Customer Reviews

Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro

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i just picked this up on a recent trip to NYC, being a long-time fan of dan's work. the comics themselves are always amazing, some of them made me burst out laughing on my bus ride home, garnering stares from my fellow passengers. the commentary that goes with the comics is what really makes this book special. by the end i felt like i really know dan and have a sense of what makes his work stand out in the comic world. he also has a great way of conveying the urgency of his politics and views on animal rights in a simple way that is easy for people to understand. dan is a man who has a talent for changing the world for the better with humour, and god knows we can use that these days. the book is highly recommended.

Bizzaro is one of the best comic strips I have ever seen. Even on the all too numerous occasions when it is clear that my political etc. views are diametrically opposite to Mr. Piraro's I find his comic strips funny and very clever. I even have a reproduction of one his 'strips framed and hanging on a wall in my house. This collection is one of the funniest comic strip collections I have seen and it is also published in a very high quality (for a paperback) format- it is *not* your typical flimsily bound and poorly printed paperback collection. I also like the fact that he reveals where his ideas come from. This brings me to my second point: it's one thing to include your political and religious beliefs in your book. These illuminate the origin of many of his ideas, but it's another to have them constantly shoved down your throat in a very childish fashion. He writes with the style of an angry and idealistic high school student with no thought that anyone else with very differing views could have valid ideas or - gasp- could even be correct. It get's tiring to be constantly told that anyone with opposing views is "whacked out", to use a common phrase of his. He replaces his idealized wishful thinking for facts, and it gets annoying. Here's one example: he writes about how he admires the native American Indians for living in harmony with nature. Clearly he has not read much on this matter because, I am sorry to inform this vegan, it is pretty much accepted by anthropologists and other scientists involved that "native" Americans wiped out the pleistocene megafauna, just like the "native" New Zealanders pretty much wiped out thier megafauna. I point this out because I grew tired of his constant know-it-all attitude, and I am sure other readers will as well. I only write this because I think even this very personal book goes way overboard for a comic book collection in his attacks on people whose views he dislikes and I expect a little more restraint more from an adult author- even a cartoonist with a poor formal educational background. Still in all, I would highly recommend this book to any fan of the daily comics and plan on buying his new hardcover collection upon it's release.

One of the few good reasons to spend retirement years in America is the dependable presence of at least one laugh in your morning newspaper, aside from those sardonic guffaws you suppress with a sob when you look at the front page. Now, none of you techno-whippersnappers had better tell me that the comics are available on-line anywhere I wander, anywhere I roam, cuz looking at Bizarro on a computer screen is about as gratifying as staring at a photo of a snifter of cognac. It's the smell of the newsprint and the satisfaction of snatching the pertinent image from your lovey at her sudoku. Yes sir, that's livin'! Gets you all stirred up for tooling around Sun City in your golf cart.

Dan Piraro has been amassing a comprehensive dossier of my own particular world-view for many years, one frame at a time, but I've been abroad enough to have missed any number of his sharpest insights. But with this here book in my suitcase, I can face moving to "The Sequoias" with equanimity. What name for an assisted living facilty, eh? The Sequoias. Piraro would appreciate it.

Dan Piraro's new book is so funny I could not stop reading it. I took it to work with me to read during breaks, but found myself sneaking a read or two whenever I could! Still, I did not realize how hooked I was until I found myself staying up until 3:00 am to finish it.

This book is great because Piraro does more than just gather a bunch of comics together. Instead, he tells his life story and then gives examples of comics from each stage of his life. Not only is his writing hilarious, but the added dimension of seeing how his simple, one-pannel gags spring directly from his life was a behind the scenes look at how creativity happens.

A great read. Literally, laugh out loud funny!

Wow! What a comprehensive book! Colorful and insightful, it covers everything about the MULTI-talented Dan Piraro. Great cartoons, cool early sketches, awesome fine art, old photos (Dan with afro is my favorite), even pumpkin carvings! Everything you can imagine in a beautifully designed book! Buy now!

I stumbled on Bizaro years ago, and never followed it closely. I picked up this book on a whim at the book store.

It is a well-written summary of Dan Piraro's life (so far) his values and how they have changed, and the things he has done besides being a wise artist/businessman. It is all punctuated with outstanding cartoons and narative about them.

After reading this, I felt I knew the person behind the humor, and was better for it. Time Very well spent.

40 years ago I bumped into Bill Mauldin's "Up Front" on my father's book shelf and got my first glimpse into the life of a cartoonist. I got the same great insight reading Piraro's book.

This book provides insight into Dan Piraro, the most consistently humorous cartoonist of our day. Buy this book!

....and commentary from one of the best contemporary cartoonists today. I follow the daily panel each day in the NY Daily News, and always get a good laugh (well, sometimes just a smile).

Pop quiz: Name an artist whose wildly popular daily cartoon frequently promotes veganism - and who is not Dan Piraro. Stumped? Well, there really isn't anyone else. Indeed, Piraro has that niche pretty much covered and is regarded as the veg community's most-recognized comic voice. His print cartoon, "Bizarro," which began two decades ago, is syndicated in more than 200 newspapers and routinely takes on topics ranging from animal rights and religion to gay rights and politics. The surreal cartoon has spawned a number of equally surreal book-length collections, the latest of which is "Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro."

But this new volume is no mere anthology of "Bizarro" cartoons. Accompanying the pages of comics, paintings, sketches and personal photographs is an extended autobiographical essay that is at turns hilarious and a compelling indictment of agribusiness. The author-artist never misses an opportunity to promote the cruelty-free lifestyle (mentioning, for example, that he won't buy paint brushes made from animal hair), and the book chronicles Piraro's transformation from, as he puts it, "a creative misfit class clown in Oklahoma to a passionate animal-rights advocate in New York City."

As an outspoken vegan activist, Piraro proves himself to be articulate, well-informed and clever. He writes: "Some argue that while we started as vegetarians, we have `evolved' to eat meat. Biologically speaking, we haven't changed at all in this regard. You might as well say we've evolved to smoke tobacco. We've been doing it for centuries and we enjoy it, but we haven't developed a natural need for it, or a defense against its ill effects." You can bet I'll be keeping that analogy handy.

Among the biggest treats in Piraro's revolutionary cartoons are the richly detailed backgrounds and extra jokes for those with the time (and eyesight) to look closely. Regular "Bizarro" readers know that Piraro hides symbols in his cartoons, such as spaceships, sticks of dynamite and pieces of pie. While he purports to explain these objects on his website, bizarro.com, he includes them simply for fun. More serious are the animal-rights messages punctuating his comics. A typical cartoon reproduced in Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations depicts several men at a bar; one guy has a "no veal" button on his jacket while another sports a "Farm Sanctuary" tattoo. Yet another cartoon shows two characters (actually Piraro and his wife Ashley) walking past a vegan café. Perhaps best of all, the themes in these particular cartoons aren't even animal rights, making the premise of compassionate living all the more mainstream.

Even if you're not a fan of comics or Piraro's work, this oversized paperback will look great on your coffee table (even if you don't like coffee - or tables, for that matter). Who knows how many houseguests, unaware of the inhumane practices involved in factory farming, will peruse this colorful, hip-looking book, get to laughing and then realize the deeper truths within its pages? Piraro could be contributing these books for some time. He writes: "People in my family tend to live well past life expectancy, no matter how badly they abuse their bodies, so I figure with regular exercise and my vegan diet, I should live well into the next century." Let's hope so.

Mark Hawthorne, author of Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism

Length:: 0:18 Mins

This book was so good I read it all in one seating.

The book is written in first person by Mr Dan Piraro himself. This book is about his life, career and comics. His write up is almost as hilarious as his comics. He seems to have a very interesting life, and the book tells it all.

Included are also some interesting and very unusual self portraits (photos). One is nude -- with the shadows hiding the crucial parts of course! Another amusing photo is one with him spotting a lion's mane hairstyle with his dad's face saying,"I'm determined to be proud of this kid in spite of the fact that he's well on his way to looking like a transvestite."

He writes from his birth, to childhood and schooling, to his band playing days, then his art and cartooning career and his move to New York City. There are lots of juicy and funny experiences he share, such as him asking people to provide lodging and take him around while he's on book tours.

Towards the end of the book, he talks more about his beliefs, which led him to be a vegan (one that consumes no animal products of any kind including eggs and dairy products). He's a huge supporter of animal rights, which is why animal rights themes sometimes appear in his comics.

This book is filled with freelance illustrations, oil paintings, comics and several discarded ideas (those deemed too saucy for general readers). Every one is captioned to explain the inspiration and the message he's trying to bring across. Oh, his oil paintings are as weird as his cartoons.

This book is not just Bizaro, it's the biography for Dan Piraro. It's wonderful and in depth. One that will constantly put a smile when read.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)