Friday, June 26, 2009

Mystery Solved [Sort of]

This is a Bizarro© cartoon.
The creator of these cartoons is Dan Piraro.
On Tuesday’s Splash du Jour, I posted one of the Bizarro cartoons that, to me, was a hilarious satirical look at the future effects of global warming.
Then Kingmonkey commented about the stick of dynamite in the cartoon.
It’s there in the lower left hand corner, amid the waves.
I had not even noticed this dynamite. And then Merisi commented that she does not “get” the cartoon. So I myself wondered about it. [See my reply to both of them in the comments section.]
An incredibly astute reader of my blog then wrote back to me, having done some research on this Piraro character. Apparently, this recurrent stick of dynamite [we see it again, for instance, in the above cartoon, tacked onto Batman’s cape] is a secret symbol.
In an interview with The Houston Chronicle, Piraro explains about the dynamite, saying:
“It refers to my wife, who changed almost everything about my life instantaneously, like an explosion. Not just in sappy, sentimental ways, but philosophically. She made me aware of the plight of animals and the environment at the hands of our rabid consumerism, and I’ve not seen the world the same since.”

Wow.
I find it all quite interesting, and shall never again be perplexed about it.
I love Bizarro.
Piraro is the perfect successor to Gary Larson.

********

2 comments:

Merisi said...

O/T:

Cip,
have you read the new Alain de Botton book, THE PLEASURES AND SORROWS OF WORK`?

"Interesting" review in the NYTimes, nytimes.com/2009/06/28/books/review/Crain-t.html?ref=books (Blogger would not let me post a direct link!).

I looked at amazon readers' reactions, they are quite different. Can't wait to read your review!!!

Stefanie said...

I didn't notice the dynamite at all until you pointed it out. Guess I'm not as observant as I thought! It's kind of an odd, but nice tribute to his wife and what she means to him.