Sociobiological Paronomasia

Here we go again, with another Bizarro gag written by Your Humble Blogger and drawn by the amazing Dan Piraro. This one should be a hit with natural scientists.

For comparison, here's my sketch of the comic:

The gag is based on two different meanings of the word "host." In the social sense, a host's counterpart is a guest. The joke references the biological meaning, where a parasite seeks a host to feed on, lay eggs in, etc.

Fortunately, very few of my own social experiences led to guests becoming parasitic, and I like to think that I've never made that transition myself.

Coloring this one was a little tricky, being a nighttime scene that includes illumination from the house's interior lights. I must admit, I needed some assistance from Dan to get it right, while maintaining the Bizarro look. Eventually, it came out okay.  

Dan also tightened up the dialog, which works better than in the original.

•••

My temporary takeover of Bizarro begins one week from today, and in exactly a month, on June 9, Dan Piraro brings his standup comedy act to Pittsburgh, at this year's Comics For Comics event, benefiting the ToonSeum. All local readers must attend!

This Little Piggy Got Tattooed

Today's Bizarro, drawn by Dan Piraro and written by yours truly, takes a poke at picnicking pigs:

I don't recall how this idea came to me, but I liked it right away. The sketch flowed fairly quickly:

Many years ago, long before tattoos were as ubiquitous as today, I once saw an old guy with a cabinet hinge tattooed inside his elbow. At the time, I thought it was very clever. Perhaps that memory resurfaced and inspired this gag.

The coin slot tattoo made for a funny visual, though I also considered a butcher's chart, which might have been a little disturbing. Come to think of it, the butcher chart would have worked if the pig character had been a tough-guy jailbird or biker.

My piggies looked a little too buff, which Dan remedied with his portlier porkers.

Note to cartooning students: Once again, Dan Piraro rearranged the image to position the payoff (the tattoo) as far to the right side of the panel as possible, so the reader encounters it last. It's a handy rule of thumb for laying out a panel, and usually enhances the surprise of a gag.

You can search for the Bizarro label to see our previous collaborations here on the blog. The next one will appear on Monday, May 9.

Don't forget to follow my guest week takeover of Bizarro, May 16 through 22, and read Dan's blog too.

Breakage • Breakdown • Breaking and Entering

Here are two new Bizarro cartoons written by yours truly and drawn by the comic's creator, Dan Piraro: yesterday's splashy Sunday page and today's dollop of esoteric snootery.

First, the belly-laffer:

This one started out a bit differently. Early sketches showed a beheaded Barbie (or a Rock'em-Sock'em robot) being told by a doctor that he'd refer the patient to a plastic (ha!) surgeon.

Neither of these had the zing of a truly successful gag. As I thought about other plastic toys to put in the scene, I decided against using a molded green army guy. That seemed much too close to a very unpleasant and sadly common real-life scenario.

Dan decided to place several toys in a waiting room, which is a nice solution. Not only does it have more impact with multiple patients, but all it requires is the four-word caption box. We both feel that fewer words make for a stronger gag (unless wordiness is part of the joke). Also, most papers run the Sunday comics in color, so the majority of readers will be amused by the bright colors.

• • •

Next up, here's today's head-scratcher...

...and the sketch:

The two drawings are very similar, except Dan flipped the image horizontally. Since the English language is read left-to-right, he usually tries to position the payoff (whether it's verbal or visual) as far to the right as possible. Check out some previous comics and see how often you notice this compositional choice.

Genesis of the Joke

Several weeks ago I dropped off a poster at my friend Scott's house, and noticed a little pile of sticks and rocks on the front porch. I texted him to ask about the carefully-placed arrangement. His answer read "Snowman deconstructed," to which I replied "Highly conceptual!" Naturally, I stole the phrase from him and drew up this sketch for Bizarro.

That's right, jokes can sometimes be plucked right out of a conversation, if you have the ear to hear them and the temerity to take them and claim them as your own. Thanks, Scott!

• • •

Finally...
I am now free to make an announcement that I've been itching to post for several months: Late last year, Dan Piraro asked me to take over Bizarro for a week so he could have a little vacation, and the results will be published May 16 through May 22. That's seven consecutive days of solo work by me: writing, drawing, and coloring--the works!

Dan had hoped to get Ernie Bushmiller, but when he heard that Ernie had died in 1982, he figured I couldn't do any worse than a skeleton that's been in the ground for 30 years, so he invited me aboard.

So if you're offended, confused or enraged by any Bizarro cartoons between May 16 and May 22, don't blame Dan! All comments are welcome, and of course every comic will be posted here (and flogged on every other social networking platform, and any place I see someone with a newspaper).

I'm jazzed about this, and hope it goes over well with the loyal readership. At some point, I'm sure Dan will comment on his own blog.

There will also be two new collaborative comics appearing between now and the start of Wayno Week. They'll appear on Friday, May 6 and Monday May 9.

Wayno Rhymes with What?

Today, I'm pleased to showcase my first collaboration with Hilary Price, for her daily comic strip, Rhymes With Orange:

For comparison, here's my original submission.

My idea was to show a stereotypical burglar with the traditional (but inexplicable) get-up of newsboy cap, striped jersey, raccoon mask and stubble. Hilary instead depicts a bank-robber, complete with  ski-mask, gun and a bulging sack of money (Hey, where's the big dollar sign on the bag?) Come to think of it, a bank robber actually could do his work online.

Hilary's been doing RWO since 1995, and in 2007 she won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Best Newspaper Panel.

I'm very pleased to begin a working relationship with Hilary, and I look forward to many more collaborations in the future.

Off With My Head!

The White Rabbit
12" x 12" Acrylic on Masonite 2011

I made this new painting for The Pittsburgh Symphony's upcoming performance of David Del Tredici's Final Alice.

Ten Pittsburgh artists contributed works to be displayed in the music hall. The pieces will be auctioned, with the proceeds split between educational programs sponsored by the Symphony and the ToonSeum.

A Poke in the Eye

Today's Bizarro takes yet another poke at Facebook, which is proving to be a rich source of inspiration. I've been told that some of our gags are rather obscure, but at least 500 million people should get this one.

I gave Dan little to work with visually—just the wordplay, really. But as usual he ran with it and created a great image punch up the gag.

Since there's not much else to discuss, here's a look at the alternate layout for papers that run Bizarro in comic-strip format:

As I may have mentioned before, Dan creates two versions of the comic every day: one for the normal panel and a second "landscape" version. This often requires some additional art to fill in the space, as seen in this one. It's just another example of the hard work that goes into creating the high quality humor you expect from Bizarro.

To view the archive of Piraro/Wayno collaborations, click on the Bizarro label.

Coming up in early May: Two new comics in a row, and a special announcement.

Robo Vengeance

Today's Bizarro pokes fun at an old favorite cartoon character faced with the reality of 21st Century automation. It is 2011 after all, and TV led us to expect floating vehicles that collapse into briefcases, beds that pop us out like slices of toast, and wisecracking anthropomorphic domestic help. Instead, the state of housecleaning technology is a slow-moving, overgrown hockey puck.

My sketch had the dialog nailed down, but the drawing showed Rosie hiring  an old-school pinstripe-wearing gangster, who Dan Piraro replaced with a slightly updated thug. Actually, he reminds me of a crook from "Car 54" dressed up in modern "street" gear.

An earlier sketch (below) showed Rosie drowning her sorrows as she lamented her replacement. This one seemed more sad than funny, so I did the other treatment with the scorned maid out for revenge. Giving her more of an angry edge improved the joke. 

Our next collaborative gag will appear on Thursday. Until then, feel free to review our previous laffs here.

Put Your Hand Inside the Accountant's Head

Today, Dan Piraro and I celebrate the traditional income tax deadline day with a cartoon featuring a man and his trusty financial adviser.

 

The final art is a huge improvement over my submission:

This sketch is quite old. The digital file has a creation date of 2003, making it at least eight years old, but I'd estimate it's from the late 1990s. It looks like I drew it with a Rapidograph pen, which I haven't used for many years, and there's a small piece of correction tape (!) on the caption. I held onto it for a long time, and am glad it's finally made it to print. There's something especially hilarious about hand puppets. I find them to be much funnier than ventriloquist dummies.

Our next collaboration will appear on Monday, April 18, with four more following closely. All of our previous efforts can be viewed here.

• • •

I've just started contributing gags to Hilary Price's comic strip, Rhymes With Orange. The first one will appear on Tuesday, April 26. RWO is a very funny cartoon, with a clever, absurdist point of view, and I'm happy about working with Hilary.

• • •

Getting back to Bizarro, keep your eyes peeled for an announcement about a special batch of cartoons coming up shortly. It'll appear in the usual places.

Also, Pittsburgh's own ToonSeum has just confirmed that Dan Piraro will bring his standup comedy to town on Thursday June 9, for the annual Comics for Comics fundraiser. Tickets will be available soon. Dan's live performances are unpredictable, visual, musical, and very, very funny.

Stand-up Scatology

In today's Bizarro comic, we goof on a couple of popular children's characters, one of which has a particularly off-putting name, blithely ignored by fans.

Dan's final art follows my sketch very closely, although his depiction of Piglet resembles the familiar Disney character more than my grubby, cigarette-smoking version.

I also did a sketch showing a grizzled show-biz manager advising the would-be comedian to clean up his act:

The scene with the couple watching TV works better, in part because it's a more realistic situation (except for the talking pig), but I do like the body language in the sketch with the manager.

The gag was inspired in part by the disturbing sight of a parent and child sitting in the aisle of a bookstore reading aloud from this horrifying volume:

There's a fine line between cute and disgusting. Sometimes there's no line at all.

Wikipedia has an interesting description of the Piglet character, noting that he's "a very small animal with a stutter and a generally timid disposition, [who] often conquers his fears and seems to want to be brave." That's a fair description of quite a few stand-up comics.

For the statisticians in the audience, the Pooh gag marks my 25th appearance in Bizarro. There are many more to come, including a special Form 1040 bit next Friday, and something extra in late May.

Catch up on our previous collaborations here.

One in Half a Million

This Sunday's Bizarro (April 3, 2011) is a desert island gag, one of the oldest cliche situations in a cartoonist's bag of tricks. A Google image search for desert island cartoon returns over 500,000 results.

Other reliable devices include a patient on a psychiatrist's couch, a visit from the Grim Reaper, a person on a doctor's examination table, and in/out boxes on an office desk.

We've all used them, and will surely continue to do so. Nickelodeon Magazine (1993-2009) used to run a desert island gag in nearly every issue. I know I did one for them, but I can't find it. Maybe the bottle containing it will wash ashore someday.

My concept sketch was very simple, and the idea could have been conveyed with nothing more than stick figures.

We tried several different lines before settling on the Facebook dialog. Earlier versions had a stunned/sad guy reacting as the woman said:

I've met someone else,

We should see other people, or

I need my space.

I like the final version, which adds a comment on technology-based communication replacing actual conversation, an idea we've touched on before.

Dan's commentary on the same strip can be seen at his blog.

Dan did a beautiful job of exploiting the extra space available in a Sunday page, placing the tiny island in an expanse of sea and sky. His waves are hypnotic, and I'll bet that drawing them was mind-clearing and therapeutic.

I don't know how the characters keep their phones charged. Perhaps the batteries run on the magic of comic-strip absurdity.

We have several more joint ventures in the pipeline over the next month, and beyond. Stay tuned, and enjoy our previous efforts here.