Showing posts with label sketches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sketches. Show all posts

Saturday, June 08, 2024

Illogical Logic

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

Comedy is a way to bring logic to an illogical situation, of which there are many in everyday life.
Bob Newhart

I shared this observation in a talk I gave twelve years ago about my career up to that point, using it to illustrate an aspect of cartooning. It appeared on Bob Newhart's Twitter account, which allowed me to remark on how amusing it was that Mr. Newhart had a Twitter account.

While working on a new batch of Bizarro panels this week I realized that I'd already done one of them in 2018. The drawing was different but the dialogue was identical. I played around with it until I had written a new joke that worked with the image.

A lot of cartoon fans do this sort of puzzle-solving in cartoon caption contests. Readers are presented with a drawing that usually includes some unexpected element, and they look for a clever way to resolve the incongruity.

I don't always write that way, but it worked in this case, and I was reminded of the Newhart quote.

Last month, I featured a photo of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre smoking a pipe. A blog reader spotted the image accompanying an article written by author Ursula K. LeGuin.

Our model this time around is LeGuin herself.

I don't know the photo's backstory. I found it on the web a while back, and it's been sitting in a digital file folder waiting to be shared with you.


Let's see how many illogical situations cropped up in Bizarro this week.


Her cookies are out of this world.


A couple of my favorite characters returned to Bizarro on Tuesday. They truly were made for each other.


The place is well-insulated and remarkably quiet.


It could also have read Clothes Captioned for the Fashion Impaired, but that wouldn't fit on one line.


Carny folk disparage this employee as a "Rent-a-Clown."


I sometimes leaf through my old sketchbooks to trigger ideas for gags. The Funland Security panel was in part inspired by this page from 1991. 

While applying Zip-A-Tone shading film to an illustration, I absent-mindedly stuck the scraps onto a blank sketchbook page. Later, I drew over the patterns. The shapes suggested a dispatcher's microphone and this image emerged. Thirty-three years later, it turned into something useful.

Inspiration can lurk anywhere.


We wrapped up with a silly snowy Saturday. The character on the right was modeled after the "grimacing face" emoji.


That concludes another week of illogical cartoon logic from your faithful ink monkey.

See you next week with more anomalous juxtapositions.


Bonus Track

Steve Young: "Broken Heart Insurance"
from the Broken Heart Insurance EP


My pal Steve Young just released his first EP of all original material, recorded in Nashville with the backing of some of the city's finest musicians. It contains the future hits "Fitted Sheets," "Breakfast," and more. 

Check it out!


Bizarro by the Bunch








   

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Saturday, September 23, 2023

Fantasy Phobia League

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


Sometimes the creative process is just trying to catch yourself off guard.
Robbie Robertson

I recently watched the documentary Once Were Brothers, Robbie Robertson's autobiography in the form of a film. It was based primarily on his memoir, Testimony. The bulk of the film chronicles the formation, career, and breakup of The Band, told from Robertson's perspective.

Robertson may have indulged in a bit of self-mythologizing, but that's true of anyone telling their own story, and he certainly had the goods to back up his account. Any group relationship is complex, with each member having their own recollections and perceptions. I don't think that Robertson was the villain some of his bandmates claimed him to be. He was a stellar songwriter and a great guitarist and was aware enough of his own limitations as a singer to cede the vocal spotlight to Band members Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel.

I pulled the quote above from a discussion of his songwriting process. It applies to any creative endeavor. At times, you simply have to get out of your own way. That's as true of cartooning as anything else.

After spending several days fighting off a virus, I had a productive week in the studio, with a breakthrough writing day when I came up with enough usable gags for more than two weeks. I'm usually able to write just enough for any given week, but the ideas were flowing, and I tried to allow them to keep coming and get them down on paper. It's a satisfying feeling, to be relished when it comes along because soon enough, there will be another day of struggle to create a batch of gags.


I snapped today's pipe pic while attending the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Awards earlier in the month.


It's a 1950 sales brochure for the then-new Beetle Bailey comic strip. For the first year of the strip's run, Beetle was a college student, and he was frequently depicted smoking a pipe. Cartoonist Mort Walker had the distinction of producing the last comic strip personally approved by William Randolph Hearst.

Walker would have turned 100 this month, and his son Brian (also a cartoonist and a comics historian) presented a retrospective of Mort's career.

I was able to visit a centennial exhibit of Mort's work at the Society of Illustrators during my time in New York, and I was impressed with his drawing, which I haven't seen in a long time.

Happy hundredth, Mort, wherever you are.

For some more recent comic art, let's review the latest Bizarro cartoons.



This is a highly specific personal Hell.


And there's always an encore.


Wednesday's gag explores the mentality of certain collector types. There's a point where some people's interest goes beyond enjoying and appreciating something and turns into an unhealthy need to feel that others are denied that enjoyment. A related strain of this pathology is anger that the rest of the world isn't interested in one's fetish objects.

Not to paint all collectors with the same roller, but there is a practice of "slabbing" comic books in an unopenable plastic container to preserve them in whatever condition they've been appraised at—comics as commodities.

On a lighter note, the gag prompted Dee Fish, a cartoonist friend, to post this delightful sketch with a comment that she wished she could read a Weird Mammal comic book.

Dee is the creator of a semi-autobiographical webcomic, Finding Dee, which humorously chronicles her experiences coming out as transgender while pursuing her career as a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer. Recently, she has applied her impressive inking skills to the daily Dick Tracy comic strip.

A tip of the Bizarro fedora to Dee for her excellent drawing of the Bunny of Exuberance. Thank you, Dee!


Thursday's panel offered a look at current affairs.


Machine learning has a long way to go.


I recently spoke with a friend about the arms race among makers of hot sauce to develop the most chemically pure pain experience. 

I'm sure our character washed that pepper down with an outrageously hoppy IPA.


That's the latest from Bizarro Studios North. Thanks for taking the time to read these ramblings. There will be more for you next week.


Bonus Track 

The Kinks "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues"
Live on In Concert
ABC Television, 1973



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Saturday, February 18, 2023

Golly, Wally

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 only thing I knew how to do was to keep on keeping on...
Bob Dylan, "Tangled Up in Blue"


Last week, I paused briefly to look at the work I've done (so far) as Bizarro's daily cartoonist. I'll elaborate on that later in the post. 

I selected a fragment of a Dylan lyric as the header for today's entry. It's taken out of its original context within one of Bob's epic tunes, but these words, on their own, resonate with me in regard to spending years on a body of work. 

I try not to think about how many gags I'll have to write and draw in an upcoming month or year, and focus on the current batch of six. When that's finished, the process starts over. Looking further ahead can become overwhelming.

The only thing I know how to do is to keep on keeping on.

Another part of my routine is sharing a pipe pic. It's a weekly nod to Bizarro's Pipe of Ambiguity Secret Symbol, which was launched on New Year's Day 2021.

Today's example is a generic illustration that could have been clipped from any American magazine or newspaper of its day. Like most of the images I share in this section, it was the result of idle googling when I should have been at work on comics. 

Although most readers consume Bizarro online, I still enjoy seeing comics and photos on newsprint, in glorious, grubby halftone dots. I tip my hat to the anonymous art-monkey who created this smiling smoker.

The personal milestone I mentioned above was closing the lid on the latest box of original art. 

Each one of these archival storage boxes holds the drawings for 150 Bizarro panels, plus some sketches and other materials.

The stack contains over five years of work and 1,650 comics, more or less. One or two originals were sold to collectors, three were donated to the Charles M. Schulz Museum, and a couple went to charity auctions. There are probably three or four in here that were never used for one reason or another.

Each filled box provides a bump of motivation to keep working.

I shared the photo and description on Instagram, and was asked about unused cartoons. I posted and discussed one of these in a 2021 blog entry, but here's one that I haven't shown before.
 
I knew this one was too naughty for the mainstream funny pages, but I had to at least sketch it and show it to Dan Piraro. We both laughed about it, and then shelved it.
 
We did publish this somewhat risqué gag obliquely touching on the same topic around the time we spiked Prince Midas, which made my inner adolescent happy.

Now, let's confirm that none of my recent panels crossed any lines.
 
This guided meditation session employs a watchdog. My spouse and I do a guided meditation most mornings, and although I usually fail to quiet my brain, I believe I benefit from the practice.
 
For Valentine's Day, we offered a comic about one of the purest forms of love.

I regularly reference surrealist art, and feel that cubism deserves equal time.

I have a good friend who has done actual courtroom art, including some high profile cases. I couldn't handle that pressure, or achieve a serious likeness. There's not much call for courtroom cartoonists.
 
A reader informed me that the dog on the right is in fact a Labrador Deceiver.
 
Nursery rhymes often have a dark side.

The popular Where's Waldo? character and "you are here" information kiosks often appear in Bizarro, so it's only natural that their Venn diagrams overlap today.
 
While searching for a reference to draw from, I learned that he's only called Waldo in the US, and in the original British books his name is Wally.
The strip version has added existential despair.
 
That wraps another week of gags from your humble cartoonist. Thank you for sticking with us over the years. We'll be back next Saturday with more comics and comments.

Bonus Track

The Impressions, "Keep on Pushing"
from the album Keep on Pushing
ABC-Paramount Records, 1964

 

Musical inspiration from Curtis Mayfield and company.


Other Bizarro Locations

Dan Piraro's Bizarro Blog
Dan's latest Sunday Bizarro page, and some sobering thoughts on artificial intelligence

 Wayno's Bizarro Newsletter
More miscellany from the studio, a preview of a future gag, and an archival image

Dan Piraro's epic, award-winning surreal western graphic novel

Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®

 

 
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Saturday, January 07, 2023

I Got Them Old Empty Can Blues Again, Mama

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

Ambiguity is okay. Ask the reader to meet you halfway.
Bill Griffith

Happy 2023, friends. 

I feel as if I started doing the Bizarro dailies just a few weeks ago, yet here we are starting the sixth year. Time flies when you have unending deadlines, and I mean that in a positive way.

This post kicks off with a quote from my friend and hero Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead, among many other memorable works of comic art. It's taken from a Sunday Zippy page titled Griffy's Top Ten List on Comics and Their Creation. I regularly consult Bill's rules, and this item, number six on the list, is one I think about often. Part of humor's appeal is the small, surprising discoveries, revealing a joke or observation that isn't spelled out in large block letters.

Item ten is also a favorite:

Never listen to anyone else's advice on cartooning.

That's worth remembering, particularly when we share our work on social media. It enables us to reach an audience beyond readers who seek out comics online or in print, but that's not always a plus. Most comments from random accounts are complaints, misguided "expertise," or unrelated rants, which led to my own eleventh rule:

Never respond to ridiculous comments or questions.

We do comics for people who get the concept of meeting in the middle. You know who you are, and we appreciate you.

Our first pipe pic of the New Year shows a happy mid-century American family admiring their new popcorn popper. It comes from Paul Nesja, one of the hosts of The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast, which is available on the usual podcast platforms. If you're a fan of single-panel cartoons, you might enjoy the podcast's in-depth discussions of caption writing. I listen to it every week.

Paul has a keen eye for vintage graphics, and he recently sent me a scan of this beauty from his collection of printed ephemera, which I'm happy to share here.

Paul and his spouse Christy own and operate Nesja Press, an art and design studio specializing in letterpress printing. They offer a selection of attractive cards and prints, including a collaboration with New Yorker cartoonist Drew Dernavich.

Now, let's assess the ambiguity levels in this week's Bizarro comics.

The year's first panel required a crane shot to deliver its trashy gag.

And, the strip layout called for some creative shuffling of the art.

Sometimes, Whatever is enough.
 
Simple trickery helped the panel become a strip. I only had to add walls on both sides to  turn the counter into a service window. That's another trade secret revealed as we continue to demystify the cartooning process.

Management says the quiet part out loud, or perhaps more accurately, enlarges the fine print.

I've now used about half of what I remember from high school Spanish class. The other bit I retain is the teacher's frequent exclamation, "¡Cierren sus bocas!"

The text in Friday's gag was wordier in my initial sketch:

 

The final version is punchier, and employs the Rule of Three, making for a more satisfying payoff.

If these characters combined their star signs and Chinese zodiac animals, I'd have drawn them as a tigerfish and a two-headed monkey.

That's a wrap for the first week of 2023. Thanks for joining us for another spin around the sun.

For additional insight into the minds behind Bizarro, check out our other convenient storefronts:

Dan Piraro's Bizarro Blog
Marvel at Dan's latest Sunday Bizarro, and his thoughts on non-cartoon topics

Wayno's Bizarro Newsletter
A weekly supplement to the blog, with a preview of an upcoming gag, and a graphic artifact from my past

Dan Piraro's surreal western graphic novel
 

Going Legit

You may recall that in November, I was one of many cartoonists who celebrated the centennial of Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts. The project was initiated by cartoonists Robb Armstrong (JumpStart), Patrick McDonnell (Mutts), and Patrick's wife, Karen O'Connell.

When the National Cartoonists Society notified members about the project early in 2022, they mentioned that there would probably be an exhibit of the comic art at some time in the future, and in early December, The Charles M. Schulz Museum sent letters expressing an interest in acquiring the original art.

I was thrilled to imagine my art residing in the Schulz Museum, and happily shipped my donation to them.

I don't normally include balloons or lettering in my hand-drawn originals, but I knew in advance that this one would probably hang in an exhibit someday, so I added them, along with a signature, crop marks, and title.

More typically, I consider my originals to be production pieces rather than finished comics. The drawings are raw material, crafted into comics after they've been scanned. When I take them into the digital domain, I remove the pencil lines and date stamp, and clean up the black & white art. Then I'll add panel borders, balloons, text, copyright info, and signature. I digitally draw in some of the Secret Symbols after the panel is laid out, when I can see spots where they might be placed.

Here's an example to make things clearer.

Finished Bizarro panel, 11/24/26

Original art, 9/22/22

Since every panel will also be reconfigured as a strip, I often separate individual elements in the original art, to allow for moving and resizing later, as needed. The original drawing might also include pieces that don't appear in the final comic, like the family portrait on the wall in the image above.

That's your peek at how the cartoon sausage is made at this particular delicatessen.

If you happen to see my drawing at the Schulz Museum someday, you'll know a little extra about what was behind its creation. I hope to see it there myself. The Museum is a terrific place to spend time, and I sincerely appreciate them giving this piece a permanent and prestigious home.

 

Bonus Track

Wire: "I Am the Fly"
Harvest/EMI Records single, 1978


Copyright© 2023 by Wayno®

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