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
Greetings from Bizarro Studios North.
Today's post comes to you without the usual wordy intro, because we're trying to get in some extra work ahead of the oncoming high-speed holiday train.
All aboard for the latest blog entry from my Little Shop of Humor.
Although I rely on our vigilant field correspondents, I do find pipe pics on my own from time to time, such as this 1978 LP cover by jazz bassist Ron Carter.
Mr. Carter has had a long career, recording prolifically as a leader, and he was a member of Miles Davis's "Second Great Quartet" from 1963 to 1968.
I hadn't heard this album until very recently. It has a relaxed, low-key vibe. The focus is on Carter's bass, accompanied by guitarist Jay Berliner, drummer Jack DeJohnette (another Miles Davis alum, who passed in October), and pianist Kenny Barron, with the unusual addition of four cellists, along with a percussionist who adds wood block, "scratcher," triangle, finger cymbals, and rhythmic touches.
This is an album I'll surely return to.
Let us proceed with the week's cartoons.
The truth behind celebrity memoirs.
Tuesday's gag illustrates the fear of every aging hipster. It's nota meeting of the Bizarro Studios partners, honest.
In the strip configuration, the Flying Saucer of Possibility is replaced by the less common Fish of Humility.
Hey, sometimes you feel like mixing it up.
Thursday's panel isn't meant to represent all doctors or drug reps, but this type of dealmaking isn't uncommon.
In Friday's offering, we speculated on the latest in military decorations.
Some passengers welcome flight delays.
Thank you for checking out the blog. If you want to learn more about how the cartoon sausage is made, my free Substack newsletter might be of interest. And don't miss Dan Piraro's blog every Sunday.
Twelve Months of Dogs & Cats
Our 2026 Canines & Felines wall calendar is now available from Comics Kingdom. Click on the image or here to order.
We also have a selection of t-shirts, hats, mugs, and holiday ornaments in the Comics Kingdom Bizarro Shop.
My good pal Jeff B is modeling his Eyeball of Observation winter beanie.
Unfortunately, I don't know where you can find a Chilly Billy shirt.
Stylish people wear Bizarro stuff!
Bonus Track
Nick Lowe: "Shake That Rat"
Originally from Bowi Stiff Records 7-inch EP, 1977
Nick Lowe's 1977 EP included this instrumental number featuring bass guitar as the lead instrument.
A Deli Full of Bizarro Links
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.
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
Don't reach out all the way to the reader—don't worry about being "obscure" or "ambiguous or "weird"—if you're sure of what you're doing, ask the reader to do a little work and meet you halfway.
Bill Griffith
William Henry Jackson Griffith is a master cartoonist. His Zippy the Pinhead, the unlikeliest of newspaper strips, has been distributed by King Features Syndicate since 1986, and he has a long history in underground comix, dating to the late 1960s.
Along with Art Spiegelman, Bill edited the comix anthology Arcade, publishing seven quarterly issues between 1975 and 1976. Arcade introduced me to the work of Willy Murphy, who became one of my favorite underground cartoonists.
In addition to creating Zippy strips seven days a week for more than forty years, Bill has written and illustrated four graphic biographies since 2015. His latest, Photographic Memory, released a few weeks ago, is a biography of his great-grandfather and namesake, William Henry Jackson, a pioneering photographer of the American West.
Bill's books are available from all the usual retailers or directly from the artist at ZippyThePinhead.com. He's currently working on an autobiography he’s referred to as "My Underground Memoir," which will tell the story of his journey to becoming a cartoonist. Needless to say, that one is eagerly awaited by his fans and colleagues.
Bill's fantastic art and writing, impeccable primary research for his books, and exemplary work ethic are deeply inspiring.
The quote opening this post is a guiding principle here at Bizarro Studios. It's from "Griffy's Top 40 List on Comics and Their Creation," which should be required reading for cartoonists. We're fortunate to have a community of readers who are willing to do a little work to meet us halfway.
Beginning in the early 1980s, I occasionally corresponded with Bill and regularly saw him when I attended San Diego Comic-Con, up to the early 2000s. Our paths have crossed many times, and a comix hero has become a friend.
At the 2018 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards, I asked Bill if we could take a photo together. I was honored when he said he was happy to pose with "a fellow weirdo."
In 2022, the Bill received the NCS Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. He's a genius and a treasure, and I'm fortunate to know him and to read his work every day.
A Zippy comic from 2011 featured an abbreviated Griffy's top forty. (Click to see an enlarged version.)
Today's Stephen Colbert pipe pic comes to us from Bizarro field correspondent and amateur radio enthusiast Gerry J. of Albuquerque, who snapped it from his TV screen.
The Sherlock Holmes homage (holmage?) is a recurring bit on The Late Show, and Gerry sent another screenshot from October showing Colbert with three pipes!
If I had a deerstalker cap, I'd tip it to Gerry for sharing these photos. Thanks, Gerry!
Now, let's see how much work it takes to "get" the latest Bizarro gags.
I recently realized that my cartoons contain more bow ties and more people with red hair than exist in the real world, which led to Monday's gag, representing the intersection of redheads and bow ties in a Venn diagram.
The prices are also inflated.
The cartoonist's brain ponders another mystery.
The strip version required a vertical layout, so analog readers had to rotate their newspapers by ninety degrees.
Here's a still from a movie coming to the Hallmark Military Channel.
Darned if you do, darned if you don't.
Appropriate work attire is different for every job.
Thanks for stopping by to read the blog. If you can't get enough, I invite you to read my free Substack newsletter. It's a behind-the-scenes supplement to the blog, and always includes a non-spoiler peek at an upcoming gag and a piece of art from the pre-Bizarro archives.
New Swag for the New Year
Our 2026 Canines & Felines wall calendar is now available from Comics Kingdom. Click on the image or these words to grab yours.
We have other swell t-shirts, hats, ornaments, and garments for the holidays and beyond in the Bizarro Shop.
Bonus Track
Thee Headcoats: "No Way Out"
From Heavens To Murgatroyd, Even! It's Thee Headcoats! (Already)
Sub Pop Records LP, 1990
Thee Headcoats were one of several no-frills, fuzzed-out garage rock bands led by Billy Childish. The band was almost always seen wearing deerstalker caps.
Photo: Paul Slattery
Could "headcoat" be a slang term for "deerstalker cap?" Who knows?
Much More Bizarro Madness
If you like what we do and appreciate that it's free, we encourage you to explore the following links.
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.
