Classical Vernacronyms

The Best of 2023 + Reader Q&A

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Happy Saturday, Dear Readers.

By now, we’ve heard what the groundhog has to say about the change of seasons, but we must question whether Punxsutawney Phil can take into account the damage done to Earth’s climate by its human inhabitants.

As usual, we have a new blog entry posted for your enjoyment.

I’ve uploaded gags for the week leading up to Easter weekend and am getting started on April. Fair Warning: on April 1, I usually sign the panel with a ridiculously incorrect symbol count.

The recently completed panels featured multiple Easter bunnies, a Victorian surgery theater, the Grim Reaper, another exorcism, and fairy-tale princesses.

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Looking Ahead + Looking Back at 2023

Here’s a peek at those princesses hanging out at the royal pub.

Our look back is a review of the cartoons I submitted to the National Cartoonists Society for their annual Reuben Awards, in the Newspaper Panels Division. Reviewing more than three hundred cartoons to pick eight entries is never easy. I have some favorites, but those might not always be the best choices to submit. Fortunately, many newsletter subscribers and readers of the blog helped me choose.

Of course, I then felt I had to sequence them. Here are the eight gags you and I ultimately selected, in order of submission:

I had to start with this surreal wordless panel, which is my personal favorite.

Number 2 was a goofy but satisfying pun.

I followed up with a verbose Neanderthal gag. We usually try to use as few words as possible, but in this case, the first line of dialog contrasts well with the payoff.

My fourth entry is a return to brevity. Placing a familiar phrase in an unexpected context can often result in a usable joke. Plus, I enjoy drawing anteaters.

Dan and I each do a lot of pirate-themed comics, and this slightly scatological joke made some of you laugh enough to suggest I include it. I remember working on this one and feeling that the map wasn’t quite enough on its own, but when I added the phrase “drop anchor” to the text, it made me laugh.

Last year’s Valentine’s Day comic was an ode to puppy love. Let’s hope the voters are unable to resist our wide-eyed chihuahua.

I had considered captioning this one WOOLEN GINSBERG but opted for the punchier BLEATNIKS, which quite a few hep cats & kittens dug.

Before choosing the final eight, I had pulled more than forty cartoons from 2023, including two Humpty Dumpty gags. I think the other one is also funny but ended up using this because I like the sound of a familiar phrase with one word changed.

Big thanks to everyone who sent me lists of their favorite Bizarro panels from last year. You were a great help.

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Q&A

Faithful Bizarro reader Linda C asks:

Do you listen to specific music while drawing, or not at all?

I listen to music while I work unless I’m writing gags. Writing seems to involve a part of my brain that’s easily distracted, especially by music. During the writing phase, I’ll sometimes wear headphones tuned to a site that offers white noise and a selection of other sounds to block out the real world.

When I’m drawing with pencil and ink on paper, scanning, and doing the digital touch-up, assembly, and coloring of panels and strips, I listen to a wide variety of music: jazz of all eras, blues, old string bands, rock & roll, some classical (of which I have limited knowledge), ambient, electronic, and experimental.

Music keeps me on task because I enjoy being enveloped in it and want to stay in that space. Here are just a few albums that are in regular rotation in the studio:

• Louis Armstrong: Chronological Classics 1931-1932

• Buzzcocks: Singles Going Steady

• Bonzo Dog Band: Tadpoles, The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse, etc.

• John Coltrane: A Love Supreme, Live at the Village Vanguard, etc.

• Miles Davis: Get Up With It, Jack Johnson, On the Corner, etc.

• Dr. Feelgood: Down By the Jetty

• Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)

• Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders/London Symphony Orchestra: Promises

• Fripp & Eno: No Pussyfooting

• Glenn Gould: Bach: The Goldberg Variations

• Joni Mitchell: Blue

• The Mothers: We’re Only In It For the Money, Uncle Meat

• The Port of Harlem Jazzmen

• Harry Reser: Banjo Crackerjacks 1922-1930

• Terry Riley: In C, A Rainbow in Curved Air

• Roy Smeck: Plays Hawaiian Guitar, Banjo, Ukulele and Guitar

• Tangerine Dream: Phaedra

• Allen Toussaint: The Complete Warner Brothers Recordings

• Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Frank’s Wild Years

• Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom, Ruth is Stranger Than Richard

• Frank Zappa: Grand Wazoo, Hot Rats, Lumpy Gravy

This hastily assembled list only scratches the surface. I could easily have added dozens more, including additional albums by the artists shown above.

I’m already rewriting this in my head, but I need to get back to work, so we’ll close out today’s massive missive.

Take a break today to listen to some of your favorite music or check out something new. Let me know what music motivates you, and I’ll give it a listen.

Here’s a treasured item from my collection:

Thanks for subscribing, and for reading my blog and comics.

Best wishes from your cartoonist,

Wayno

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