Ain’t No Snow Shovel
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic, and this is my weekly blog post. The large Sunday Bizarro comic above is mine, as are the comments below. The past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics that follow were 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.
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Hiya, Jazz Pickles!
After some time off at the beach, I’m back at Rancho Bizarro. It’s good to be home, though I miss the constant shushing sound of the waves. It was just the right pitch to mask my tinnitus.
A while back, I wrote and posted an article titled “My So-Called ‘Disability’ Turned Out to be My Greatest Asset,” which describes how something that hindered me in school and in relationships enabled my career as an artist, writer, and cartoonist.
I didn’t realize it until recently, but I’m on the autism spectrum. It disabled me to do some typical things but enabled me to do some atypical things, like cartoons.
Before this revelation, I knew very little about autism and neurodivergence beyond the severe cases portrayed in movies like Rain Man. But once I began reading about common symptoms and took a bunch of tests, it was a real eye-opener and explained so much about my life.
The big takeaway from that diagnosis is that I was able to use my “disabilities” to my benefit, and believe it or not, that’s not uncommon.
A lot of creative efforts grow from wounds caused by the sharper edges of life: art, cartoons, music, humor, writing, you name it. Somewhere out there are probably examples of embroidery inspired by someone’s PTSD.
Turning your so-called disabilities into strengths is a favorite topic of mine. And whenever I come across someone who does this particularly well, I like to share their efforts.
David Milgrim is one such artist and happens to be a cartoonist. I found him on Medium.com, but he’s also on Substack and Instagram. (@davidmilgrim)
David has struggled with depression and the crippling effects of childhood trauma for decades. But instead of hiding it and pretending to be as cool as Justin Timberlake in the VIP section of the hippest club in London, he’s poured his painful and confusing journey into his cartoons.
His work can be simultaneously funny, heart-wrenching, and enlightening. Here are the first two frames of one of Milgrim’s typical comic strips of personal hell-turned-into-genius.
Click either image to see the rest of the story.
There are as many approaches to humor as there are humans, and I appreciate any type that makes me smile. But I truly admire cartoons that can pluck my heartstrings as much as my funny bone the way Milgrim’s do.
Since our readers here are a cut above the average comics fan, I hope some of you clever JPs will follow and enjoy David’s work.
An approach to humor that always makes me smile is that of my talented partner in comedy, Wayno. Let’s curl our lips to his Bizarro cartoons from the week…
Finally, a tattoo that never fades. But it also doesn’t show up in mirrors.
“Bless you” seems an inappropriate response.
They laughed at Bella Legosi, too.
Would these be QAnon dentists by any chance?
Deep down, I always knew this.
Has he had his blood pressure checked?
Thus concludes this episode of the continuing adventures of what we do here. If you enjoy our work and would like to help us continue to offer it free of ads or a paywall, please peruse the links below. We’ll continue busting our knuckles on jokes for you as long as we can.
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