Twelve More Months of Chucklery

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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Let us encourage one another with visions of a shared future. And let us bring all the grit and openheartedness and creative spirit we can muster to gather together and build that future.

Norman Lear (1922-2023)

At year's end, it's common to reflect on what one has accomplished (or failed to) in the past twelve months. I'm taking a longer view by noting that today wraps up my sixth year of doing the daily Bizarro comics.

I began working with Dan Piraro in 2009, became a regular gag writer, and two-time guest cartoonist, and served as the feature's colorist between 2011 and 2014. 

Dan invited me to take over the dailies beginning on January 1, 2018, resulting in around 1,879 daily comics so far, and our partnership has been the best work and creative experience I've ever had.

We opened this post with a quote from Norman Lear, who died in early December at the age of 101. It's an optimistic sentiment and one I'll try to hold onto despite the abundance of negative forces bombarding us daily.

The last blog entry of the year also feels like an appropriate time to acknowledge and thank you all for your ongoing support. We don't know what horrors and hardships the New Year will bring, but we at Rancho Bizarro in Mexico and Bizarro Studios North in Hollywood Gardens PA will keep doing our thing to, we hope, provide a few moments of healing laughter now and then.

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Although not identified as such, let's pretend that today's pipe pic is the New Year's baby. If Google Translate can be trusted, he's casting a vote for a French brand of corn starch.

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While we ponder the mysteries of le bébé qui fume la pipe, let's look back at the last cartoons of 2023.

When totaling the Secret Symbols in this gag, I found myself counting the slice of pizza, so if any readers were thrown by it, you weren't alone.

We imagine that the term Boxing Day has a different meaning for recycling crews.

Naturally, the emergency call was placed by the butler.

The private lives of public figures are seldom what one would expect.

Of course, in this context, the character's appearance falls under the umbrella of fair use.

We ended the week with the heartwarming tale of the Littlest Troll.

And that concludes our output for 2023. Visit us next week to check out the first gags of the New Year.

Thank you, as always, for your kind attention.

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Bonus Track

Ahmad Jamal: "Poinciana"

From the album But Not for Me

Argo Records LP, 1958

Ahmad Jamal was born in Pittsburgh in 1930 and died in April of 2023. He played in a tasteful, minimalist style, and Miles Davis was quoted as saying he was impressed by Jamal's rhythmic sense and his "concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement."

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Additional Bizarro Outlets

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!

Wayno's Bizarro Newsletter (Temporarily Out of Order)

Dan Piraro's Weekly Bizarro Blog

Dan's Tip Jar (One-time or recurring)

Dan "Diego" Piraro's Peyote Cowboy Graphic Novel

Official Bizarro Shop

King Features Subscription & Archive Access

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