Dan Piraro
Encyclopedia
Bizarro (comic strip)
Bizarro is a single-panel cartoon written and drawn by cartoonist Dan Piraro. Launched January 22, 1985, the panel appears daily in 350 markets throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia...
. Piraro's cartoons have been reprinted in 15 book collections between 1986 and the present.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Piraro was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, where he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1976.
He dropped out of Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
. He lived in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, for many years and currently resides in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
with his wife, Ashley Lou Smith. Syndicated since 1985, Bizarro was appearing in 250 papers by 2006.
Political views
Piraro describes himself as "liberal and progressive politically". His cartoons have occasionally drawn some complaints about his politics, as in 2005, when a cartoon he drew in support of gay marriage was sent to all papers publishing the color version without an alternative caption he had intended to supply to papers wishing to avoid the issue.In 2002, Piraro became a vegan. His activism is visible in Bizarro, often incorporating vegan and animal cruelty themes into his cartoons. Piraro has also incorporated an entire section devoted to veganism on his website, detailing his reasons for becoming a vegan and other vegan-related information.
In 2007, Piraro designed a limited edition T-shirt for endangeredwear.com to raise money for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, a non-profit organization committed to ending the systematic abuse of animals used for food.
In a 2011 interview with This Land Press
This Land Press
This Land Press is Oklahoma's first New Media company based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was founded by Michael Mason, an Oklahoma-born author, journalist, and editor....
, Piraro discussed some of the troubles he faced as a liberal growing up in Tulsa, OK.
Awards
Since 2001, Piraro has toured the U.S. with his one-man comedy show, The Bizarro Baloney Show, which won the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival's award for Best Solo Show.Piraro received the National Cartoonists Society
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
's Panel Cartoon Award for 1999, 2000 and 2001. Beginning in 2002, Piraro was nominated every year for the National Cartoonists Society
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
’s Reuben Award, as Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, and he finally was given a Reuben Award in 2010. Cartoonist-illustrator Steve Greenberg commented:
- Perhaps they finally gave him the award to get him off the ballot after so many consecutive years on it; the rule (at least since multiple-winner Bill Watterson’s Calvin and HobbesCalvin and HobbesCalvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his...
) for the Reuben Award is once-only per creator. In any event, this is overdue recognition of a strip that is among the best drawn (for me, up there with 9 Chickweed Lane9 Chickweed Lane9 Chickweed Lane is an American comic strip written and drawn by Brooke McEldowney following the fortunes of the women of three generations of the Burber family — Edna, Juliette, and Edda — as they try to make their way in the world. 9 Chickweed Lane is the address of their former family home. ...
and Non SequiturNon Sequitur (comic strip)Non Sequitur is a comic strip created by Wiley Miller in 1992 and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate to over 700 newspapers...
) and inventive (for me, up there with LiōLioLio is a singer and actress who was a pop icon in France and Belgium during the 1980s.- Biography :...
and Zits). Bizarro has also given the world of comic strips signature icons, such as his ongoing placements of eyeballs, pieces of pie, aliens in space ships and somewhat menacing bunnies. It’s the comics world’s closest brush with the world of surrealist paintings (and by the way, Piraro is an excellent surrealist painter as well). To me, Bizarro hits heights of offbeat creativity and daily surprises that haven’t been seen since Gary LarsonGary LarsonGary Larson is the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to newspapers for 15 years. The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995. His 23 books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than 45 million...
and his The Far SideThe Far SideThe Far Side is a popular single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from January 1, 1980, to January 1, 1995. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world,...
panel. And speaking of panels, Piraro is one of the few creators who makes his daily offering into both a horizontal comic-strip space and a squarer panel format in order to fit more newspapers’ space needs.
Books
- Bizarro (1986) ISBN 0-87701-402-7
- Too Bizarro (1988) ISBN 0-87701-536-8
- Mondo Bizarro (1989) ISBN 0-87701-711-5
- Sumo Bizarro (1990) ISBN 0-87701-774-3
- Glasnost Bizarro (1990) ISBN 0-87701-693-3
- Post-Modern Bizarro (1991) ISBN 0-87701-854-5
- Best of Bizarro (1992) ISBN 0-8118-0276-0
- Best of Bizarro II (1994) ISBN 0-8118-0771-1
- Bizarro #9 (1995) ISBN 0-8362-0430-1
- Bizarro #10 (1996) ISBN 0-8362-2235-0
- Bizarro Among the Savages: A Relatively Famous Guy's Experiences on the Road and in the Homes of Strangers (1997) ISBN 0-8362-2173-7
- Life Is Strange and So Are You: A Bizarro Sunday Treasury (2001) ISBN 0-7407-1848-7
- The Three Little Pigs Buy the White House (2004) ISBN 0-312-33074-X
- Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro (2006) ISBN 0-8109-9221-3
- Bizarro Buccaneers: Nuttin' but Pirate Cartoons (2008) ISBN 0-7407-7740-8
