WHAM!
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic. Each week, I post my Sunday Bizarro comic, then a short essay, then the past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics written and drawn by my partner, Wayno whose weekly blog post I recommend highly.
Here’s the ANSWER KEY to this week’s Secret Symbols in the Sunday comic, above.——————————————————————————————————
Hi, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be writing to you again today. Thanks for reading my thoughts.
The Sunday comic above about the batboy’s transformation to a Batman is pretty self-explanatory. It’s a fun bit of wordplay with a cute picture but what I think makes it work as a joke is that the image leads you to say the punch line to yourself, rather than read it. Wayno and I like this approach because it displays an element of respect for our readers; we assume you are clever enough to find the joke without having it spelled out for you.
That’s my biggest problem with most Internet memes I’ve seen. They spell out the joke so plainly that it kills the humor. In fact, they can even be a little insulting.
Unfortunately but not surprisingly, many of our Bizarro cartoons have been victims of this kind of sub-optimum behavior. The below images tell one such story. I’m sure you can guess which is mine and which was illegally and completely unnecessarily altered.
A quick FYI: Make no mistake, it is illegal to do this. Not just unethical and shitty, but illegal. And cutting off the signature and legal lines of someone else’s work does not make it okay. Our distribution company, King Features, has an elevator full of lawyers dedicated just to chasing down this kind of copyright infringement.
Beyond that, I have one question about the headline at the top: WHY? Just, why? It seems to me that anyone with two I.Q. points to rub together could make enough of a spark to understand the joke from the cartoon itself. If someone doesn’t think the original cartoon is funny, is that explanatory headline in gigantic, bold, block lettering going to incite them to laughter? Let’s hope not.
It is no accident that the font used for so many Internet memes is Impact, like the example above; it reflects the level of subtlety that their creators possess. Apparently, they are the sort that needs to have concepts spelled out and shouted at them to get the point. Thank goodness no one like that reads this blog—I’d hate to have to type in IMPACT.
Finally, a call to arms to all good Samaritans: If you come across any of our cartoons that have been altered, snag the URL and send it to us via a comment on this blog or via our website contact pages, or whatever. We’ll appreciate it and King Features will sic their lawyers on them for us.
Let’s check in now with Wayno and see if he included any explanations of punch lines in his Bizarro cartoons for the week. (Answer: he did not)
If sugar were not of the Devil it wouldn’t taste so damned good.
A scene from the pilot episode of Murder She Crowed.
As useful as emojis are in communicating intent, they represent a certain kind of aesthetic horror that I can’t help but feel harms our culture. Am I making a (mountain emoji) out of a (molehill emoji)? Damn! The one time I actually want to use ugly emojis, the program doesn’t have them.
If your Mr. Potato Head starts talking to you, you may need more than emotional support.
White Out seems like it was from another century. Oh, it was.
I hope you all had a wonderful Magical Giant Egg-Hiding Rabbit Day—or Easter, for short.
If you’ve enjoyed enjoying our comics (not a typo) without having to dodge pop-up ads and clickbait, please help us keep it this way via one of the links below. We’ll appreciate the heck out of you.
Until next time, for all your surreal shipping needs, choose the best.
BIZARRO SHOP Fun and cheap!
COMICS KINGDOM SHOP (now with Bizarro products!)
… Bizarro TIP JAR One-time or repeating. Your choice!
…Signed, numbered, limited edition prints and original Bizarro panels