Showing posts with label Clowns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clowns. Show all posts

Saturday, May 02, 2026

Name That Tune

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.

Bonus Track

Thelonious Monk
"Rhythm-A-Ning"
Live in Brussels, Belgium, 1963




9 comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Saturday, March 28, 2026

My Back Pages

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 

The earth cannot move without music. The earth moves in a certain rhythm, a certain sound, a certain note. When the music stops, the earth will stop, and everything upon it will die.

Sun Ra, Space is the Place


Sun Ra was one of the most prolific recording artists of all time. He released more than 100 albums in his lifetime. That's a conservative estimate. I have around forty Sun Ra discs in my music library, and I revisit them regularly.

Ra left the earthly plane in 1993 at age 79, and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Allen, who will soon be 102, continues to lead the Sun Ra Arkestra. 

I usually listen to music while working, and I believe that live music is beneficial to one's well-being, so Sun Ra's words resonate with me. 

This month, I attended three terrific musical performances. On March 3, I saw Jonathan Richman, and more recently, two great shows at a favorite venue, The Original Pittsburgh Winery: The Town Pants, a Celtic/Roots/Rock band from Canada, and the Rebirth Brass Band from New Orleans.

After spending a good part of my adult life in loud clubs, in the audience, and sometimes onstage, I now have some hearing loss. It's not bad enough to require hearing aids, but I'm protective of what remains. Jonathan Richman's show was minimally amplified, so I didn't wear hearing protection that night.

I have earplugs with three sets of filters for different levels of noise reduction. At the Town Pants show, I realized I was wearing the strongest filters, which I used when running a snow blower. The show sounded a bit muffled, but we still had a great time.

Do yourself a favor and check out some live music. Even if it's not something you'd normally listen to at home, it's always worthwhile to hear accomplished players who do it every day.

Today's pipe pic is a portrait of Chinese cartoonist Hua Junwu, whom I learned about from Richard G's informative blog, Who's Out There?


A digital version of Chinese Satire and Humor, a collection of Hua's cartoons, is available here. 

The cartoons I've seen are funny and satirical, and it seems his sharp humor was tempered by a friendly drawing style and beautiful brushwork.

Many of his cartoons are wordless with only a short title, and they translate well. Big thanks to Richard for introducing me to Hua's work.


This week's Bizarro gags might look rather odd, in part because there are almost no Secret Symbols. In early January, the symbols took a week of sick leave, and they're almost totally absent in this batch. Since then, they've been working at full strength.

This one reminds me of my days at a series of normal office jobs.

If the art looks different, it's because I did this week's gags in 2011, when I filled in for Dan Piraro as guest cartoonist. I inked with a heavier line than I do today. At that time, I was also assisting Dan by coloring his black-and-white art, and I used his more elaborate shading technique.

When the Secret Symbols were fighting off that virus, they passed it on to me—we work in a small studio space—and while I recovered, we pulled this batch of gags out of the storage unit.

Fifteen years ago, felonious fashion was a thing.

The Bunny of Exuberance was the last symbol to be knocked out by the illness. Apparently, an all-carrot diet provided some immunity.

I don't think I'd cram as many words into one panel today, and I hope I wouldn't be as snarky.


Clowns in one of my gags? Shocking.


This wasn't meant as a political statement in 2011. I'm not sure how it will be received today, but the online comments will let us know soon enough.


Thanks for indulging me while I recovered three months ago. We'll be back next week with new, improved gags, and the usual complement of Secret Symbols.

Bonus Track

Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns
"Would You Believe It? (I have a Cold)"
Ace Records single, 1959


This is a lesser-known Huey Smith song, with a great vocal by Bobby Marchan.


10 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Saturday, November 08, 2025

Talkin 'Bout My Explanation

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. 


Alternate Sources of Bizarro Content

If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.


     

13 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, November 01, 2025

Same Day (of the Dead) Delivery

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 Bizarro Studios North in spooky Hollywood Gardens, Pennsylvania, and welcome to November.

If you have a post-Halloween sugar hangover, take comfort in the fact that Daylight Saving Time ends tonight, and you can sleep for an extra hour tomorrow morning.

Congratulations to all of us for surviving another month in this insane year.


Today's historic pipe pic comes to us courtesy of Bizarro field correspondent Dave F. of Austin, Texas.


Dave wrote:
We just visited Charleston SC which is home to The Citadel, a military academy with a long and interesting history. While touring their museum of student life over the centuries, the attached photo of an anonymous student in his barracks room circa 1900 caught my attention. Hope you like it! 

It looks like our anonymous student had a small bottle of champagne on the shelf to his left.




A tip of the winter fedora to Dave F. for taking the time to snap a photo of the photo and send it to us for the blog.


If you ever spot a Bizarro comic in the wild, I'd be grateful for a photo of that, too.


We now present our cartoon output for Halloween week and hope your enjoyment is full-size, not "fun size."


Our guard should apply for a position at the Museum of Malapropisms to get out in front of the probable closure of institutions that dare to present natural history.


Face-painting falls somewhere in the middle.


Or at least it's supposed to be.

Following the commercial success and critical acclaim of Andy Warhol's Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, there were reportedly plans for a series of Shakespeare adaptations, starting with Andy Warhol's Macbeth. At least that's how I remember it.

Before this one, I don't believe I've done a gag with three characters speaking. I had to be creative with the word balloons for the strip layout.

The panel for Halloween Day combines two of my recurring themes: clowns, and ghosts wearing sheets.

One would assume that in this case, it simply means "a boatload."

Thanks for dropping by. I'll be here again next Saturday with another cartoon recap and whatever else is bouncing around my skull.

Where's Wayno?

I spent a couple of hours visiting a historic building back in September. Can you guess the location?

Read about it in my newsletter (which will be updated a few hours after this blog entry goes live).

Halloween Bonus Track

Louis Armstrong: "The Skeleton in the Closet"
from the film "Pennies from Heaven" (1936)


Here's a last gasp of Halloween from the great Louis Armstrong.


Much More Bizarro Madness

If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.


7 comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)