Self Driving
As I’ve mentioned here before, for the last several months I’ve been working on a graphic novel. It’s a story of magical realism in the Old West and being immersed in it for so long has caused even more Old West-themed cartoons to pop up in my Bizarro Sundays than usual. This one was the result of a chat about self-driving cars with my friend, Brian Levy of Dallas. Thanks, Brian!
Back to my graphic novel: I first got the idea four years ago, before I moved to Mexico. Three characters and the opening few scenes came to me out of nowhere, when I wasn’t even trying to write anything, and so I began typing. I had a lot of fun with the opening scenes, but no idea where the story would or should go. None whatsoever. Still, I had a sense that something was trying to be born and it felt like it wanted to be a graphic novel.
I’d tried to write longer works like this before but had never been “inspired” in the way this story inspired me from its first flickers of ideas. In the past, my grueling schedule of writing, drawing, coloring, formatting, and posting seven Bizarro cartoons every week would always sink a big writing project, just for lack of spare time. And this project was no exception. Shortly after the idea came to me, we decided to move to Mexico which was an enormous, year-long project of its own.
After we moved, I was overwhelmed with getting accustomed to life in a foreign country, so the story stayed in my back pocket. A year later, I semi-retired Bizarro and turned my weekday cartoons over to my amazing partner, Wayno. But instead of returning to my story, I began doing new paintings for an art show I had scheduled at a gallery here.
After all of that was over, the muse returned and began clubbing me over the head so I dug the story out after three years, read what I’d written so far, and this time it took off. For several months now, I’ve been doing nothing but hammering away at it every chance I get. I’m still a few weeks away from sharing it, but I’m almost finished with the (huge!) story part and will begin doing the art and serially posting it soon.
Accordingly, I will need a new website dedicated to this story and am currently looking for someone to build it for me. I don’t have a lot of money to put into it so I’m hoping some Bizarro fan who is a good web designer might be interested in working with me on it at a reduced rate. If you’re that person or know someone who might be interested, please let me know!
In the meantime, let’s see what the muses have been inspiring Wayno to do in his Bizarro cartoons this week…
It’s more aerodynamic, too.
As usually happens when we publish a cartoon that shows a cop being less than supernaturally heroic, we got a complaint from somebody who thinks that all cops are heroes and any mention of their fallibility is sacrilege. I fully understand that the vast majority of American police officers—like the general population—are probably reasonably honest and don’t pose a threat to the people they interact with. I also understand that—just like the general population—there are crooked, racist, dangerous cops who commit crimes with a better-than-average chance of not getting caught. This cartoon isn’t about cops as much as it is an excuse to show Ben Franklin using a $100 bill as a form of I.D. to his benefit.
It is at times like this that I am reminded of the astute words of one of my favorite political minds, Al Franken. Paraphrased, it goes something like this: It is better to love your country the way an adult loves somebody, not like a child loves its mommy. Right-wing Republicans tend to love America like a child loves its mommy, where everything Mommy does is okay and anyone who disputes that is evil. But adult love means you’re not in denial, you see your loved one for who they are and you want them to be the best they can be.
I feel that way about cops and every other public official. All are flawed, none are perfect, some are corrupt and the longer you pretend that’s not true, the more corrupt they become.
Wayno has a somewhat different, more humorous (and less wordy) take on this piece of angry mail. Pop over to his weekly cartoon blog post and enjoy it but don’t forget to come back!
I’m afraid that if he whips out a PowerPoint presentation, that scheming doll is going to kill him in his sleep.
After taking all of those out for an MRI, his brain scan must look like a piece of Swiss cheese.
How very presidential of her.
Spoiler alert: She ends up buying one that has a hidden compartment for storing peas.
We’ve come to the end of this week’s cartoon cattle drive, Jazz Pickles. Thanks for coughing through the dust. If you like what we do and that we do it for free—without a paywall or ads—please consider tossing us a crumb via one of the links below. Every little bit helps to keep our pocket tins full of chaw.
Until next time, be smart, be nice, be happy, and resist ignorance and Trumpism.
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