Saturday, August 24, 2024

Peel Slowly and See

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

Next to power without honor, the most dangerous thing in the world is power without humor.
Eric Sevareid

While browsing for quotes about the value of humor (also known as rationalizing my career choice), I found this one from the late journalist Eric Sevareid, which could have been written today.

I'd add a postscript: Power without honor or humor is beyond merely dangerous, and must be stopped by people of good will.


Today's pipe pic was spotted in the wild by Bizarro reader Kevin, who snapped a photo and send it to me via the Substack newsletter.


The gent's portrait hangs on the wall of Pelican Pier, a fish & chips shop in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We don't know who he is, but we're happy to feature his photo.

Thanks to Kevin for the terrific image. It's always a treat to receive an original photo to share.


We make no claims of power but hope that this week's Bizarro gags offer some measure of humor.


Connoisseurs of music and pop art may recognize these characters.


With minor rotational adjustments, they fit nicely into a vertical strip.


Technology again sets us free, maybe.


The strip version offers a wider view of the cardboard clutter.


This pet owner may regret not choosing a drinking bird as a companion. They're easier to care for and less sardonic.


Al Sleet lives!


Friday's gag questions the assumed power dynamic. Is the big guy controlling the little guy, or is that what the little guy wants him to believe?


The familiar "Student Driver" bumper stickers could be adapted for many applications, as we imagined in Friday's gag.


To compensate for the sacrifice of a portion of the patient in the strip layout, we added a pair of Bizarro brand jeans.

That's the latest in drollery from Bizarro Studios North. Thanks for checking in with us, and keep your eyes peeled for more high and low humor next week.

Far Out Fashion

We’re pleased to announce that Comics Kingdom is offering three new Bizarro shirts for the well-dressed Jazz Pickle.

Click on any design to jump to the ordering page.



Celebrate Bizarro’s imaginary metal band with a stylin' Irön Bunnies öf Dööm shirt designed by yours truly. Available in eight colors and sizes XS to 4XL.


Every cool cat and kitten needs an official Bizarro Jazz Pickle tee.

The briny be-bopper design was created by our CEO (Chief Eyeball Officier) Dan Piraro and is available in five groovalicious shirt colors, sizes XS to 5XL.

The Pipe of Ambiguity Secret Symbol was inspired by René Magritte's surrealist masterwork, The Treachery of Images (popularly known as This Is Not a Pipe.)

Our bewildering Not a Shirt design comes in six colors, in sizes XS to 4XL.

We’d love to show off photos of our Bizarro Buds wearing these shirts. If you’d care to share, please send your pics to: WaynoCartoons(at)gmail(dot)com.

By sending your photo, you permit us to share it online. Readers will be identified only by first name, last initial, and city.

Whether or not you send a picture, we truly appreciate your support!


Bonus Track
Michael X. Whelan: "Powerhouse"



Michael Whelan is a versatile Southern California musician with wide-ranging tastes. He's a member of the band Cosmic Ocean, which I recommend. 

Michael also makes entertaining videos where he plays all instruments other than drums. In this one, he performs a heavy metal cover of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse," which was featured in countless Warner Brothers cartoons.

Special thanks to Michael for allowing me to share his work with you. Keep an eye on this guy, and check out his YouTube page for more videos.


A Lovely Bunch of Bizarro


  

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Saturday, August 17, 2024

Ain't It Funny

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 second half of August is becoming extra busy for your cartoonist, and I'm composing this post ten days in advance, so please forgive me if anything momentous happens before this is published and I don't remark on it.


Since I'm trying to complete an extra week or two of comics before September, it's fitting to feature a comics-related pipe pic.

This is of course a Thimble Theatre panel by the great Elzie Segar. My old buddy and esteemed colleague Steve Bissette posted this on his Facebook page recently.

The pipe may be a tiny part of the image, but it still qualifies. Also, it depicts a world I'd like to live in.

Thanks to Steve for adding some levity to the Book of Face.


Here's a review of the latest Bizarro gags. Bizarro is distributed by King Features Syndicate, making us Popeye's neighbors or maybe his co-workers.


Monday's gag may have been partly inspired by the story of a patient of psychologist Oliver Sacks. The man was an accomplished jazz drummer and Tourette's patient who had a history of experiencing severe tics. When the patient took medication to control the symptoms, he lost the spontaneity that fueled his musical improvisations. Along with Dr. Sacks the patient eventually decided to use the medication on weekdays to help him function in day-to-day society, and he'd go off the meds on weekends to be a wilder, freer improviser.


Who doesn't enjoy the occasional alien probing gag?


The strip layout had a more panoramic horizon but sacrificed some foreground elements.

On the same subject, here's an old one I particularly enjoyed doing:
 

I never pass up an opportunity to draw a ventriloquist dummy.


A restaurant in my neighborhood serves a "deconstructed" Bloody Mary, which makes for a tasty science experiment.

Maybe Cousin Erlenmeyer has a wild side after all.


And their bartender makes a nice glass of slop.


That's farmcore, dude.


Odds are that this has happened in real life somewhere.


After I completed the art, we decided that the client's outfit made him look like a (smarmy) doctor in a lab coat, so I executed a wardrobe change. 

That wraps up another batch of frivolity from your humble ink-monkey. Thanks for dropping by.


Bonus Track
Huey "Piano" Smith and His Clowns: "Pop-Eye"
Ace Records single, 1962



Huey "Piano" Smith was one of the giants of New Orleans music and was hugely influential on the development of early rock and roll. He was a true entertainer, and his records are almost all worthwhile.


A Whole Lotta Bizarro


  

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Saturday, August 10, 2024

Cryptid Career Counseling

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

Art is rearranging and grouping mistakes.
Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart

Don Van Vliet was eminently quotable, though much of what he said could be puzzling, as he had his own manner of forming thoughts and constructing sentences. The line we're sharing here is straightforward and relatable. It's also a valuable bit of advice.

My take is that experimentation and editing are required to produce art, and that it's rarely created fully-formed. The most important step in creating any type of art is starting with something—a mark on a piece of paper or a couple of words, and building from there, keeping what works and setting aside what doesn't. In fact, getting to a satisfying (if not great) work of art requires making countless mistakes.

I realize that this conversation is familiar ground for me. It came to mind again when I read of the former football star Colin Kaepernick raising four million dollars for an AI-based platform for publishing comics. Imagine it! Entering a few prompts will produce a wholly artificial product without involving bothersome "gatekeepers" like artists or writers. Designed to "democratize" comics, in reality, it'll unleash a flood of even more soulless corporate crap.

We choose to presume that there will always be those who recognize and appreciate the work of human beings, which is why Dan Piraro and I are so grateful to our readers. Thank you for being a part of the Bizarro comics community.


Today's pipe pic is the cover of London Mystery Magazine issue 75, published in December, 1967.



I'm a fan of old-school two-color design, and the combination of stylized illustration, text, and a photographic element makes for a winning cover. The signature below the pipe looks like "Buster."

Thanks to Bizarro buddy Richard G for sending this image my way, and kudos to the mysterious Buster for a job well done.


The following cartoons were written and drawn by a human cartoonist, flaws and all.


This site came to be known as GameHenge.


They eventually agreed to use a blurry identification photo.


"And the old pond had all the flies we could eat."


This young go-getter is looking for the escalator of success.


Wherever this image came from, I enjoyed drawing the tiny toilet and the braided rawhide treat.


Saturday's gag was written around July 4th, as we endured the call of amateur pyrotechnics and awaited the response of ambulance sirens. 

I admit to attending and enjoying many Independence Day fireworks displays throughout my life, but a New York Times opinion column got me thinking about them in ways I hadn't considered before. It's worth reading and discussing. 


A vertical strip layout brings us to the end of another week of cartoonery. 

Thank you for reading and supporting the work of non-robot cartoonists. We hope you'll be back next week for more rearranged mistakes.


Bonus Track
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band:
"Tropical Hot Dog Night"
from I'm Gonna Do What I Wanna Do
Rhino CD, 2000



In the interest of symmetry, we close with Captain Beefheart recorded live at My Father's Place in Roslyn, New York in 1978. Every member of the Magic Band was in fine form that evening, and trombonist Bruce Fowler shines on this selection.


Serving All Your Bizarro Needs


  

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Saturday, August 03, 2024

Everyday Surrealism

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

Fantasy is overrated; the real world is surreal enough.
Saul Steinberg

Happy Saturday, Bizarro Buds. This week you'll get a break from my verbose introductions. What can one add to Saul Steinberg's words anyway?

Instead, we'll jump right in with a historic pipe pic.


I haven't been able to find any specific information on the date or location; we only know that it's a shot of J. Robert Oppenheimer. He was often seen with a pipe, and in fact, I ran a picture of him almost exactly a year ago, during the craze over a couple of summer movies.

Today's image came from my friend Black Mold, who's been a disk jockey on the great New Orleans community radio station WWOZ for more than thirty years. His wildly entertaining program, Music of Mass Distraction, is like nothing you've heard before.
 
A tip of the cocoanut straw porkpie to the mysterious Mister Mold for sharing the photo. I hope to get back to NOLA in the future to check out WWOZ's new studio.


Saul Steinberg notwithstanding, we do hope to add to the world's general level of surrealism.


According to some versions of the story, Jack and his mother actually made out like bandits from his magic bean trade. He broke into a home, robbed it three times, and finally killed the poor property owner.


Our friend Eric S sent us a picture of this gag as it appeared in the Los Angeles Times. They're one of the clients who use the strip version, and it looks like they do a decent job of printing it without distortion or extreme reduction. Thanks, Eric!


Another argument against returning to the office is the coworker who thinks they're witty. This particular example takes ninety days to compose a snappy comeback.


The biggest challenge with this one was finding a way to write dialog to conjure a particular accent in the reader's mind. The concept made it one of my favorites of the week, and I almost ran it in the Friday slot, where I schedule the strongest panel.


After more than six years of doing the daily gags, I've gotten over my hesitance to do vertical strips. Sometimes it's the best way to use the space.


Couples therapy is all about finding common ground.


When two monarchical societies mingle, you never know what'll happen. I'd imagine that a regular "two-checker" king would have less power than the king or queen in a chess game, but a stack of twelve might be a different story.


When I rearranged the gag's elements for the strip layout, I had more horizontal space but less headroom, so I let the stacked checkers extend out of frame. The reader can imagine an even taller UberKing.


The week closes out with yet another nod to surrealist René Magritte, who inspired the Pipe of Ambiguity Secret Symbol (which doesn't appear in this panel).

That brings us to the end of another blog entry. Thanks for checking it out, and please consider coming back next week for more words, pictures, and commentary.

Bonus Track

Todd Rundgren: "Just Another Onionhead / Da Da Dali"
from A Wizard, A True Star
Bearsville Records, 1973


This selection from Rundgren's psychedelic masterpiece references another favorite surrealist. The melody of the "Da Da Dali" section is identical to "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye," a song made famous by Al Jolson in the 1920s.


Serving All Your Bizarro Needs


  

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