The Beginning of the...?

Things are changing for me. I just finished up almost a year of unemployment, but I have a contract position that should turn into a job now. Never say always, though, especially if you’re not good at most things – nothing’s ever certain.

For we who inhabit the cartooning world, 2004 may well be remembered as the year of Dan Piraro.  Piraro is the Reuben-Award winning cartoonist of Bizarro (best panel three years in a row), and in a few short days, he will be attending the Reuben Awards again, this time nominated for "Best Overall Cartoonist". He’s also got a successful book out and has organized a political comedy show tour.

And when Comixtalk asked him for an interview, he was gracious enough to say yes.

BoxJam Does Boffo! (Interview-style, That Is)

Joe Martin has produced 30,000 individual strips, by his count, has Mr. Boffo, Cats With Hands, and Willy 'n' Ethel in current production, and produces other strips as well. He does all these without collaborators. He's been able to keep all his strips among the consistently funniest around, and his productivity has landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records.

He's also written other strips, he paints, he writes books, he writes songs, and has written for TV. We didn't ask, but he probably writes ballets and operas as well.

Hey Everyone and Your Mother!

Hey everyone and your mother – fuck you!

Why can't I offend you?

I wish I could piss people off. I've had kids playing crucifixion, had God say that every religion was wrong – I even said that God hates Danes – and nothin'. I made fun of addiction. I've made every Canadian joke there is – damned Canucks are too easy going, I guess. I just don't seem to be able to set people off.

Smurf Passover! Offended yet?

Here's a survival scenario for humans (or whatever sentient species we have become, or has replaced us) in a couple of billion years, when it gets too hot to live here on earth. I'm going with the assumption that interstellar space travel is either impossible or very, very sucky.

We're going to build our own star.

I had to make a phone call today to the town of Hawthorne, California – yes, to the town itself. The woman who acted as the town's agent was disappointed to talk to me. I'm shutting down a store in a famous chain there.

Well, here goes. I thought long and hard about this, trying to decide if it was appropriate for a column, and then I came to a carefully thought-out decision based on the fact that my column was due last week.

Breaking Out of The Norm by Use of Penguin

This month I thought I'd do something out of the ordinary, and write a column about comics.

I know, I know...a Blue View column about comics? It surprised me, too, but I heard Berke Breathed's got a new comic debuting on November 23rd, and I wanted to write about it.

It's gonna suck.

I've decided what I want to be when I grow up – a successful, but misunderstood comedian whose professional laughs hide a life of personal woe, and who, after a time, confuses his own persona with that of his public one. I think it'll be a fresh way to hit the comedy world, and a totally non-cliche life story to be remembered for.

Can you imagine?

As I write this, Life Assessment Day (also here) is fast approaching. I also don't have a job.

Life Assessment Day, among other things, involves creating/updating a list of ten things one most wants to do before they die. You don't need a yearly day, of course – I encourage you to sit and come up with the ten things you most want to accomplish in this mortal coil. It's exhilarating.

Does 'get a job' go to the top of things I most want in life before I die?