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
Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music just imagined.
Thelonious Monk
Thursday, April 30, was International Jazz Day, a holiday declared in 2011 by UNESCO and its Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock "to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe."
The globe needs any unifying influence it can get these days, so let's all take a few minutes to listen to some jazz, or any music that gets to your heart, for that matter.
Thelonious Monk was a musician who did things his way, and he was very good at creating spaces in his compositions and playing. Sometime around 1960, saxophonist Steve Lacy transcribed "T. Monk's Advice," a list of 25 pointers for musicians, which can also be applied to artists and creators of any kind.
I refer to the list now and then, and mentally adapt some of the items. I interpret the one above as:
Don't draw everything... Leave some things to be imagined.
It's not always easy to follow that advice. One of the pleasures of reading gag cartoons is the part that exists in the reader's mind. It's usually best to eliminate unnecessary details and let the reader imagine what has happened immediately before or just after whatever is depicted in the panel. On the other hand,
Bizarro's readers expect to see some unnecessary details in the form of our
Secret Symbols. On the rare occasions when a panel has none of them, we hear about it.
Will Elder, one of the greatest cartoonists of all time, liked to take the opposite approach, cramming his
comics pages with tons of humorous details, which he called "chicken fat."
The term just came out of what we both [Harvey Kurtzman and Elder] knew were
the parts of the strip that gave it more flavor but did very little to
advance the storyline. That's what Chicken Fat does... it advances the
flavor of the soup and, as we all know now, too much chicken fat will
kill you!
Rules for artists are like recipes for cooks. They can be followed religiously or taken as suggestions, with flexibility for individual expression. What's most important is to be aware of what one is doing and think about what may be too much or too little of any ingredient. That comes with experience, and the learning never stops.
Faithful Bizarro field correspondent Jamie S. sends us this subdued portrait of Moe Howard of the Three Stooges. It looks like the photo was colorized, but I'm not sure.
I'd seen this image around the web before, but every one was extremely low-resolution, so I was happy to receive a better quality version to share on the blog.
Pittsburgh's Paul Shannon was one of several local TV hosts who helped revive the Stooges' career in the 1960s. My brothers and I were introduced to the Three Stooges shorts via Shannon's program, Adventure Time. My brothers and I spent countless hours being schooled by Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, and Doctor Howard.
A tip of the hat and a simulated poke in the eye to Jamie for the great pipe pic.
We'll now review the most recent Bizarro gags, which may contain trace amounts of chicken fat.
Drawing the face from inside the clock was surprisingly disorienting.
The strip frame didn't have enough headroom to show much of the clock face, so I hinted at it via light shining through the glass. I spent more time on this strip than on any other in the week.
They grow up so fast.
Nobody forgets the names of these folks.
Poor Max is often out of frame in family photos.
I hoped treaders would hear "Pop Goes the Weasel" in their heads, but even if they didn't, it's clear the instrument in question can only play one song.
I did another Beethoven gag a couple of weeks back. I prefer this one.
The other character in the drawing is based on Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a composer who was a friend of Ludwig's, because I like to do homework for a gag.
We close out the week with a couple of monks who aren't related to Thelonious.
That's the latest from my Little Shop of Humor. If you enjoyed this batch of cartoons and commentary, I hope you'll come back for more next Saturday.
Thelonious Monk
"Rhythm-A-Ning"
Live in Brussels, Belgium, 1963
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