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.

FIRST: The bunny shadow in the cartoon above does not count as a Secret Symbol because it isn’t the right kind of bunny. (If you want to count it, go ahead, but there will still be eight more to find, as the number above my signature indicates.)

Welcome, humor seekers. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us.

Before I was syndicated, I assumed published cartoonists were rich. I assumed erroneously.

The vast majority of us are not, and most of us have second jobs or do a lot of freelance things. As the newspaper industry goes the way of landlines and Blockbuster video stores, it’s gotten much worse. Those of us without merchandising empires or animated TV versions of our cartoons are looking to replace our income, which was never huge in the first place.

I’m not averse to charity, which is why I have a Tip Jar, but I far prefer to provide services people will want to pay for. And I try to keep them well within the affordable range.

One such effort is my weekly subscription newsletter The Naked Caroonist. It isn’t full of news, as “newsletter” implies, it’s an article emailed to you each Friday with my humorous take on life and some philosophy for better living thrown in. Most of my articles also include cartoons, illustrations, and/or photos.

A recent one is titled “Damned Humor” and is a fun look at objections I’ve gotten from readers over certain cartoons. It begins:

“One thing nearly forty years as the cartoonist behind Bizarro has taught me is that there are plenty of people who think that humor can damn you to hell.”

When my cartoons include a light-hearted jab at religion or a humorous version of God, I am often scolded with reprimands such as,

“God is not a laughing matter, and when you are burning in hell, you will be sorry.”

My goodness. Really? I go on to respectfully disagree and assert that humor is the greatest gift we possess. Without it, life would be unbearable. You might even say it would be “hell.”

Later in the article, I say,

“If there is a force that created the entire universe and it possesses human personality traits, surely those traits would be the best that a person could imagine, not the worst. Nobody likes a humorless prig. (Except, perhaps, other humorless prigs.) If you believe in an all-knowing and all-powerful God, is it logical to attribute traits to it such as “insecure” and “touchy”? Wouldn’t an omniscient God be above that?”

And also,

“The thought that an omnipotent entity responsible for everything known to exist would be emotionally feeble enough to be offended by a joke is fairly terrifying.”

The article includes a handful of the cartoons I’m purportedly going to be sorry for. Like this one.

My subscribers have been enthusiastic. Here’s G.J.’s comment on this story:

“Thank you again for your honesty, thoughts and many well-considered insights—they are often affirming, always illuminating and especially fun!”

For a mere $5 a month (cheap!), you can read all 35 of the articles I’ve posted so far and will recieve a new one each Friday for as long as you like. You can unsubscribe at any time, of course. More samples here and sign-up info is here. 

If you should feel like supporting my efforts, I would most definitely feel grateful for your generosity. 

Let’s move on to my award-winning partner Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons from the week!

When she wears a Garfield mask, it thinks she’s god.

I’m waiting for boomerang to be an Olympic event.

When Jack pops up, Mr. Potato Head shoots his facial features across the room. 

I have a good friend who spent 15 years in prison. I am often glad I was not him.

The line of cars to get into the festival spirals around the beanstalk all the way to the ground.

Chomping on steel is why robot restaurants are so noisy.

(Thanks to my buddy Cliff Harris for suggesting this gag!)

That concludes our robot brunch special for today. Thanks for helping us clean the oil off the seats. If you like us as much as we like you and want to help us keep this site free, please consider the links below. We’ll appreciate 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!)

My wife, Olive Oyl’s, art, writing, and photography