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
Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable, and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art. And tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite to succeeding.
David Bayles, Art & Fear
I haven't read David Bayles's book Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, so I can't comment on it as a whole, but the quote will make sense to artists of all stripes.
People who are supremely confident in everything they do are not to be trusted. Because they never question themselves, they are incapable of or unwilling to imagine that they're ever less than perfect. Examples abound in many areas, but I'll limit myself to the river in which I swim.
Anyone with an urge to create ought to know that all artists experience the feelings of uncertainty Bayles describes. It's helpful to remember this if you've ever said that you can't draw a straight line (or boil water, whistle a tune, etc.)
Not everything you make will be perfect, but if you practice any art repeatedly, you're likely to improve, whether or not you ever reach a professional level.
Creating something, even if no one ever sees or hears it, is an act of self-care and is good for one's overall well-being.
In other words, Have fun making something. You'll feel better when you're done!
I have no uncertainty regarding this week's pipe pic, brought to us by Bizarro reader Jeff W.
Jeff writes:
My wife has an online resale business. One item she acquired last year at an estate sale was this snowman statue. I waited until the weather was more fitting before I shared it with you. The snowman's mixed feelings expression was very fun, along with the mini snowman smoking a full-size pipe.
A tip of the Bizarro headgear to Jeff for recognizing this knickknack as a worthy pipe pic candidate.
Following are the most recent examples of my uncertainty being conquered by the desire to create art—or at least the desire not to miss a deadline.
Any resemblance to an actual cartoonist is purely noncoincidental.
I reversed the layout to fit all of the text (and most of the art) into the strip configuration, although I had to tuck part of the word balloon behind the seatback.
Shortly after drawing this gag, my trusty old task light fell apart. Finding a replacement was time-consuming (and expensive), but I'm back in business and don't have to work by candlelight.
Tuesday's gag salutes frontline art warriors. These brave souls load up their cars and travel to conventions, fairs, shopping malls, and other places to display their work to the public week after week. It's exhausting and sometimes thankless, and I admire everyone who does it.
I've "tabled" many times but rarely do it now. Several years ago, I shared a space with three colleagues at a local comics expo. One attendee breathlessly made the rounds, asking every exhibitor if they were giving anything away for free. After scooping up whatever tchotchkes we had hoped might attract paying customers, he proclaimed, "I just love to support local artists," and scurried away to find his next victims.
I slipped a reference to my cartoonist hero Virgil Partch into the display of prints based on this 1964 "Big George" panel. Several Bizarro Secret Symbols also appear among our fictional artist's wares.
I hope I didn't accidentally draw an actual Transformers toy here. Does the franchise include an annoyance bot?
The strip version is unconventional, with the word balloons separating the characters, but it works well enough.
Not every 19th-century prospector hopped around cackling, "Gold! Gold!"
Subscribers to my newsletter saw a preview of this gag in November. I temporarily removed the text to see how it worked as a standalone composition. Perhaps this version will someday appear in a Bizarro coloring book. Friday's panel shows an artist having an audience with the Poblano.
The drawing is based on a painting of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II by Anastasio Fontebuoni (1571-1626) for no reason other than my compulsion to research this sort of thing.
We closed out the week and began February with a silly visual pun. Hey, if an hourglass is a thing, why not an hourmug?
Marianne Faithfull: "Broken English"From the Broken English LP
Island Records, 1979
The other day, news broke of Marianne Faitfull's death at the age of 78. Broken English, her 1979 comeback album, departed from her earlier recordings. A hard life had changed her voice from light and breathy to deep, dark, and ragged. With its pulsing electronic backing punctuated by sparse guitar stings, the title song was shocking and powerful. The entire album stands up 46 years later, including a haunting cover of John Lennon's "
Working Class Hero."
A Big Buncha Bizarro
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