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
I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.
~Toni Morrison, 2004
I share this quote for creative colleagues who despair that their work is trivial in a world often filled with hatred, cruelty, and injustice. My Bizarro partner, Dan Piraro, sent it to me in late 2024, at a time when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed and pessimistic about current events.
Our stylish pipe pic for this week is the cover of a 1948 Dell paperback edition of The Invisible Man.
Going through some of my vintage paperbacks and found this. Dell did a great job on these mapack paperbacks in the 1940s.
Paul sent me down a research rabbit hole. I was already somewhat familiar with the Dell books commonly known as "mapbacks," whose back covers featured maps of where the book takes place.
My research turned up a
collection of hundreds of Dell rpaperbacks with gorgeous airbrushed cover art by American illustrator Gerald Gregg (1907-1985). The page also has a biography of Mr. Gregg.
To my surprise, the biographical info came from a book
about paperbacks written by
Piet Schreuders, a photographer, designer, and writer I've
worked with in the past.
This creepy clown was one of my favorite images from the collection of Gerald Gregg's covers.
So, big thanks to Paul for discovering the featured book cover, and for leading me to many more terrific images, not to mention a name from my past.
Be sure to check out the
New Yorker Caption Contest Podcast for some in-depth cartoon talk with hosts who are passionate about cartoons, fun, funny, and opinionated (in the best possible ways).
I hope at least a few of this week's Bizarro gags bring you some well-deserved laughs.
Maybe I should've held this for March, when we do the "spring ahead" thing.
Based on the amount of Orwellian Doublespeak coming our way in recent times, this one almost wrote itself.
The panel received an online comment which seems to have missed the joke, or maybe to have proved it true, but I can't say for sure.
I was genuinely curious about this person's point, which seemed ambiguous or confused. I may have misinterpreted his words, but detected an air of indignant aggression, and decided not to ask for clarification.
I may have run out of Nosferatu puns, but that didn't stop me from making another vampire joke.
I believe this defense has actually been attempted.
"I call that last one The Royal Wheeeee!"
Unless theres a color that's more urgent than red, yes.
Thanks for checking our these risible rectangles. Drop by next week to read another new batch, unless your field of vision is filled with floating hearts.
The Who: "Tattoo"
from The Who Sell Out
Track Records UK LP, 1967
A Large Load of Bizarro Lunacy
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