Bizarro | Naked Cartoonist

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More Puzzles

SPOILER ALERT: The answers to the puzzles above are at the end of this post in bold.*

A few weeks ago, I published a Sunday cartoon with three word puzzles and they were so well received that I rushed to get another one in the lineup. And here it is, Jazz Pickles. As promised. 

Many readers recognized it as the same puzzle format as a children’s book from the mid-1900s by William Steig called CDB. My good friend and occasional joke-writing partner over the years, Cliff Harris, has expounded greatly on the format and written much more complex puzzles than appeared in Steig’s books, three of which make up today’s cartoon, above. He and I are putting together a whole book of these so if you’re a fan of these puzzles, keep your fingers crossed that a publisher decides to bite!

Cliff originally wrote an entire story in this style but although publishers were initially interested, they decided it was too complex for a story and we were unable to sell it. The image below is one of the sample illustrations I did for it. The style I used is different from my Bizarro drawings and I really loved doing it. I hope I’ll get to use it for something else one day.

If you’re having trouble solving this one, I’ve put the answer to it at the end of this blog, after the answers to the three at the top of this post.**

Now let’s find out what has been puzzling Wayno in this week’s cartoons from Bizarro Studios North…

I’ll be using a hydrogen balloon, so please, no smoking.

The licensing team (me) at Bizarro International Headquarters (my house) is currently accepting proposals from game manufacturers. I expect our version of Fantasy Paintball will be available by Christmas, 2022.

This is from the story of Beardpunzel, of course. At least it isn’t flowing out of his shirtsleeves.

One of the many fringe benefits of this job is the unusual mail we get about certain cartoons. Wayno got a weird one about this cartoon above, which he shares in detail on his weekly cartoon blog post today. There’s other fun stuff in his post this week, too, and an awesome Weekly Pipe Pic!

Wayno and I were called out for the inaccurate shape of the trucks on this skateboard. Next time, we’ll be sure to flip our boards over and get a good look instead of trying to draw them from memory.

I can’t help but imagine them buttoning the coat and the mouse sticking his nose out between the buttons.

AS PROMISED, HERE ARE THE ANSWERS TO THE WORD PUZZLES ABOVE:

*1. Jennifer Aniston! “Ellen DeGeneres!” “I won an Emmy!” “I won one, too!”

2. Fievel is a rat!  

3. “Do you want to be an accessory to a felony?” “Alrighty.”

**Sample Book Illustration: “I am curious. Are you a sailor?” “I am a seasick sailor.”

That marks the end of our puzzlement, Jazz Pickles. Thanks for helping us find the answers. If you like the things we say and do here and that we don’t torture you with bullshit pop-up ads and clickbait about meaningless distractions, please consider saying thanks via one of the links below. Now that newspapers are disappearing down the historical timeline, we depend on reader support to keep oil in the lanterns at Rancho Bizarro.

Until next time, remember that 90% of marriage is yelling “What?” from another room.

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