Saturday, April 26, 2025

Conversation Via Crustacean

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 



Happy Saturday from the Little Shop of Humor in Hollywood Gardens, PA. It's been a busy and tiring week here, so I'm skipping a lengthy intro this time around. Even so, we won't proceed without sharing a pipe-smoking personality.

Today's model is Ira Gershwin, who famously wrote lyrics for his brother George's musical compositions. The photo appeared in the New York Times Book Review last December, accompanying a review of a recent biography.

In the past, it was common for writers, scientists, actors, and academics to appear in posed photographs smoking or holding pipes. Maybe a pipe was seen as more refined than a cigarette, or perhaps it was meant to make the subject look thoughtful and engaged.

In any case, we're happy that so many examples exist.



Now, let's check out the week in Bizarro. Feel free to count the pipes, though they're rather sparse this week.


The tagline for this furniture is "Proximity Plus Privacy."

Tuesday's panel caused some head-scratching among readers. The caption came first, a play on "dial-up modem" for those who remember such relics. While trying to imagine a suitably surreal image for the caption, I remembered that Salvador Dalí had already created one in 1936, calling it the Aphrodisiac Telephone.

The assemblage was made from a standard 1930s phone with a plaster lobster mounted on the handset. 
The cartoon illustration deleted the handset and placed the lobster directly on top of the modem.

For the strip version, the two devices were repositioned slightly. In a break from tradition, the caption box is placed in the upper left corner, allowing space for the phone cord and the eyeball.

In Spelling Bee World, anger is tempered with restraint.

Choose your superhero name with care. Otherwise, you might end up with apostrophe syndrome.


We took some liberties with the design of Stonehenge.

The strip version offers a different perspective of the monument and uncharacteristically places the word balloon at the bottom of the layout.

The mystery endures.

Thanks for reading and supporting Bizarro. We'll be back in a week with more comics and commentary.


Bonus Track

Todd Rundgren: "Just Another Onionhead / Da Da Dali"
from A Wizard, A True Star
Bearsville Records, 1973


Todd Rundgren refers to Salvador Dalí and the lobster telephone in the second part of this two-song medley from his hallucinogenic masterpiece A Wizard, A True Star. 

This was the first album Rundgren released under his own name after two solo LPs credited to Runt.



A Bunch of Bizarro
Baloney

If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.


 

11 comments:

  1. Wayno, these offerings are excellent as always! I really appreciate the substitution of Dali in lieu of the equally amazing Magritte as your "Artist of the Week". If you ever get the opportunity there is an incredible Dali museum about an hour northeast of Barcelona. I could send you several hundred photos and still not do it justice. Thanks for keeping it surreal!

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  2. Anonymous1:36 PM

    I had not heard that Todd Rungren song before. Wow! I heard influences from Yes, The Beatles, and Zappa (or whomever influenced them). A stream of consciousness song…

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    1. The entire first side of that album is a psychedelic stream of consciousness. One of my favorites.

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  3. Anonymous4:07 PM

    Another awesome week of laughs! I especially adore the Classic British Rock Groups cartoon. My favorite British Classic Rock Group is Spinal Tap. Ha! Thanks for what you do, Jennifer in Yakima

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    1. Many thanks, Jennifer!

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    2. Anonymous10:08 AM

      My wife and I visited Stonehenge in 2005. At the time, they gave you what looked like an overgrown cell phone. You'd press the number of the station you were at and it would play an informative recording. Of course, right before pressing the button I'd say to myself "The Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing." Finally, at the last station, the recording said something along the lines of "History tells us little of the Druids or their activities." I laughed so hard I almost fell down.

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    3. Sorry, didn't mean to post that anonymously.

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    4. Great story, Steve! Thanks for sharing it!

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  4. The woman in the Rock groups panel bears a striking resemblance to Nickey Barclay from the all women band Fanny. She was the keyboard player and frequently sang. Check out their version of the Beatles "Hey Bulldog".

    Great panels again this week!

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    1. Thanks, Judi! I hadn't intended the resemblance, but I can certainly see it! There's some amazing live footage of Fanny on YouTube from a German TV show called Beat Club. They're playing in the television studio, but it's all live, and very good quality! They were a terrific band.

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