Dan Piraro's Blog, page 22

Sexy Beast

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Here's an example of a cartoon I wasn't sure all of the editors of my client newspapers would tolerate, but I got no complaints so that is good. Not 15 years ago, the term "gay" was not allowed on most funny pages, so perhaps the country has evolved. That tends to happen as older editors are replaced by younger, hipper ones.

There is no deeper meaning or grand statement made here, I just thought that a gay Chewbacca was funny. I ori...

Prehistoric Diplomacy

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I'm happy to say that this was a very popular cartoon, judging by the mail I received. I thought of it as a purely visual gag but as it developed, it became a nice statement about the way different people think. Some of us try to solve problems with cooperation, logic, shared information and common interests, others want to use a hammer. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from there, political and otherwise. One could easily see this as a cart...

Stupidly Suspenseful

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For readers familiar with the TV show "24," this cartoon is self explanatory. If you're not, Jack Bauer is the preposterous, soap-opera-style hero of the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit of the U.S. government. He is a combination of James Bond and Batman, all wrapped up in the 5', 4", elfen body of Kiefer Sutherland. Bauer gets what he wants by threatening and torturing people, not unlike a Jack Russell Terrier.

In spite of it's myriad inconsistencie...

Bizarro iPhone App Update

I've heard from some users of my Bizarro iPhone app that they've had some problems with it crashing. The gurus have issued an update to fix that, so check your App Update button. Or, if you haven't bought it yet, the new one should be complete with the fix. Thanks!

Baby Bear

(To experience the bear at actual size, click his nose.)

Bizarro would like to wish you a Happy Easter, unless you're against Easter and resent being wished a happy of it. In that case, I wish you a happy, albeit insignificant, day.

Since Easter is full of fairy tale contradictions that don't make any sense together, like a magician who comes back from the dead and a giant bunny hiding decorated chicken eggs, this seems as good a cartoon as any to post today. I like this gag quite a bit, if I m...

Sick and Funny

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Thursday night was the big Comedy for Karma show at Gotham Comedy Club in NYC and it was a big success. According to all reports and reviews, everyone had a great time with the exception of me, and here's why.

A few hours before the show, on Thursday afternoon, I started to come down with a deadly illness of some kind. I felt feverish, nauseous, a little dizzy, achy all over, and weak. Yay! Just how you want to feel when trying to make a roomful of...

Fly Crimes and Misdemeanors

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Today's cartoon is a collaboration between my friend, Richard Cabeza and I. We were discussing how short fly's lives are and then came to the idea of appropriate jail terms. We didn't actually bother to look up the lifespan of the common housefly, of course, that would have been too much like work. One of the nice things about being a cartoonist is that nobody can really hold your feet to the flames about inaccuracies. "It's ...

Piraro Meets Larson

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Here is a completely true story that I don't believe I've ever mentioned in a public way before.

In 1981, I was 23 and working as a rookie ad designer for Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Tx. (Their headquarters, believe it or not.) I was drawing cartoons simply to entertain myself during downtime and my coworkers encouraged me to get them published. I hadn't seen a comics section of the newspaper in years and thought there was no pl...

Facing It

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One of my father's-in-law and I were driving through Florida recently, saying things with our mouths and we came across this idea of having your eye teeth dilated. So I made a comic about it. I'm blessed with funny in-laws all around, so it's fun to visit CHNW's family.

I'm happy with the character who is speaking in this cartoon because he actually looks like he's thinking about the way his food tastes. Achieving the proper facial expression is im...

KOMEDY WITH A K

One more mention of the awesome comedy show I'm MCing in NYC this week. If you're in the area and you like funny things, this is the deal you want to see. All of our comics are headliners, you'll never see this many bigtime TV comics on the same stage again without having to wear a tuxedo. And ALL the money goes to rescued critters!

Dave Attel
Louis C.K.
Wyatt Cenac from The Daily Show
Lizz Winstead creator of The Daily Show
Gary Gulman
and ME.

Tickets, info, and more laughing pig pictures: http...