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
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, from The Great Gatsby (1925)
I began to compose this post early in the week. I chose the Fitzgerald quote as a response to a certain autocrat's tone-deaf Gatsby-themed Halloween party, which celebrated greed and excess while withholding desperately needed food assistance from one in eight American citizens.
However, every time I started writing, I experienced symptoms of stress, which were quite uncomfortable and a little concerning, so I saved a draft of the post to revisit later and concentrated on my regular daily work.
Wednesday morning brought welcome news and reason for cautious optimism.
If I may quote from a recent Women's March newsletter:
Voters stood for bodily autonomy,
for freedom in our own lives, and for a democracy that listens to the
people. It was a hopeful day, a reminder that people still believe in a future grounded in fairness, freedom, and care for one another.
Fairness, freedom, and caring for one another... Imagine that!
Speaking of which, I hope you'll consider supporting your local food bank. Right now, it's more urgent than ever.
Faithful Bizarro reader Andréa D. sent this casually macho shot of cinematic tough guy Charles Bronson apparently lighting up between takes on a movie set.
The photo is all over the web, with conflicting dates attached. Various sources place it in 1960, 1969, or as late as 1976. Stills from the 1970 film Cold Sweat show Bronson at about this age and wearing very similar clothing. The particulars of the haircut, sideburns, and mustache also match well with this image.
The injury above his right eye makes me almost certain that it's from 1969 or 1970. The mark doesn't appear in every still from the movie, so I assume it was part of the plot.
Thanks to Andréa for the photo and for sending me down a filmic rabbit hole.
We hope that Bizarro provides moments of relief from current events or other stressors. The following are my latest offerings.
Roger that.
A tip of the Bizarro cold-weather fedora to Jazz Pickle Bill V., whose Facebook comment I appropriated for the title of today's blog. Our readers consistently impress me!
How would you describe the accuracy of your GPS?
"Put some insect protein on that first."
Thursday's panel plays with the visual language of comics.
I must admit, that's an odd T-shirt.
In no way am I complaining about my job, and certainly not about Bizarro's readers, but in the cartooning biz, we regularly encounter questions like these from "civilians." Most are well-meaning, but they are often amusing.
Note to colleagues: If you have a favorite Cartoonist FAQ, send it my way for a possible future installment.
If I were to ask forgiveness for this gag, I suppose I'd have to say, "It's been eight days since my last clown cartoon." However, I remain unrepentant.
Thank you for visiting the blog and checking out my comics and commentary. There'll be more of this stuff right here next Saturday.
By the way, my stress response early in the week gave me an idea for an upcoming gag, but I wouldn't want to make that a regular part of my writing process.
Bonus Track
Petra Haden: "I Can See For Miles"
From Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out
Bar/None Records, 2005
Petra Haden's 2005 album is an a capella cover of the Who's 1967 pop art/pop music masterpiece. She overdubbed many layers of her own voice to reproduce the vocals and music of the entire album.
Pete Townshend spoke highly of Haden's reinterpretation:
In a way it was like hearing it for the first time. What Petra does with her voice, which is not so easy to do, is challenge the entire rock framework ... When she does depart from the original music she does it purely to bring a little piece of herself -- and when she appears she is so very welcome. I felt like I'd received something better than a Grammy.
When I bought the CD in 2005, I expected it to be an amusing one-off, but I have listened to it regularly over the past twenty years.
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