Wardrobe Dysfunction

Today's Bizarro features a pair of domestic felines engaging in very human behavior.

As always, Dan Piraro's finished art is a huge improvement over my scribbly sketch.

My very observant spouse pointed out that the male cat in the published version looks a little like Dan. I didn't see it until I enlarged the image, and I have to agree that there's a definite resemblance (see detail below).

I've lived with cats for most of my adult life, so it's bot surprising that felines turn up in some of my gags, but I still can't explain the prevalence of clown cartoons that flow from my pen (including a Sunday comic appearing in a couple of weeks.)

Please feel free to browse through my earlier collaborations with Mister Piraro, in this blog's Bizarro Archive.

Feets, Don't Fail Me Now

Today's Bizarro requires no analysis or explanation. It's simply a pun illustrated by a very funny picture:

As is his habit, Bizarro's talented creator, Dan Piraro, turned my sketchy idea into a greatly improved cartoon panel by adjusting the viewing angle, and adding just enough background detail. Oh, yes, and actually doing a finished drawing.

I fully expect this cartoon to show up on a certain ridiculous television program and be touted as proof of Bigfoot's existence. After all, how could a cartoonist ever draw such a perfect likeness without a live model to study? Well?

All of our earlier collaborations can be scrutinized for clues to other mysteries by scrolling through this blog's Bizarro Archive. 

Speaking of the archive, you may know that in addition to writing gags, I've been assisting Dan by coloring the daily Bizarro panels. Before I started, I spent a couple of days looking over his shoulder, slack-jawed, studying his coloring technique. It's not just heave-ho with the old paint bucket.

My very first attempt to ape his style (sorry) appeared exactly two years ago today. Coincidentally, it also featured a fictional simian.

After coloring more than six hundred panels, it's still an enjoyable gig. Not only do I learn something every week by studying Dan's art, and continue to improve my Photoshop skills, but I also get to read the comics three weeks before they're published.

In another few years, I'll be fully vested in the Bizarro pension plan, and can look forward to monthly deliveries of tiny UFOs, pickled eyeballs, and novelty dynamite in my old age. Oh, the perks of working in the cartoon racket!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

February 10, 2013 - January 30, 2014

Wunnerful, Wunnerful!

Here's a Bizarro cartoon that, for many readers, may require a bit of explanation. Definitions are provided later in this post.

Once again, Dan Piraro improved the gag with his exquisite art, though I was pleased that it followed mine fairly closely. 

My first instinct was to draw a "funny animal" version of the whelk, but I decided to follow advice Dan gave me some time ago. He said that when he drew a cartoon featuring animals, particularly insects or sea animals, he would do photo research to see what they actually look like, because they're usually quite interesting.

His final art one-upped me in the realism department, since I showed an accordion strapped to the sea creature, while in his version, it looks as if the mollusc just sort of slithered on top of the instrument.

We both cheated a little with the other animal. It's modeled after the banana slug, which is actually a land animal, but the bright yellow color looks nice.

As promised, here are a few definitions to help those who were left scratching their heads by this gag.

whelk 
noun 
Any of various large, mostly edible marine snails of the family Buccinidae, having a pointed, spiral shell.

Lawrence Welk 
proper noun 
American musician, bandleader and television personality (1903-1992). Welk hosted a popular TV show, The Lawrence Welk Show, from 1955-1982. Reruns of the program are still shown on many PBS stations.

"Wunnerful, Wunnerful!"
title of this blog post
Variant spelling of "Wun'erful, Wun'erful!," a 1957 comedy recording by Stan Freberg, a multi-talented giant of American humor. The record parodied Welk's program, and featured Freberg imitating the host, and repeating the phrase "Wun'erful, wun'erful" over and over. Welk was said to have denied ever using the phrase, yet he chose it as the title of his autobiography.

By the way, if you aren't familiar with the work of Stan Freberg, you owe it to yourself to check out some of his recordings.

Also, please feel free to view my prior collaborations with Dan Piraro, all of which are archived here.

Sea Change

My latest collaboration with award-winning cartoonist Hilary Price appears today in her comic strip Rhymes With Orange.

In an email message with the strip attached, Hilary said, "As these things go, it morphed." A glance at my submission sketch confirms that she richly deserves her merit badge in understatement.

About the only thing these two cartoons have in common is the word "Ness," but Hilary was kind enough to credit me, illustrating how truly collaborative the writing process can be, with one idea sparking another.

The pun in the final comic is a major improvement, requiring the change of a single letter. Even better, that change could conceivably be a typographic error, since n and b are adjacent on a QWERTY keyboard.

"Loch Ness Mobster" rolls off the tongue much more elegantly than "Goth Ness Monster." I do like the strangeness of the original art, but Hilary's version earns a bigger laugh. Well done, HP!

My previous collaborations with Hilary, including last year's week as guest cartoonist, can be viewed in this blog's Orange Archive.

Hell With the Lid Off 2013

Kelly's Bar & Lounge, Pittsburgh's favorite joint for beer, mac & cheese, and an amazing punk/lounge/etc. jukebox, will hold its annual barleywine festival, Hell With The Lid Off, on February 16 and 17.

For the third time, I've been invited to design a poster and t-shirt for the festival. This time around, we're going with a retro concert-poster look. The posters and t-shirts are in production, and will be available shortly. The posters are available in my Big Cartel shop, and the t-shirts will be sold exclusively at Kelly's.

HWTLO is a singular event, offering samples of dozens of barleywines from around the country, along with a hearty bar-food buffet. It always sells out, and a designated driver is highly recommended.

Related stories:

Hell With the Lid Off 2010

Hell With the Lid Off 2011

Fun With Science

Today's Bizarro takes us to the halls of academia for a lecture on particle physics.

The general layout of my sketch made it to Dan Piraro's finished art, with, as usual, several improvements. Most obviously, Dan deleted the unnecessary audience members. This results in a less cluttered image, and draws the reader into the scene as a participant rather than an observer. You're looking at the stage (as opposed to looking at the audience looking at the stage). 

Also, it made the cartoon easier to draw without those extra heads.

Readers may have noticed a fair number feline-themed gags coming from me lately. My wife and I have always had cats as pets, and naturally their behavior is in my consciousness. Over the past few months a small renovation project in our house has displaced them, and they've been sharing my studio space. Perhaps they've been whispering suggestions, or else I've been affected by their experiments with particle physics.

If you've got some time to kill, feel free to browse through my previous collaborations with young Master Bizarro.

Meow.

Upholstery Treatment

Today's Bizarro is yet another example of that cartoon standby, the psychiatrist's office.

Bizarro's creator, Dan Piraro, made significant changes to the sketch. The staging is much improved. My aerial view looks cramped and unnatural, with the patient's chair almost on top of the doctor's feet.

Dan also made both characters around the same size. After seeing the finished art, the cats in the sketch look like an adult doctor and a young patient, which was not my intent. Oh, and the expressive body language in the final art shows that the scratching cat is definitely very happy.

This gag was developed over the course of nearly a year before I submitted it for consideration. Below is the first (self-rejected) sketch, along with ideas for improving the gag.

I held this one back because I usually don't show an animal speaking to a human, unless that's the point of the gag. The best Bizarro cartoons combine an absurd element with a familiar situation, and this sketch has very little grounding in reality, since animals don't literally speak to people. I felt that the reader might wonder why there's a talking cat, and what he's doing at a psychiatrist, which directs attention away from the idea of scratching furniture as a conscious practice for stress relief. It's a funny gag, but I thought it wasn't quite good enough.

The revised sketch works better, dropping the reader into a cat-populated world. I also prefer that the revised sketch shows (rather than talks about) the act of scratching. Still, the original has its New Yorker-ish charms.

One very interesting aspect of Dan's finished version is that the patient is naked! I didn't notice at first, but the doctor is clothed and the patient isn't wearing a thing, unless there's a collar that we can't see.

Coming up next week: another feline cartoon--one that nearly violates the  animal-human conversational rule.

Please spend some time reviewing my previous collaborations with Dan Piraro.

Tire Pressure

Here's a brand new Bizarro comic to kick off the New Year.

It's a bit of speculation regarding the parentage of a familiar advertising icon. I'm not sure who the mama might be.

At first glance, Dan Piraro's final art looks to be identical to my submission sketch, but as usual, he made subtle yet effective changes. The optimistic anticipation on the young doughboy's face contrasts nicely with Bib's look of shock and consternation.

He also added a little more space around the characters, which is a barely noticeable revision, but results in a more pleasing composition.

Finally, Dan changed the magazine name from Tread to Tired. I don't know why he made that particular edit. Perhaps he'll explain it on his blog, or maybe the Michelin man subscribes to both publications.

If you enjoyed this post, please wander through our earlier collaborations at your leisure, and take a peek in the upcoming weeks for two new feline-themed gags.

Happy Motoring

Here's my last Bizarro contribution for 2012, a wistful look at a road trip as a metaphor for life:

There's not much to it pictorially, though Dan Piraro, the brains behind Bizarro, managed to include a few bits of visual interest as compared to my submission sketch. The birds perched on the sign are a neat touch, and I like the composition better with the railing and underpass anchoring it.

The idea for this gag occurred to me while on a drive from Pittsburgh to Maryland earlier this year, although there were no missed exits, or any other mishaps. The first scribbled line in my sketchbook used the term "Existential Highway," which felt a little lofty, almost poetic--and the point of the sign is to bring the driver back down to earth. "Turnpike" is a satisfyingly mundane term, very utilitarian. It also has that hard vowel at the end, and, when pronounced (aloud or in the mind) its guttural sound works better that the breathier "highway."

I have no deep explanation or analysis to offer for this one, except perhaps to say that sometimes it's good to slow down and wander away from your planned route.

Please feel free to plow through all of my previous collaborations with the talented and generous Mister Piraro, and watch for new gags in January. As of today, there are three in the pipeline. They'll pop up on January 3rd, the 9th, and the 16th.

Speaking of Dan, I highly recommend reading his very entertaining blog, which often includes amusing insights into his creative process. You might be seeing Dan on TV sometime in the future as well!

Thanks to everyone who's followed along and offered encouragement, comments and critiques throughout the year. 2012 has been busy, productive, educational and rewarding, and it didn't end on December 21st! 

I wish all of you a New Year of health, prosperity and peace.