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
A good start is half the work.
Brendan Behan
It's been a few years since I last read Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy, and I don't recall the context of this pithy quote, but I endorse the sentiment as I interpret it.
That brief sentence offers an encyclopedia's worth of advice for artists. The hardest part of creating art of any type is getting beyond the blank page. A meaningless scribble or a random word can serve as a springboard, sending the mind in unexpected creative directions.
Since Brendan kept it brief, I'll follow suit.
Onward!
Bizarro reader Richard H. sent me this charming photo of a dog with a stick that looks like a pipe.
WeRateDogs began as a social media account in 2015. In 2016, they posted a crowdfunding page for a dog in need of costly medical attention. Later, they established the nonprofit 15/10 Foundation, raising money to sponsor shelter dogs with behavioral or medical issues that made them less likely to be adopted.
Thanks to Richard for the photo, and to WeRateDogs and the 15/10 Foundation for showing us what can grow from a good start.
Late last year, I started these cartoons by making marks in my sketchbook and on Bristol paper.
My pal Dan McConnell is both a cartoonist and an orchardist. He had this to say about Monday's gag:
Excellent cartoon, Excellent pear, perfectly named. We grow Bartletts, Anjous and Bosc pears... [The leaves of] Bartletts are just as portrayed in you cartoon but a bit bigger. The spine of the leaf is straight.
Mr. McConnell is a sweet gent and one of the funniest people I know. He could have been a stand-up Comice. Tuesday's gag was based on that classic TV show, The Fire-Breathing Gourmet.
They'll celebrate by snacking on corned beef jerky (which, I just learned, actually exists).
A snake visiting a psychologist is no less plausible than the traditional Saint Patrick legend.
As if they need reminding.
We got a couple of complaints that this panel was "political" or "editorial." If a little joke about an easily observable behavior among a certain overprivileged population strikes someone as political, I can only surmise that anything they read is filtered through an ideological lens.
One of the oddest culinary experiences of my life happened in Vermont. We were visiting good friends who brought us to a "Sugar on Snow" festival. The titular confection is made by heating maple syrup and drizzling it over a tray of snow, where it thickens into a taffy-like candy. It's served with plain donuts and dill pickles in a particular order, which I've forgotten. It's New England's answer to the salt, tequila, and lime ritual.
That's the latest output from Bizarro Studios North. I'd write more, but it's time to start boiling the cabbage. We'll return to this somewhat stable blogging platform next Saturday with a new bouquet of buffoonery.
Okay, my pint of stout has settled, so I really must go. Sláinte, mates.
The Undertones: "My Perfect Cousin"
Sire Records single, 1980
A Pot o' Bizarro Gold
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's still free, we encourage you to explore the following links.
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