Bundt Day. I had not planned it and was completely unaware of the holiday, but Wikipedia confirmed it and provided the following info:

[It] did not gain real popularity until 1966, when a Bundt cake called the "Tunnel of Fudge", baked by Ella Helfrich, took second place at the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off and won its baker $5,000.

Is it just me or does "Tunnel of Fudge" sound like a horrific carnival ride?

The gag was also our second vertical strip of the week.

When I learned that it ran National Bundt Day, my first thought was, "What are the odds?" My second thought was, "Oh yeah, one in three hundred sixty-five."

The day I drew this cartoon, I learned the correct spelling of Whac-a-Mole.

A second superhero gag arrived on Friday, giving equal time to the big two comic book juggernauts.

Another Facebook buddy, Michael G, came up with "The Cheap Crusader," which I've appropriated as this post's title. Muchas gracias, Michael!

Normally, converting a panel into a strip involves shuffling and repositioning multiple elements using Photoshop, but in a rare instance of advanced planning, my original art (mostly) worked in both formats. It wasn't exactly a seamless conversion, but it needed very little tweaking.

As this scan of the original drawing shows, I decided to change Frankie's jacket to a scouting uniform and thought his head was too small. It's always something.

That's the latest from our Little Shop of Humor. Thanks for checking in. We'll have more humorous distractions from reality next week.

Bonus Track

The Liverpool Scene: "Batpoem"
Live on an unidentified TV program

February, 1969

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Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

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Saturday, November 11, 2023

Mushrooms, Music, and Myopia

Wayno

Greetings, dear readers.

We're helping a friend celebrate a big birthday this weekend, and hanging with out-of-town visitors, so let's get down to business with a double pipe pic.

An Italian Jazz Pickle asked if I'd share a photo of Sandro Pertini, President of Italy from 1978 to 1985, who's smoking a pipe in nearly every photo I've seen. He also appears as a caricature by Italian cartoonist Andrea Pazienza (1956-1988).

Mille grazie to Paradoxer for the suggestion, and for introducing me to the work of Andrea Pazienza.

Now, let's revisit this week's Bizarro gags, written and drawn by your Italian-American cartoonist.

These were fun guys to draw.

We've all been there at one time or another.

Wednesday's panel resulted from a half-remembered dream I had a couple of months ago, wherein I was apparently a pipe smoker searching for pipe cleaners. I found some in a drugstore, and while paying the clerk, I said, "I must be the last person in the world who actually uses these to clean a pipe."

The dream wasn't funny, but it got me thinking about how odd it is that these things are still called pipe cleaners, and I hammered it into a gag.

And I just noticed that the first half of the week was an inanimate object hat trick.

Finally, some human characters! The caption (hopefully) suggests the corkscrew structure of DNA.

Contact lenses might be less conspicuous, but our protagonist should have Lasik surgery if he expects to get away with cheating.

Halloween never ends at my house.

That wraps up another week of droll drawings.

See you next week.

Bonus Track

Vinicio Capossela: "Con Una Rosa"

from the album Canzoni A Manovella

I may not understand all of the words, but Caposella's music speaks to me.

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Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

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Saturday, November 04, 2023

Anything for a Laugh

Wayno

Greetings from Bizarro Studios North, dear friends.

Today, we're foregoing a lengthy intro, and jumping in with a midcentury pipe pic.

The image was recently posted by a company called Two Communications ("Our Mission: Empower Ham Radio") and brought to my attention by Bizarro reader Gerry J.

A caption identified our subject as Gene Senti, shown demonstrating features of his newly developed KWM-1 SSB/CW transceiver, introduced in 1957.

A tip of the ol' porkpie to Gerry for this fine photo.

It's time to demonstrate the features of this week's Bizarro gags. I only wish I had a vintage double-breasted suit to wear as I type this entry.

There might be a kernel of truth behind the tricolor character's assumption (if we're being generous.)

Tuesday's panel features one of our favorite surrealists as a child. René Magritte's iconic painting The Son of Man has inspired countless gags drawn by hundreds of cartoonists, so it was a rare treat to come up with one that hasn't been done before (as far as I can determine).

Mike Peterson said some nice things about this gag in his Comic Strip of the Day column at The Daily Cartoonist.

Bizarro wins Costume of the Year, demonstrating that you don’t have to be elaborate, you just have to be clever. The gag evokes a sort of “Well, of course!” laughing response, coupled with a bit of jealousy that you didn’t think of it yourself.
The best costumes generally do.

We enjoyed that review more than a fistful of Skittles. Thank you, Mr. Peterson.

Speaking of cartoon tropes, we shamelessly offered up a fly-in-the-soup gag on Wednesday.

I can imagine tattoo artists routinely getting requests of this type.

Sometimes one has to indulge one's silly side. A silly joke may even turn out to be my favorite of the week and find itself in the Friday slot.

I also liked it because it was the least complicated strip conversion of the week.

The character in the middle is smiling while pondering how to interpret that statement. It turns out they were cellmates in a federal prison.

That's our latest comedic output. I hope you enjoyed some or all of the above. Thanks for checking them out.

See you next week.

Bonus Track

Wire: "I Am the Fly"
from the album Chairs Missing

Harvest Records UK, 1978

Thanks to former Pittsburgher Timothy P. for mentioning the band Wire in response to Wednesday's gag. The music actually sounds like tiny guitars played by insects.

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

Thanks!

Dan's Tip Jar

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel