Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Chalk Art

Today's Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by the Lascaux, France Chamber of Commerce.

Perhaps not one of my best comics ever, but it was done during a time a couple months ago when I was having a lot of personal problems and my head was a mess, so I think it's perfectly acceptable. I mentioned this "rough patch" on a few earlier blogs and a lot of you wrote to me with support, which was very appreciated. The worst thing about being a cartoonist (and I fully admit there are not many bad things about this job and I feel quadruply blessed to be making a living at it) is trying to come up with material when you're suffering. Whether you've got double-barreled flu, your dog just died, or your wife ran off with a transvestite, sitting down to be funny on days like that is like a cold water enema.

But back to the subject at hand, I'm a fan of cave paintings. They are among the earliest examples of the human compulsion to create. Though they are primitive by definition, they are, in my opinion, among the most sophisticated efforts at animal renderings ever created. The creators of these works understood so much more about their ecosystem than you or I could ever hope to. They were up to their eyeballs in it, it crawled into their beds at night, it lived in their hair. Knowledge of the flora and fauna they lived among was a matter of life or death.

And we have Animal Planet.

If future archaeologists find only one piece of art that I have drawn about my life, I hope it's the bottle of scotch and cigar that I drew with chalk on the sidewalk in front of my building. Some loves last forever.

12 comments:

doug nicodemus said...

they ran the cyclops one in the sj-r today so i am assuming you are in a much better mood. it was silly and it is hard to be silly when you are bummed. continued best wishes from me.

i have always said commedy can be dangerous...so keep your guard up at all times.

julie said...

CHNW ran off with a transvestite?!? Oh noes!!

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Definitely not one of your best comics ever.

derekamalo said...

Todays comic charliE brownhorse now thats funny shit...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

B.A.D. said...

Cold water enema, eep.

HollyBerry said...

even when your comics aren't knee-slappers, i consider the lameness to be part of the joke. this one is a great example of that. it's one of those jokes that makes you hit your forehead with the palm of your hand, letting out more of a "pffffhh" kinda noise. you know the one. it makes you feel like you're in the audience, watching the guy make a fool of himself. it's very enveloping. anyhoo, have a great day mr. p!

Bloody Rox said...

Can someone explain this gag? I think I'm too retarded to figure it out...

A very sheepish thanks.

julie said...

bloody rox: caveman standup comedy

rhea delisle said...

Ha, I had a thought today that if someone asked me which period in history created the best art I was going to say Lascaux.

Piraro said...

bloody rox: an old standard line for stand-up comics is to say "I killed 'em." This being the stone age, he says "fossilized". Nothing more than that, I'm afraid.

Anonymous said...

Plays on words, puns... that's about all you're gonna get with Bizarro.

Anonymous said...

Holy crap I think I used to have that "How and Why Wonder Book of Primitive Man" when I was a kid. Wow! Step into the throwback machine...