Bizarro | Naked Cartoonist

View Original

Truth to Power

Happy solstice, Jazz Pickles! According to a lot of mystic types from various cultures and disciplines going back thousands of years, this year’s solstice is particularly important because it begins a new era. Astrologists call it the Age of Aquarius. A band called The Fifth Dimension sang about this way back in 1969 but I guess it was too early to do anything about it so we just kept spiraling down into a self-made hell of disinformation and authoritarianism. Maybe now that it actually is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, we can start to turn this ship around. We shall see.

Returning to more immediate, domestic issues, I hope you’re not foolish enough to be gathering for the holidays in large, shouting groups like the one pictured above. This is no time to be sharing aerosolized spit droplets with relatives, no matter how hard-headed and in need of enlightenment they may be. Imagine if arguing with your dad about the veracity of a certain news channel led to his or your severe illness and possible death. Or, suppose you have a very satisfying, saliva-launching donnybook with your Tucker-Carlson-groupie brother-in-law, and six weeks later your sweet, elderly Aunt Ruthie, who doesn’t know Tucker Carlson from Tucks Hemororhid Pads, drops dead from COVID that you didn’t realize you’d picked up on the way there. This kind of outcome could ruin your holidays, so be smart and keep your spit to yourself. That’s all I’m saying.

I’m not one to expect gifts on holidays but I’ve gotten a few nice things already from some of you Jazz Pickles and I want to thank you. Robin Koontz, a long-time JP and a patron of Peyote Cowboy posted some very nice words about how much she’s enjoying my story. As a result, PeyCow picked up a few more email subscriptions and Patreon patrons— I love that kind of help from my Jazz Pickles! And a hootenanny shout-out is due to Erik Marcus of vegan.com who encouraged his followers to have a look at PeyCow. Thanks, Erik! I got an uptick in traffic from your tweet and some new patrons!

AND WHAT ABOUT THIS?!

As we may have mentioned once or twice, we're going to celebrate the New Year with a new Secret Symbol. We're inviting readers to offer guesses and suggestions. We're inviting you to post an image on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #BizarroSymbol2021. You can also leave your ideas as a comment on this post. Eight readers will be randomly selected to receive a special Bizarro prize.
Next weekend, we'll reveal the new symbol, so everyone can watch for it on New Year's Day. We'll contact the prizewinners in January, and send out the prizes later in the month.

Here’s hoping that all of you who grace our pages with your seeballs have a meaningful holiday this year. I’ll be thinking about how grateful I am to have so many readers who enjoy thinking around the same corners that I do. May the Age of Aquarius be good to us all.

“And with a tap of his finger to the side of his nose full of jelly, there arose such a clatter of Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons from the week…” —’Twas the Blog Before Christmas

If you’ve ever wondered what Wayno’s band sounds like, over on his weekly cartoon blog he features a Christmas song by the very same.

This one makes me chuckle out loud. #col

Don’t have too many cubs, though. It could turn into a pandamic. (Yay! I got one more use out of that pun!)

I almost flunked that class in my graduate program on yard ornaments.

For a smile, google pictures of people taking pictures in front of the leaning tower of Pisa.

The look on this cat’s face reminds me that we’ve evacuated our cartoon colon for the week. Thanks for sticking around to kick sand on it, Jazz Pickles. If you appreciate what we do and that we do it free, without paywalls or ads, maybe consider dropping a nickel into one of the links below. We’ll thank you mightily, especially as we stand on the street corner in the snow on Christmas Eve selling pencils.

Till next time, remember: even if you’ve never liked graphic novels, you might like mine. It’s different on purpose. Happy holidays!

BIZARRO SHOP We have new stuff in the shop that’s fun and cheap!

… Bizarro TIP JAR

Signed, numbered, limited edition prints and original Bizarro panels  

PEYOTE COWBOY WEBSITE

PeyoteCowboy on Facebook

Peyote Cowboy Instagram

DIEGO PIRARO FINE ART

Bizarro Cartoons on Instagram 

King Features Subscription + archive access