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
Greetings from the frozen mid-Atlantic region. Our predicted low temperature for tonight is minus ten degrees. Still, we're shovelled out and managing well compared to other areas hit by the winter blast.
The snow probably won't fully melt until March, but fingers are crossed for good news from Punxsutawney next week.
I hope you're all warm and safe.
Today's dapper pipe pic is believed to be an early self-portrait of the pioneering photojournalist Charles "Teenie" Harris (1908-1998)
Harris chronicled life in Pittsburgh's African American community, photographing newsworthy events, sports, political and entertainment figures, and ordinary citizens, for the Pittsburgh Courier. Over the course of his career, he shot more than 80,000 photos, and his archives are now housed in the Carnegie Museum of Art here in Pittsburgh.
In the 1980s and 90s, Mr. Harris licensed his work to a vendor who made prints and sold them at street fairs. During that time, we were fortunate to acquire several of Teenie's photos, which we still display in our home. Here are a few favorites:
The prints we own aren't museum-quality, but we're grateful to have them, and are especially proud that the Carnegie Museum of Art has preserved the legacy of this important man.
We now present some less-than-historic images, in the form of this week's Bizarro comics.
Not everyone observes Dry January.
I have heard from several people whose doctors gave them similar advice.
Perhaps predictably, one Instagram commenter/bot left multiple lengthy diatribes unrelated to the comic. They hit the threshold for being blocked.
That's not a smartphone, but a tiny picket sign.
I must tip my lid to my good friend Vince Dorse. I mentioned to Vince that someone had sent me a joke about Fats Waller and suggested using it as a Bizarro gag. We laughed about the fact that nobody younger than us would even know of Fats Waller. Vince remarked that if it became a comic, "There will be teenagers outside your house, all holding up phones with photos of pitchforks and torches on them."
That clever remark was the seed of this gag. Vince, I owe you lunch!
A roof is optional.
One has to feel sorry for this guy. As far as we know, this isn't yet listed in the DSM.
Nobody likes the coach's pet.
Bonus Track
Fats Waller: "Your Feet's Too Big"
For the kids.
A Plethora of Bizarro Prose & Products
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's still free, we encourage you to explore the following links.
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 stranger is shot in the street, you hardly move to help. But if, half an hour before, you spent just ten minutes with the fellow and knew a little about him and his family, you might just jump in front of his killer and try to stop it. Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know, is bad, or amoral, at least. You can’t act if you don’t know.
Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
In my household, we watch spooky movies throughout October. Some are works of art, and some are goofy romps. One film we revisit every year is 1983's Something Wicked This Way Comes, based on Ray Bradbury's 1962 horror/fantasy novel.
The text quoted above didn't make it into the movie, but it feels especially relevant. The lack of empathy and the level of cruelty on exhibit lately are directly related to what Bradbury called a refusal to know. The rampant "othering" of groups of our fellow humans makes too many feel they have permission to treat people as less than human. Being part of a community is wonderful, unless it devolves into tribalism.
Perhaps Halloween is popular for the same reason people celebrate Mardi Gras: Masks and costumes can obscure the arbitrary differences people with too much (or too little) power and wealth exploit to define groups of people as "them."
Today (Saturday), we'll be attending our town's annual Halloween parade, cheering the high school band in their themed costumes, and watching kids scramble for treats thrown their way.
I hope you all have an enjoyable Halloween, see a lot of fabulous costumes, and give and receive the best treats. Mask up, have fun, and meet and greet your neighbors.
Don't refuse to know.
Bizarro field correspondent Danielle A. spotted this vintage metal leaf tobacco box in a collectibles shop in her hometown.
The illustration on the box is charming and well-executed. The marine looks as if he's emerging from a porthole in its side.
Thanks to Danielle for taking the photo and sharing it with us. I love to see pipes found in the wild.
Oh, and if you ever see a Bizarro comic displayed somewhere out in the physical world, I'd be grateful for a photo of that, too.
Halloween creeps into Bizarro this week and next, although we keep the holiday in our dark hearts all through the year. Here's the latest sextet of cartoons.
Monday's gag was inspired by the Beatles knockoff records that proliferated in the 1960s. Designed to fool well-meaning grandmas, the phony groups had names like the Buggs, the Liverpools, or the Beat-A-Manias.
Metaphorical, if not inaccurate.
I offer my apologies to Charles Schulz.
"But I'm keeping the Dr. Brown's eyeball soda."
Their business card says "England's Newest Note Takers."
We wrap up with a reading from The Book of Rebellious Offspring 6:13-22.
Thanks for taking the time to read these boxes of badinage. Come back next week for more of this sort of nonsense.
Bizarro Bonus Track
The Kirby Stone Four: "You Came From Outer Space"
From Man I Flipped When I Heard the Kirby Stone Four Cadence Records LP, 1958
The Kirby Stone Four were one of many vocal quartets of the 1950s and early 1960s. They released several LPs on Columbia Records and other, smaller labels, but their debut on Cadence remains my favorite.
The group incorporated boisterous comedy, vocal impersonations, and a jazzy sensibility that set them apart from their contemporaries.
I chose "You Came From Outer Space" as today's bonus track because it's fitting for Halloween, and as a nod to Bizarro's Secret Symbol, the Flying Saucer of Possibility.
This song closes out the Rhino Records box set Brain in a Box: The Science Fiction Collection, a five-CD compilation released in 2000. Each disc is dedicated to a genre or style: Movie themes, TV themes, Pop, Lounge/Incidental, and Novelty. I served as an "A&R consultant" on the project, and the KS4 track was one of my suggestions that made the cut.
Rhino was known for extravagant packaging, and Brain was one of their most elaborate box sets.
It's designed to resemble a mad scientist's apparatus powered by a human brain, and it has lenticular images on three sides. It's a gem in my collection.
Need More Bizarro? We've Got You Covered.
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.
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
Next to power without honor, the most dangerous thing in the world is power without humor.
Eric Sevareid
While browsing for quotes about the value of humor (also known as rationalizing my career choice), I found this one from the late journalist Eric Sevareid, which could have been written today.
I'd add a postscript: Power without honor or humor is beyond merely dangerous, and must be stopped by people of good will.
Today's pipe pic was spotted in the wild by Bizarro reader Kevin, who snapped a photo and send it to me via the Substack newsletter.
The gent's portrait hangs on the wall of Pelican Pier, a fish & chips shop in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We don't know who he is, but we're happy to feature his photo.
Thanks to Kevin for the terrific image. It's always a treat to receive an original photo to share.
We make no claims of power but hope that this week's Bizarro gags offer some measure of humor.
Connoisseurs of music and pop art may recognize these characters.
With minor rotational adjustments, they fit nicely into a vertical strip.
Technology again sets us free, maybe.
The strip version offers a wider view of the cardboard clutter.
This pet owner may regret not choosing a drinking bird as a companion. They're easier to care for and less sardonic.
Al Sleet lives!
Friday's gag questions the assumed power dynamic. Is the big guy controlling the little guy, or is that what the little guy wants him to believe?
The familiar "Student Driver" bumper stickers could be adapted for many applications, as we imagined in Friday's gag.
To compensate for the sacrifice of a portion of the patient in the strip layout, we added a pair of Bizarro brand jeans.
That's the latest in drollery from Bizarro Studios North. Thanks for checking in with us, and keep your eyes peeled for more high and low humor next week.
Far Out Fashion
We’re pleased to announce that Comics Kingdom is offering three new Bizarro shirts for the well-dressed Jazz Pickle.
Click on any design to jump to the ordering page.
Celebrate Bizarro’s imaginary metal band with a stylin' Irön Bunnies öf Dööm shirt designed by yours truly. Available in eight colors and sizes XS to 4XL.
The briny be-bopper design was created by our CEO (Chief Eyeball Officier) Dan Piraro and is available in five groovalicious shirt colors, sizes XS to 5XL.
The Pipe of Ambiguity Secret Symbol was inspired by René Magritte's surrealist masterwork, The Treachery of Images (popularly known as This Is Not a Pipe.)
Our bewildering Not a Shirt design comes in six colors, in sizes XS to 4XL.
We’d love to show off photos of our Bizarro Buds wearing these shirts. If you’d care to share, please send your pics to: WaynoCartoons(at)gmail(dot)com.
By sending your photo, you permit us to share it online. Readers will be identified only by first name, last initial, and city.
Whether or not you send a picture, we truly appreciate your support!
Bonus Track
Michael X. Whelan: "Powerhouse"
Michael Whelan is a versatile Southern California musician with wide-ranging tastes. He's a member of the band Cosmic Ocean, which I recommend.
Michael also makes entertaining videos where he plays all instruments other than drums. In this one, he performs a heavy metal cover of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse," which was featured in countless Warner Brothers cartoons.
Special thanks to Michael for allowing me to share his work with you. Keep an eye on this guy, and check out his YouTube page for more videos.
A Lovely Bunch of Bizarro
If you like what we do and appreciate that it comes to you free of charge, we encourage you to explore the following links.
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
Welcome to this year's first post-eclipse blog entry.
Here in Hollywood Gardens, PA, we witnessed a nearly total eclipse (with 97 percent coverage). We used proper eye protection and nobody was raptured, so it was a good day.
I realize that it wasn't the same as seeing totality, but if I had consistently received 97 percent on tests during my academic years, I'd have been ecstatic.
Last week, In recognition of the fifteenth anniversary of my first published Bizarro gag, Dan Piraro and I recorded a video chat where we talked about our first meeting, and how our partnership has evolved over the years. Our memories were fairly consistent, and we didn't say anything embarrassing, but we could have been clearer on who does what. We may cover that in our next video.
Faithful Jazz Pickle Danielle A. hipped me to this somber pipe pic, originally published in the Toronto Daily Star.
The model is future actor Alan Alda at age two. According to Alda's 2005 memoir, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed:
A photographer from the Toronto Daily Star came backstage, and my father got the idea that if he posed me in a way that made me look as if I were smoking a pipe, the paper would be sure to print the picture and the burlesque company would get some unusual publicity. They dressed me up in my woolen suit and posed me gravely holding a pipe with tobacco in it. They seem to have invented a new name for me, too. I was born Alphonso D'Abruzzo, but that day I was Alphonse Robert Alda, "Ali" for short.
Big thanks to Danielle for this tidbit of showbiz history tidbit.
Here's the totality of this week's Bizarro dailies, which can be viewed without any protective gear.
Personally, I'd like to see their imitations of each other.
Tuesday's panel intentionally omitted the Dynamite of Boom Secret Symbol. That guy doesn't need any additional hazards.
I'll go out on a limb and claim that the expression "pipe down" originated in or near Scotland.
Everything at their place is big and fancy. Imagine the chamber pot.
According to the National Archives, the commonly accepted but probably untrue story is that Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence was extra large so that "someone can read my name without spectacles."
This one's for my good buddy Tom, who's been exercising his brain by learning Welsh on the DuoLingo app. I love the gag, but drawing the expanded Scrabble board was an ordeal. It's almost the equivalent of four Scrabble boards grafted together. An actual board is 15 by 15 squares, and mine is 29 by 29, with the center row and column being areas of overlap. I just did the math and see that I drew 841 squares.
Although the board is insanely detailed, this panel is still rather sparse and contains no Secret Symbols. I thought they'd distract from the gag.
The black & white panel has a more dramatic look.
The strip layout shows less of the board, but I was able to make the tile racks ridiculously wide.
My first sketch took a different approach, but I scrapped it for the Scrabble version, which had a funnier drawing and a punchier caption.
Image: Daily Post Wales
I also discovered that a Welsh language version of the game exists. Its board is a standard 15 by 15 grid, and some tiles have double letters or two-letter combinations.
We finished the week with a bit of silly medical wordplay.
Thanks for reading the comics and blog. Come by again next Saturday for more of this kind of stuff.
Bonus Track
Clarence "Frogman" Henry "Ain't Got No Home"
Originally released in 1959
by Argo Records
A giant of New Orleans music, Clarence "Frogman" Henry died this week at age 87. His first record gave him the nickname he carried for the rest of his life.
Frogman was a terrific entertainer. We saw him perform outside of New Orleans in Metairie, Louisiana sometime in the 1990s, and he was a hurricane of joy and fun.
A Boatload of Bizarro
If you like what we do and appreciate that it comes to you free of charge, we encourage you to explore any or all of the following links.
