From as far back as I can remember, I have always gravitated towards humor to deal with life’s ups and downs. I got it from my father. My mom was always more practical and serious. My dad was forever finding something funny in the mundane, sharing jokes he’d heard with me and my brothers or making up his own silly gags. My favorite was waking up one morning and finding a note he left by a tube of some do-it-yourself patch-all product that had the catch phrase, “a little squirt does the job.” He had written, “Who are they calling a little squirt??” I read the comics in the paper, preferred comedies to dramas at the movies and even found humor books that I would read between science fiction novels and short stories. If the sci-fi incorporated some humorous element, all the better. In high school, I started reading National Lampoon and developed a taste for the more off-the-wall stuff, especially non-sequiturs. Below are a few of my faves from that era. John Caldwell was best known for his work for National Lampoon and Mad. M. K. Brown had her cartoons featured in National Lampoon, the New Yorker, Wimmen’s Comix and others. B. Kliban got his start doing cartoons for Playboy and went on to publish some fine collections of his work, including “Never Eat Anything Bigger than Your Head.” M. K. Brown and B. Kliban were married to each other early in their careers.

When I went to college, I started as a math major, but was excited about exploring all my other interests as well. Over the course of a year, I burned through all my electives, taking classes in music, art, astronomy, world religion, etc. and was looking at three more years of nothing but core math classes. I switched to engineering as a major and did the same thing for a year. I followed that with journalism as a major for a year and then English as a major for a year. Somewhere along the line, I got the idea that I could start cartooning, become rich and famous, and continue taking college courses for the fun of it. I bought a book on becoming a cartoonist, created a series of samples of my work and sent them, one at a time per instructions from the book, to all the magazines, etc. that I could find addresses for. Nothing came of it, mostly because I lost interest in it after a while and decided I was going to set the world on fire as a punk rocker. If I have any of the samples I did in the mid ‘70s, I don’t have the energy to locate and then look through all the boxes they might be in. Instead, I have recreated one I remember the gist of. 

I don’t remember when I became aware of Bizarro, but it was probably when the L.A. Times picked up the feature. The earliest reference I found to Bizarro running in the L.A. Times is from 2005. Bizarro was usually the cartoon I found to be the funniest of the day, but even if some other cartoon edged it out occasionally, the art was always a treat. It also tended to be edgier than the average cartoon and was definitely left-of-center. In fact, if anyone knew where the “Deep State” held their meetings, and what the secret handshake for entry was, the Bizarro cat, Dan Piraro was the most likely candidate. It seemed nothing was taboo for Bizarro and yet, nothing was so trite that Dan couldn’t put a fresh spin on it and milk some genuine laughs out of it. Along with a veritable plethora of gags about dogs and fire hydrants, crazy psychiatrists, man’s inhumanity to animals, castaways on desert islands and aging superheroes, there were even more one-off scenarios. There was the door-to-door Wikipedia salesman, mayhem on the floor of the New York Sock Exchange, angels watching the Earth explode and many, many others. Here is a random sampling of Dan’s craft from the era I most likely first became enamored of Bizarro.

The art was great to begin with, but got even better over time. The incredible flow of genius gags seemed inexhaustible. Dan also created a mystique by adding tiny little objects here and there that had nothing to do with the core cartoon. Or did they? Hmm… A slice of pie, a stick of dynamite and other objects and symbols were hidden throughout, Where’s Waldo style, with no explanation. There was also a distinctive character who showed up in the drawings from time to time, a wiry gent with a pork pie hat and a pointy mustache. Hmm… At some point my curiosity got the better of me and I started doing some digging online. I found the Bizarro blog and what a bonanza!! I realized that Dan is the spitting image of the character I’d admired in so many of his cartoons, or the other way around I suppose. I started reading Dan’s take on the week’s batch of cartoons and whatever else popped into his mind. He was every bit as wild-eyed, progressive and funny as I figured he must be. He also exhibited a strong streak of cynicism and orneriness. It was fascinating reading and added to my appreciation of his work. His blog included a link to the symbols and other inside jokes, such as referring to his fans as jazz pickles, and I became enlightened. I also learned that, while Dan did the majority of his cartoons based on ideas that arose from his own experiences and imagination, he also used other people’s ideas from time to time. Hmm… I approached him with some jokes and other silliness and was overjoyed when he said he’d like to use one. It was a joke I came up with many, many years before: Did you hear about the guy who could write with his butt? He had a number two pencil. I love the treatment Dan gave the core guffaw. Every now and then Dan used one of my ideas and I would get just as tickled as can be. My wife and Devine Fancy partner, Julia Devine, was my girlfriend at the time. She found out that Dan sold originals of some of his cartoons and contacted him about buying the next one he did of one of my ideas. Imagine my surprise when I got the paper one day, got all giddy when I saw Dan had used an idea I had sent him, and then Julia presented me with a gift of the very gag, framed, signed and inscribed with a message to me. Hoo Yeah!! We got to know Dan in person, went out for food and drinks a number of times and found him to be a warm and gracious friend. And funny as all hell! Here are the cartoons he did based on ideas I floated his way (I included one he came up with the idea for because he used Ms. Devine as the name of one of the characters shortly after we started hobnobbing with him):

We lost track of Dan or had trouble finding times we could all get together or something along those lines, years ago. He moved to Mexico and, according to random posts I’ve seen, is flourishing. A fellow idea guy who was giving Dan clever bits and doing his own respectable cartoons through the years is now doing the lion’s share of the daily Bizarro cartoons. The ones listed as being by Wayno and Piraro are drawn by Wayno and he either comes up with the gags or gets them from fans with humorous brain waves like Dan used to do. Dan is still doing the oversized Sunday cartoon. Dan and Wayno each do a blog so the cartoons are ruminated over and discussed from two perspectives. Dan recently started doing an online graphic serial that is out of this world! The full-color, eyeball-grabbing art is spell binding and the story so far is hair raising, edge of your seat fare. It’s called Peyote Cowboy and Dan is using the name Diego Piraro for this project. Do yourself a favor: click the link at your earliest convenience and immerse yourself in this alternate universe (I’ve included the title and a random representative image). Thank you, Dan for letting me join you in your wacky world for a while. I’ve got yet another for you if you’d care to run with it: A “holy” person is pontificating to a crowd. One of the flock asks another, “Wait! Does the Chosen One refer to us as the masses or them asses??” 

Edwin Letcher

June 27, 2021