Friday, 12 December 2008

Bulging Artists

Bizarro is brought to you today by Creepy Grandpas.

Roger Clemens and his drug problem were back in the news this week so I thought I'd post my cartoon from this time last year. Yes, that's supposed to be me on the left and yes, I actually do have one impossibly huge and over-developed hand and no, it isn't from too many years as a single guy. (That tends to develop the wrist and elbow muscles.)

In spite of what this cartoon implies, performance-enhancing drugs are not illegal for cartoonists so I can admit without fear of prosecution that I've taken plenty: Ibuprofen, yerba mate, coffee, single-malt scotch, fine tequila, cigars, anti-depressants, and high-cocoa-content chocolate.

Speaking of performance, I just noticed that I neglected to draw the backs or legs for the chairs the characters would be sitting on. That means they're just squatting at the table, pretending they have chairs. That kind of muscle control would not be possible without performance-enhancing drugs, even for a drawing.

Christmas Covers - December 12



For each day of December until Christmas I'm featuring a Comic Cover Advent Calendar. Just move your mouse over the image to reveal today's special Holiday comic cover. Click on the image to get a larger version. (If you're on a feed reader you may need to click through to the blog to get it to work.)

A woman ponders an age-old comic book question on Janet L. Hetherington's cover to Eternal Romance #3 (1997).

Come back tomorrow, and every day this month, for a new Christmas cover.


Just 13 more 'get-ups' until Santa!


(2007: Liberty Meadows #24)
(2006: Veronica #6)
(2005: Dell Movie Classic #725)
(2004: Treasure Chest vol. 23 #8)

(Polite Dissent's 2007 Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar)
(Brendan McKillip's Comic Advent Calendar 2008)
(Brian Cronin's 2008 Comics Should Be Good Advent Calendar)
 

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Long Arms, Short Laugh

Bizarro is brought to you today by Very Tall Photographers.
I admit that this isn't a great cartoon. First, it isn't funny on a level beyond slapstick, and secondly, it's sort of a reach that global warming has gotten so bad that the ice caps have melted and flooded these people's home to the depth that a giant squid would be lurking outside their living room window. Also, there is the issue of water pressure, which would have smashed their windows long ago and typical window glass would most certainly not endure a small hole in it long enough to set up this scene and allow the woman to deliver her line. But that's cartoon logic for you.

I suppose I sacrificed logic and cleverness here in order to draw a fun picture. And that's fine sometimes. Lots of people read my comic because they like the art, so I'm guessing their are readers out there who enjoyed this image. I hope so, anyway.

Coincidentally, weeks after I drew this comic and a couple of days after it appeared in the paper, I was at that science museum in SF and took this picture of an octopus. I'm a big fan of tentacled critters – octopi, cuttlefishes, squids* – and got a kick out of seeing this one up close. I'm not certain whether octopi mind being enclosed in aquariums, I'm guessing they do. If so, I'm against this guy being cooped up here. I probably wouldn't have given this place my money if I'd known they had live animals in there.

Here's a pic of me and CHNW on the roof of said museum. As I mentioned in a previous post, the architecture of the place is the best feature.













*My apologies to squids for associating them with Rush Limbaugh.

Christmas Covers - December 11



For each day of December until Christmas I'm featuring a Comic Cover Advent Calendar. Just move your mouse over the image to reveal today's special Holiday comic cover. Click on the image to get a larger version. (If you're on a feed reader you may need to click through to the blog to get it to work.)

Santa's elves are on strike on Creig Flessel's cover to More Fun Comics #39 (1939).

Come back tomorrow, and every day this month, for a new Christmas cover.


Just 14 more 'get-ups' until Santa!


(2007: The Tick: Big Red-N-Green Christmas Spectacle #1)
(2006: The Best of DC #58)
(2005: Batman #27)
(2004: The Brave and the Bold #148)

(Polite Dissent's 2008 Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar)
(Brendan McKillip's Comic Advent Calendar 2008)
(Brian Cronin's 2008 Comics Should Be Good Advent Calendar)
 

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

Stuffed

My readers interested in veganism and animal rights will no doubt notice that I did not mention my feelings about animal slavery in the previous post including the cartoon about zoos. I think the cartoon says enough so I didn't expound. For those of you who don't know my opinions on this and are interested, I find all forms of animal exploitation – for entertainment, medical experiments, food and clothing (in countries where alternatives are available) – ethically indefesible.

And now, for the holiday season, I present to you what I consider to be a clever and humorous short essay about the "turducken" from a brilliant writer, Francesco Marciuliano. He is not vegetarian, or at least he wasn't last time we had a meal together, but he is sympathetic to my views on the subject. I haven't asked him, but I'd like to think I may have influenced this essay. Both his writing and his cartoons are among the few things I read daily.

Here also is a cartoon I did last year on the same subject.

(Click the image to see biggerized)

A Hard Day's Work

Bizarro is brought to you today by Bubblegum Deer.

Flew home from Caliphornia last night and am thrilled to be back at Bizarro International Headquarters. Even though being back means dealing with hundreds of emails, stacks of envelopes, a mountain of voice mails and a mob of lazy employees who haven't done a thing since I left last week.

Few people realize it, but it takes over 600 people to get each Bizarro cartoon from the planning stages to your daily paper. The think tank in my Conception and Development Department alone has 126 employees. From there, the ideas go to the marketing committee that tests them on various groups of consumers, then compiles a list of the ones that scored most favorably and sends them on to my personal assistant. She then reviews them to make sure none contain images or ideas that I might find unpleasant, and puts them on my desk.

After I've seen the finalists, I choose the ones I want to see finished and send them on to the sketching and inking department. Each cartoon is drawn by 13 different artists, then I choose the one that I feel looks the most as if I had drawn it myself. If none represent the true essence of Piraro, I send it back to be done again.

Once finished and accepted, I add my inimitable signature and send the image on to the coloring department. Each cartoon is colored by 8 different artists, then those images are sent back to the marketing department for consumer testing once again. The one that scores the highest is sent to King Features, ready for publication.

By the time a Bizarro cartoon reaches the discerning eyes of you, my precious readers, over 800 people have seen and judged it, and around 375 artisans have poured the entirety of their considerable talent into making it an authentic Dan Piraro Original. It's a long, hard day of bone-grinding drudgery for each of these tireless workers, but knowing that they've made countless inhabitants of planet earth laugh is a reward that money can't buy.

No syndicated cartoon feature works harder to bring you the level of authentic artistic integrity that you've come to expect from Bizarro.

Christmas Covers - December 10



For each day of December until Christmas I'm featuring a Comic Cover Advent Calendar. Just move your mouse over the image to reveal today's special Holiday comic cover. Click on the image to get a larger version. (If you're on a feed reader you may need to click through to the blog to get it to work.)

We celebrate Christmas manga-style with Yuji Shiozaki's cover to Battle Vixens vol. 9.

Come back tomorrow, and every day this month, for a new Christmas cover.


Just 15 more 'get-ups' until Santa!


(2007: The Bakers Meet Jingle Belle)
(2006: A Distant Soil #26)
(2005: Classics Illustrated #15)
(2004: Action Comics #93)

(Polite Dissent's 2008 Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar)
(Brendan McKillip's Comic Advent Calendar 2008)
(Brian Cronin's 2008 Comics Should Be Good Advent Calendar)