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
The themes that make one laugh always stem from poverty, hunger, misery, old age, sickness, and death. These are the themes that make Italians laugh, anyway.
Mario Monicelli (1915-2010)
Greetings from brisk and breezy Hollywood Gardens, PA. Fall has arrived, and with it an early autumn cold—or perhaps allergies caused by pollen, since that seems to have been the year's most successful crop.
I've been enduring various unpleasant symptoms for the past two weeks, and missed two live music events I was looking forward to. I decided to stay at home to avoid spreading the ick to friends and strangers, and I'm almost back to normal as I write this post.
In the future, I may refer to filmmaker Mario Monicelli's words when someone finds one of our cartoons to be too dark. Who knew that the propensity for morbid humor has a genetic component?
Today's multi-pipe pic comes from Bizarro international field correspondent Pablo D.
Pablo sent these notes:
Walking home after lunch today with a friend, we stopped to look at another Tabac with a pipe display in the window. He said there used to be a local shop whose owner made pipes. The sad ending is that he wanted a custom made meerschaum pipe, but waited too long. When he was ready, the shop owner had retired and the shop was closed.Oh well. But as an American living in France now, I appreciate the support from the government in general to the traditional trades, all the culinary trades, workshops like printing, bookbinding, etc.
Tabac is the name of a French convenience store where you can grab stamps, lottery tickets, mobile phone chargers, and maybe an espresso. It sounds more elegant than the 7-Eleven down the street, doesn't it?
Merci to Pablo for the photo and for the story. It sounds like you had a lovely afternoon with your friend, and I wish I could've been there.
Here's the latest batch of Bizarro cartoons. Apologies in advance for any black humor that may have crept in.
I was delighted to learn that the German word for "menu" includes an umlaut.
Before returning to the ship, their parting words were, "Stay warm and prosper."
Anchovius the Salty is Rome's forgotten monarch.
To be fair, they're drawn almost the same from the neck down.
Many airline passengers are "Papa Bears" whose carry-on bags are too large to stow overhead or under the seats. The airline then checks their luggage at the gate for free, while customers who paid in advance feel like chumps.
Carry-ons and "personal items" continue to expand, causing passengers to juggle their oversized bags, which slows down boarding and deplaning.
When we launch Bizarro Airlines, I'll propose that we check bags for free but charge fifty bucks for carry-on items larger than a purse or messenger bag.
Father Bibendum is a harsh confessor.
With that disturbing image, we conclude this week's cartoon recap.
Comments From Bots
AI has started making blog comments containing advertising links. Fortunately, Google Blogger marks them as potential spam, and they're easily deleted, but it's still a pain. Yet another example of what Cory Doctorow calls "enshittification."
Bonus Track
Werner Hass: "Witch Doctor"
Telefunken Records single, 1958
Since we kicked off the week with an Oktoberfest gag, here's a German record that's also Halloween-appropriate. Many years ago, I acquired a small stack of German-language records of American songs, and most of them are amusingly absurd. (This was scanned and digitized from my personal collection.)
A Basketful of Bizarro Baubles
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