Challenging Perspectives
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic. Each week, I post my Sunday Bizarro comic, a short essay, and then the past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics written and drawn by my partner Wayno, whose weekly blog post I highly recommend.
And here’s this week’s ANSWER KEY to my Sunday comic’s Secret Symbols.
Welcome, Jazz Pickles. It’s good to imagine seeing you.
This week’s Sunday comic (above) was a metric butt-load of fun to draw. Like most adolescents (and all recreational drug enthusiasts), I’ve LOVED the art of M. C. Escher since I was a teenager and still do. His work was a major influence on my thought processes as a young artist, and I attribute some of my development as a draftsman to attempting to emulate his work.
As a cartoonist, I’ve parodied Escher’s work many times. His work is a dual threat in that it is not just fascinating to view, but chock full of metaphor and philosophy.
My cartoon today is a mash-up of many of Escher’s famous images, and from the detail below, we can easily see how it can mirror the different ways individuals experience life.
Note how merely flipping the image over can change its meaning.
Depending on one’s perspective, we see a white character running down a stairway, or a black character running up one. And notice that your brain makes it a legitimate, functional stairway from either direction. From only one perspective, it is tempting to think there is only one way to see it.
This illustrates what art and other forms of creativity do best: They help us to see life in new ways. The most successful creative efforts challenge our core beliefs which helps us build character depth.
Here is one of my favorite Escher satires from years past. What does it say to you? (Yes, that is Olive Oyl and I making a cameo in the bottom corner.)
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One sure way to build character depth is to order our new Bizarro-themed holiday ornaments. Wayno and I designed these especially for you to hang on a tree, a menorah, the rear-view mirror of your car, or as a necklace for the life-size skeleton you have not taken down since Halloween.
You can also sling them at a ninja and watch them duck before they realize they do not have razor-sharp points like throwing stars. Let the holiday hilarity begin!
(Please note: These are from King Features' shop, not ours. We do not control the prices of the products or shipping. We DO get a cut of the purchase price, however, so you can consider each purchase a holiday gift to us. Thanks!)
Time now to have our perspectives challenged by Wayno’s Bizarro comics from the week…
Finally, some figures that move slowly enough to be caught by shuffling zombies.
Luckily, his limited vocabulary of mostly grunts includes the word, “dude.”
I love that snow-spider almost as much as I love the snow-alien on the horizon.
Rumor has it that this cartoon inspired an erectile dysfunction ad currently in production.
Unless I was a vampire, working at a place like that would erode my self-image immeasurably.
He’s already been banned from all of the miniature golf courses with windmills.
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That’s the shape of things this week, Jazz Pickles. Thanks for looking our way. We’ll keep doing this as long as you keep giving a tinker’s dam. Supporting our efforts via the links below will help to ensure that, and we’ll love you like a smitten teenager for it.
The Naked Cartoonist…My weekly subscription newsletter of humorous creative writing, photos, art, & more.
… Bizarro TIP JAR One-time or repeating. Your choice!
WAYNO’S TIP JAR One-time or repeating. Your choice!
My graphic novel PEYOTE COWBOY
…Signed, numbered, limited-edition prints and original Bizarro panels
COMICS KINGDOM SHOP (now with Bizarro products!)