Thursday, November 27, 2008

Bilboard Romance

Bizarro has been brought to you today by Strange Lovers.

I got the idea for this cartoon from one of those public marriage proposals that you come across from time to time. As I was drawing it and trying to decide what names to use, I thought about how much fun readers have seeing their own lives, situations, names, etc., in the comics. So I did a quick Google search and picked two of the most popular names for people who are currently in their late twenties. (Popular baby names for years 1979-1983)

Anyway, as soon as the cartoon published, I got waves of email from people who knew a Mike and Jen who were getting married, recently married, dating eternally and never getting married, who wanted to get a signed print or buy the original art for a wedding gift, or what have you. I love it when I bother to think ahead and it actually works.

So congrats to Mike and Jen, wherever you are, here's hoping (all of) you have a long and happy marriage.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorite posts ever lol...

Jenifer said...

Yes, we are one of those M&J couples.

I (Jenifer) have recently been teasing my husband, Michael, because his proposal wasn't nearly as romantic as the ones we've been watching on the TV shows and in the movies. He proposed while sitting behind me going down the Splash Mountain log ride at Disneyland (while overlooking the Matterhorn at night). (Okay, that is somewhat romantic.)

Maybe he feared your exact scenario.

Luckily none of that happened. No declining dirigible from me.

We celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary and our 27th year together on New Year's Eve.

munchy365 said...

That is pure genious, picking the two most common names.

Jym said...

=v= I wonder whether Tony Carrillo did research to choose the name "Jennifer" in this strip:

http://comics.com/f_minus/2007-09-02/

Gerald Saul said...

Dear Dan, I live in the wilds of Canada where humour has not been invented yet. Instead of your comic, our newspaper prints comics like the Chuckle Brothers http://www.creators.com/comics/chuckle-bros.html. Can you please explain to us how to establish standards?

Anonymous said...

Very funny!
And as a swedish fan I really liked that you linked the "public marriage proposals" to a public marriage proposal in swedish. (For all you non-swedes, it says: 'Sara I love you - will you marry me?'
Thanks Dan!

Rebecca C. Brown said...

Eek. Public proposals make me squirm. "Hey, girlfriend, I'm going to propose to you in public such that, if you say no, you'll be booed and scorned by your peers!" Blech.

isee3dtoo said...

Jym: I love that Carrillo strip.

Piraro said...

Jym,
I like that Carillo strip, too. Very funny, wish I'd thought of it.

Gerald,
You're right, that strip isn't very good. I browsed through the archives a bit and didn't find anything particularly funny. You could always write to the comics editor of your paper and ask them to print Bizarro instead. Or, you could move to civilization. :)

agony said...

We have Chuckle Bros in our paper too, and no, it's not very funny. About every two weeks, it's worth a mild smile, and it's actually made me laugh, I dunno, once? in the few years they've been running it. However, we ALSO get Bizarro, plus Argyle Sweater (another rarely-funny one panel) and Cornered, which can be OK.

I've found newspapers are pretty responsive to reader comments about the funnies, so it's worth dropping them a line. Of course, they've got to balance out the requests they get for Bizarro with the requests not to lose Crankshaft or Peanuts reruns, so you can't be sure what they'll do...

Penny Mitchell said...

Jenifer, our anniversary is New Year's Eve, too! Number 25 is coming up, which is unreal. It honestly doesn't seem like it's been that long.

Happy Anniversary to you guys!

Anonymous said...

"I like that Carillo strip, too. Very funny, wish I'd thought of it."

Dan, is there a difference in your mind between re-drawing a strip by another professional and branding it "Bizarro" and doing the same thing with the work of young, struggling artists?

Anonymous said...

Fran,
Did you see the strip by Carillo? Its nothing like Dan's take.

GAlcidesS said...

Fail!