Manboys
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. He does a weekly blog post, too, and I highly recommend it.
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If you’ve followed Bizarro for a while, you know that I’ve done a lot of cartoons about the Old West and cowboys in general. I’ve also worn outlandish cowboy shirts quite a lot for a few decades now and since moving to Mexico, have added the occasional cowboy hat and very pointy boots. I try not to look too much like I’m trick-or-treating, but I’m guessing I sometimes fail.
And my fascination with the topic hasn’t ended there. I wrote a lengthy graphic novel about the Old West called, Peyote Cowboy, and I’m posting it serially online as I illustrate it. Being that I’m a city-dwelling, politically-progressive, supporter-of-major-gun-control type who has never lived on a farm or ranch, and has only ridden horses a couple dozen times in his life, one might be tempted to think it a strange obsession. Actually, it makes perfect sense.
I was a little kid in the 60s and the majority of adventure shows and movies back then were westerns. Space dramas hadn’t really caught on in a big way yet so outside of Superman episodes on TV, there weren’t many other kinds of adventure heroes outside of comic books. So instead of being obsessed with Transformers or Luke Skywalker, it was guys on horses with funny clothes and big hats. That might describe a gay porn film nowadays, but back then it was cool.
So it isn’t actual, modern-day cowboys that I’ve aligned with—though I’ve met a handful of very cool real Mexican cowboys down here in the past few years—it’s an early childhood imprint that I can’t seem to shake. Plus, cowboys and the Old West are tons of fun to lampoon. I’ve truly enjoyed poking fun at my imaginary heroes in Bizarro and I’m enjoying the hell out of the magic realism treatment that I’m giving the topic in Peyote Cowboy.
I’ll be posting a new episode called, “Swear to Chicken” this coming week, in fact. It is going to be the start of our hero’s second day in the weird town he’s stuck in (Los Pecadores) and the art below is a sneak peek of the opening panel. I’m really pleased with the way it turned out so I’m anxious to share it with you.
Let’s trot the horses on over to Wayno’s General Humor Store and see what he has on sale this week…
When he’s having problems of this sort, he consults a herologist.
Super handy when you have to pee in the middle of the night and you can’t find the ocean.
In his blog post this week, Wayno recounts an unexpected conversation about this night light in the comments section. Our readers never fail to surprise us. He also has some fun lighthouse history to share that includes a couple of great pipe pics and an enviable beard and mustache.
Why wear a big, heavy, metal hat when you can say it all with a belt buckle?
This could be a new Jewish Easter tradition like Chinese food on Christmas.
That Baby Oyl will come in handy should Swee’Pea ever start squeaking.
Power to the peephole!
That concludes the humorous conclusion to our week of cartoon conclusions. Thanks for sticking around long enough to shake your head at that previous sentence. If you’re enjoying the things we share here for free, without ads or paywalls, we’d love for you to visit the links below and help us keep it this way. Our hearts ache to thank you for your generosity.
Until next week, be aware that your neighbor may feel about your music the way you feel about their defective muffler.
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