Sunday, February 15, 2009

Land That Fashion Forgot

(To see a more huge version of this cartoon, click the right bug's left antenna.)

Bizarro today is brought to you in part by a grant from the Alliance of Unpopular Choir Members.

Here is a little drawing for the combover wearers among us, especially those with bugs in their hair. I wondered when I drew this if enough people would get that the scene was taking place on someone's head. Bizarro appears in other countries, and also I wonder if the term will translate sufficiently there. But I did it anyway, because that's the kind of crazy devil-may-care action-adventure type guy I am. It's also just another of the many reasons I'm not a millionaire. Not mainstream enough.

To help the image along, I added this title panel to the cartoon, but many newspapers don't use this header panel when they print my Sunday cartoon (because of space constraints), so it probably wasn't much help.

I've never understood the combover's appeal. How many people honestly think it fools others into thinking they still have hair there? How many think it is not fooling anyone, but looks better than bald skin? How many are actually fooling themselves into thinking there is still hair there?

I'm not a guy with a skull full of fur myself, so I am not without sympathy for the naked pated. Personally, I loathe both combovers and the look of very thin hair, so I've committed to shaving my head if my remaining hair gets thin enough that it looks unappealing to me. I have no idea how I'll look bald, my head may be the shape of a Silly Putty egg, but I think it is better than the alternatives. A Toupee, of course, is utterly out of the question, except in the context of Halloween. As are those places that sew a rug to your head.

On another note, thanks for all the responses yesterday concerning the super hero book vs. the cowboy book. So far, super heroes are winning. All of this, of course, hinges on whether a publisher is interested in either idea. Sometimes they just steer you in some other random direction and you're out of luck.

9 comments:

derekamalo said...

dan,

fill me in here if you may

i thought all a cartoonists books collections were automatic one year after they were in the newspapers..

far side, fox trot, garfield, family circus have all stuck to this pattern

i didnt fully understand your reference to getting a publisher to want it

why arent your collections dated and automatic

doug nicodemus said...

i vote for westerns

Unknown said...

I say go with "Heroes and Villains", and cover the good/evil/whatever cartoon conflict in both the old west and the comic book present/future.

Chriss Pagani said...

Does it ever bother you to see more and more Sunday comics turn into Bizarro knock-offs?

Seriously, dude, like Mother Goose & Grimm - which used to be about a dog, a cat and an old lady - has turned into... well, you know what it has turned into. And that isn't the only one. MG&G is in the top position in my paper (The Oregonian).

Does that ever grind your gears, Dan?

(btw, I'd have to vote for Superhero, too. I like the idea of low-rent, failed superheroes. It's just a thought).

Karl said...

Hair is kind of a weird thing and acts irrationally as you get older (personal experience speaking). It starts to disappear on the top of the head and then mysteriously reappears in places you don't want it to, like the ears, and nose.

Maybe someday, scientists can discover a way to redirect it back when it is more eye appealing.

Penny Mitchell said...

Captain Picard didn't need no stinking comb-over!

Anonymous said...

But what about Captain Kirk? He has a full hair piece now days. And Kirk was more a man than that frog Capt. Picard will ever be.

Karl said...

A an angry bald Brittney could kick both their a@@es.

Anonymous said...

pagani if you're gonna stroke dan please take it somewhere private