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.
Dan Piraro began sprinkling odd little symbols into Bizarro comics in the mid-1990s. I believe the latest addition was O2 (Olive Oyl) in 2017. The first one may have been the Inverted Bird, but details are murky.
On
January 1, 2021, The Pipe of Ambiguity will join the roster of Secret Symbols. Dan and I agreed that it would be a fun way to continue to leave mymark on Bizarro as I begin my fourth year (!) of doing the daily comics. Since we're both fans of surrealist art, René Magritte's famous pipe seemed to be a good fit.
I've
been quietly dropping the pipe into the comic for a while, but
haven't counted it in the secret symbol tally. It made its first
unofficial appearance in the May 5, 2018 strip, but not the panel version.
It's on the medical chart on the far left side of the comic.
The pipe's roots go back to this 2010 panel, which directly references Magritte.
We also hinted at its arrival in
the above comic from November of this year. Dan has also drawn the pipe in a few recent Sunday pages.
While we were planning the introduction of the new symbol, I discovered a long-forgotten pre-Bizarro artifact in my studio.
Many years ago, I had a non-comics office job, and trudged through every workday bored, bitter, and angry. At one point, I spent an entire week in a windowless conference room with a dozen other unfortunate souls, receiving some sort of training that never stuck in my head. On the second or third day of this ordeal, I discovered a roll of masking tape on the table, and absentmindedly began tearing off small pieces and sticking them together. When quitting time finally arrived, I noticed that I'd fashioned the bits of tape into a pipe-like shape. This "automatic sculpture" was completed without any conscious effort or design on my part. Apparently, my brain was already marinating in Magritte's influence. It finally found an outlet on the funny pages.
Here's a preview of the description that will be added to the Secret Symbols page on Bizarro.com:
The
Pipe of Ambiguityhonors surrealist artist René Magritte (1898-1967), a figure
of inspiration at Bizarro Studios. His 1929 painting, The Treachery of
Images, embodies Bizarro's comic aesthetic. It shows a pipe floating
above the words Ceci n'est pas une pipe, French for This is
not a pipe.
Magritte
was fascinated by the interplay of words and images, and in 1913 he published
an illustrated essay exploring these relationships. The article included a
drawing of a person speaking via word balloon, revealing him to be a surrealist
who also used the language of the cartoonist.
The
pipe reminds us to question our assumed perceptions of reality, and to remain
open to higher meanings, or "the bigger picture."
Certification
Note: Appearances of the pipe prior to January 1, 2021 were unofficial, and were
not counted in Bizarro Secret Symbol tallies.
Jazz
Pickle Awareness Activity
Make
a drawing of the pipe on an index card. Fold the card in half, with the drawing
on the inside, and carry it with you in a wallet or pocket. To end any
conversation not sufficiently surreal to hold your attention, produce the card, show it to the other person and exclaim, "This is a portrait of René Magritte."
But
don't take up smoking.
We received many correct guesses, as well as some wonderfully creative suggestions as to what the symbol should be. The names of everyone who submitted ideas will be placed in a bowler hat, and eight names will be drawn to receive prizes. Winners will be contacted in the new year to arrange for delivery of their prizes.
With that hoopla out of the way, let's take a look at our most recent cartoons, which is after all the main purpose of this weekly post.
We managed to hold off until December 21 before doing a Santa Claus gag. This one reveals that Saint Nick coined the phrase "carbon footprint."
Modern technology can make love triangles more likely, not to mention more complicated.
Fortunately, the Elf on the Shelf didn't exist when I was a kid, or I'd be more paranoid than I already am. I imagine that kids hate this grinning stool pigeon, and plot its untimely end as December approaches.
It's disappointing when a friend has a public meltdown.
Poor Rudolph, indeed.
I sometimes accidentally transpose characters when writing or typing words or numbers. This quirk occasionally produces an idea for a comic, but more often just creates confusion.
That's all for this week, folks. Remember, on New Year's Day you can start looking for the Pipe of Ambiguity among the Secret Symbols. Don't forget to visit Dan Piraro's blog for more backstage comics banter, and to see what he's hidden in his latest Bizarro Sunday page.
Bonus Track
The Alexa/Siri comic reminded me of the song "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind," released in 1965 by the Lovin' Spoonful. While searching for a video to share, I found this delightful contemporary version by The Mona Lisa Twins, featuring the song's composer, John Sebastian.
There's something magical about siblings singing harmony, and the Twins provide a sweet complement to Sebastian's weathered and mature vocal.
NOTE: Some YouTube videos are unavailable outside the US, and on some mobile devices, it may be necessary to select "View Web Version" in order to view the video.
That's right kids, even if you don't live in Pittsburgh, you can preview my new show, Stubble & Smoke, by clicking on this link. All of the paintings are for sale on-line, too (except for Happy Hour, above, which has already sold to an alert and generous patron).
Check out 28 cartoon-pop paintings of tough guys, hard-luck mugs, saucy dames, crime scenes, the Chinese zodiac, and lots of red meat. As you cruise through the website, I recommend that you have a beverage and a small plate of cheese cubes on hand, with your choice of music playing at maximum volume. It's not the same as actually being there at Zombo Gallery, but that's the "Wide World of Web" for you...
This is the first of a series of eight that will form a short narrative. The full series will be displayed, along with other new and recent works, at an upcoming show at Zombo Gallery in July.
Updated March 19: Part of my drawing table showing a layout sketch for this piece:
