Dan Piraro Explained

Birth Place:Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Area:Cartoonist, painter, writer, performer
Cartoonist:y
Notable Works:Bizarro
Awards:New York International Fringe Festival Best Solo Show (2002)
Reuben Award (2010)

Daniel Charles Piraro (born October 1958),[1] [2] is a painter, illustrator, and cartoonist best known for his syndicated cartoon panel Bizarro. Piraro's cartoons have been reprinted in 16 book collections (as of 2012). He has also written three books of prose.[3]

Biography

Piraro was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and his family moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma[4] when he was 4 years old. When he was in junior high school his family moved to Tulsa,[5] where he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1976.[6]

He dropped out of Washington University in St. Louis.[7] He lived in Dallas and New York City for many years. He had two daughters with his first wife, and later married Ashley Lou Smith.[8] After they divorced, he moved to Los Angeles, California.[9] On October 30, 2016, he announced[10] that he and his partner 'Olive Oyl' (or "O2") had purchased a house in Mexico and would be residing there beginning December 2016.[11] Syndicated since 1985,[12] Bizarro was appearing in 250 papers by 2006.[13]

In 2014, he hosted the Fox reality television show Utopia.[14]

Piraro has written a graphic novel, Peyote Cowboy, a story of magical realism in the Old West. He is posting it online as it is being illustrated.[15]

Political views

Piraro describes himself as "liberal and progressive politically" and identifies as an atheist.[7] This being apparent in his work has garnered occasional complaints, as in 2005 when he offered newspapers a politics-free version of a comic supporting gay rights. A glitch however meant that papers printing in color received the political version while those in black and white received its tamer counterpart.[16] In 2002, Piraro became a vegan. His activism is visible in Bizarro, often incorporating vegan and animal cruelty themes into his cartoons. In an interview, he stated, "If you look at my strip over the years, I’ve always had a form of animal sympathy and animal rights."[17] 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, Piraro discussed his challenges as a liberal growing up in Tulsa, OK.[18]

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. He played the full show for the final time in 2008, although he has performed bits from the show a few times since then.[19]

Piraro received the National Cartoonists Society's Panel Cartoon Award for 1999, 2000 and 2001. Beginning in 2002, Piraro was nominated every year for the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award, as Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, and he finally was given a Reuben Award in 2010.[20] Editorial cartoonist-illustrator Steve Greenberg commented:

His graphic novel, Peyote Cowboy, won the National Cartoonists Society's "Best Online Comic-Longform" award in 2021.[21]

Books

Audiobook narrator

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-10-vw-3587-story.html "Inside View"
  2. Web site: Wisdom of the Aged .
  3. Radford. Benjamin. September–October 2012. Skewed Skepticism: Bizarro Piraro. The Skeptical Inquirer. 36. 5.
  4. Web site: Bizarro (website), 5 August 2013 . August 6, 2013 . August 7, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130807184857/http://bizarrocomics.com/2013/08/05/ups-and-downs/ . dead .
  5. David Zizzo, "Cartoonist fueled by life’s twists", The Oklahoman, November 23, 2008.
  6. Jason Ashley Wright, Here today: gone bizarro: Tulsa's own funny man returns for a couple of gigs—one clean, one not so., Tulsa World, November 9, 2010.
  7. John Marshall, "A moment with... Dan Piraro, 'Bizarro' cartoonist", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 1, 2006.
  8. Web site: "Humorlution", Bizarro (website), 9 April 2017 . April 10, 2017 . April 10, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170410055214/http://bizarro.com/2017/04/09/humorlution/ . dead .
  9. http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?isbn=9780810992214 Powell's Books: Piraro, Dan. Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro
  10. Web site: Bizarro (website), 30 October 2016 . November 13, 2016 . November 19, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161119230921/http://bizarro.com/2016/10/30/descent-of-man/#more-94000 . dead .
  11. Web site: Bizarro (website) 13 November 2016 . November 13, 2016 . November 14, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161114005930/http://bizarro.com/2016/11/13/silent-security/ . dead .
  12. Lana Berkowitz, "Dan Piraro's symbols: What do they mean?", Houston Chronicle, May 26, 2008.
  13. Alex Chun, "Torn from pages of his comic strip", Los Angeles Times, April 13, 2006.
  14. Web site: How former Dallas punk-rocker turned 'Bizarro' cartoonist Dan Piraro landed in FOX's 'Utopia'. September 17, 2014. September 18, 2014. Wilonsky. Robert. dallasnews.com. The Dallas Morning News. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20140921003736/http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/2014/09/how-former-dallas-punk-rocker-turned-bizarro-cartoonist-dan-piraro-landed-in-foxs-utopia.html/. September 21, 2014.
  15. https://peyotecowboy.net/
  16. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-aug-14-me-cartoon14-story.html "Double Trouble for Syndicated Cartoonist: Alternative text for a gay marriage Bizarro panel fails to reach some newspapers."
  17. Web site: Mondo Bizarro: The Dan Piraro Interview. Hogan's Alley. 2010.
  18. http://thislandpress.com/08/04/2011/dan-piraro-is-not-a-redneck/ Wendle, Abby. "Dan Piraro is Not a Redneck", This Land Press, 8 August 2011
  19. Web site: The Baloney Show. Bizarro (website) 30 January 2017 . January 30, 2017 . February 2, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170202123747/http://bizarro.com/2010/06/09/baloney-show-redux/ . dead .
  20. Web site: Greenberg, Steve "Bizarrely acknowledged," June 8, 2010 . June 11, 2010 . mdy-all .
  21. Web site: National Cartoonists Society .

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