View source for Dan Piraro

{{Short description|American cartoonist, painter, writer, and performer (born 1958)}}
{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=February 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox comics creator
| image         = Dan Piraro at the 2012 Comic-Con.jpg
| caption       = Dan Piraro at the 2012 Comic-Con
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{Birth year and age|1958|10|}}
| birth_place   = [[Kansas City, Missouri]], U.S.
| death_place   =
| area = Cartoonist, painter, writer, performer
| cartoonist    = y
| write         =
| art           =
| pencil        =
| ink           =
| edit          =
| publish       =
| letter        =
| color         =
| alias         =
| notable works = ''[[Bizarro (comic strip)|Bizarro]]''
| awards        = [[New York International Fringe Festival]] Best Solo Show (2002)<br />[[Reuben Award]] (2010)
| website       = {{URL|http://www.bizarro.com}}
}}
'''Daniel Charles Piraro''' (born October 1958),<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-10-vw-3587-story.html "Inside View"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', February 10, 1985.</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bizarro.com/blog/2023/10/1/wisdom-of-the-aged?mc_cid=cf5d92a165&mc_eid=f713958120 | title=Wisdom of the Aged }}</ref> is a painter, illustrator, and cartoonist best known for his syndicated cartoon panel ''[[Bizarro (comic strip)|Bizarro]]''. Piraro's cartoons have been reprinted in 16 book collections (as of 2012). He has also written three books of prose.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Radford|first=Benjamin|date=September–October 2012|title=Skewed Skepticism: Bizarro Piraro|journal=The Skeptical Inquirer|volume=36|issue=5}}</ref>

==Biography==
Piraro was born in [[Kansas City, Missouri]], and his family moved to [[Ponca City, Oklahoma]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bizarrocomics.com/2013/08/05/ups-and-downs/ |title=Bizarro (website), 5 August 2013 |access-date=August 6, 2013 |archive-date=August 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807184857/http://bizarrocomics.com/2013/08/05/ups-and-downs/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> when he was 4 years old. When he was in junior high school his family moved to [[Tulsa, Oklahoma|Tulsa]],<ref>David Zizzo, [http://newsok.com/cartoonist-fueled-by-lifes-twists/article/3323744 "Cartoonist fueled by life’s twists"], ''[[The Oklahoman]]'', November 23, 2008.</ref> where he graduated from [[Booker T. Washington High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma)|Booker T. Washington High School]] in 1976.<ref>Jason Ashley Wright, [http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/article.aspx?subjectid=269&articleid=20101109_43_D1_CUTLIN593549 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.</ref>

He dropped out of [[Washington University in St. Louis]].<ref name="P-I">John Marshall, [http://www.seattlepi.com/books/268419_bizarro01.html "A moment with... Dan Piraro, 'Bizarro' cartoonist"], ''[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]]'', May 1, 2006.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bizarro.com/2017/04/09/humorlution/ |title="Humorlution", Bizarro (website), 9 April 2017 |access-date=April 10, 2017 |archive-date=April 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410055214/http://bizarro.com/2017/04/09/humorlution/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> After they divorced, he moved to [[Los Angeles]], California.<ref>[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'']</ref> On October 30, 2016, he announced<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bizarro.com/2016/10/30/descent-of-man/#more-94000 |title=Bizarro (website), 30 October 2016 |access-date=November 13, 2016 |archive-date=November 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119230921/http://bizarro.com/2016/10/30/descent-of-man/#more-94000 |url-status=dead }}</ref> that he and his partner 'Olive Oyl' (or "O2") had purchased a house in Mexico and would be residing there beginning December 2016.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bizarro.com/2016/11/13/silent-security/ |title=''Bizarro'' (website) 13 November 2016 |access-date=November 13, 2016 |archive-date=November 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114005930/http://bizarro.com/2016/11/13/silent-security/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Syndicated since 1985,<ref>Lana Berkowitz, [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/5802388.html "Dan Piraro's symbols: What do they mean?"], ''[[Houston Chronicle]]'', May 26, 2008.</ref> ''Bizarro'' was appearing in 250 papers by 2006.<ref>Alex Chun, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-apr-13-wk-altbright13-story.html "Torn from pages of his comic strip"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', April 13, 2006.</ref>

In 2014, he hosted the Fox reality television show [[Utopia (U.S. reality TV series)|''Utopia'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/2014/09/how-former-dallas-punk-rocker-turned-bizarro-cartoonist-dan-piraro-landed-in-foxs-utopia.html/|title=How former Dallas punk-rocker turned 'Bizarro' cartoonist Dan Piraro landed in FOX's 'Utopia'|date=September 17, 2014|accessdate=September 18, 2014|last=Wilonsky|first=Robert|website=dallasnews.com|publisher=[[The Dallas Morning News]]|url-status=dead|archiveurl=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/|archivedate=September 21, 2014}}</ref>

Piraro has written a graphic novel, ''Peyote Cowboy,'' a story of magical realism in the Old West. He is posting it [https://peyotecowboy.net/episodes/ online] as it is being illustrated.<ref>https://peyotecowboy.net/</ref>

==Political views==
Piraro describes himself as "liberal and progressive politically" and identifies as spiritual but non-religious.".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/books/article/a-moment-with-dan-piraro-bizarro-cartoonist-1202252.php | title=A moment with ... Dan Piraro, 'Bizarro' cartoonist | date=May 2006 }}</ref> 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.<ref>[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."], [[Associated Press|AP]] in ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', August 14, 2005.</ref>

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.{{Citation needed|date=February 2018}}

In a 2011 interview with [[This Land Press]], Piraro discussed his challenges as a liberal growing up in Tulsa, OK.<ref>[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]</ref>

==Awards==
[[Image:Dan Piraro.jpeg|220px|thumb|right|Dan Piraro with a cardboard guitar at NAVS Vegetarian Summerfest 2006]]
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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bizarro.com/2010/06/09/baloney-show-redux/ |title=''The Baloney Show.'' Bizarro (website) 30 January 2017 |access-date=January 30, 2017 |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202123747/http://bizarro.com/2010/06/09/baloney-show-redux/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

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.<ref name=dan>{{Cite web |url=http://blog.cagle.com/greenberg/2010/06/08/bizarrely-acknowledged/ |title=Greenberg, Steve "Bizarrely acknowledged," June 8, 2010 |access-date=June 11, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}{{dead link|date=September 2018|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Editorial cartoonist-illustrator Steve Greenberg commented:
{{blockquote|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 Hobbes'') 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 Lane'' and ''Non Sequitur'') and inventive (for me, up there with ''Liō'' 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 Larson and his ''The Far Side'' 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.<ref name=dan/>}}

His graphic novel, ''Peyote Cowboy,'' won the National Cartoonists Society's "Best Online Comic-Longform" award in 2021.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://nationalcartoonists.com/awards/division-awards/?v=f24485ae434a | title=National Cartoonists Society }}</ref>

==Books==
[[File:Bizarro4109.gif|right|thumb|300px|Piraro's ''[[Bizarro (comic strip)|Bizarro]]'' (April 1, 2009)]]
* ''Bizarro'' (1986) {{ISBN|0877014027}}
* ''Too Bizarro'' (1988) {{ISBN|0877015368}}
* ''Mondo Bizarro'' (1989) {{ISBN|0877017115}}
* ''Sumo Bizarro'' (1990) {{ISBN|0877017743}}
* ''Glasnost Bizarro'' (1990) {{ISBN|0877016933}}
* ''The Book of Lame Excuses'' (1991) {{ISBN|0877017735}}
* ''Post-Modern Bizarro'' (1991) {{ISBN|0877018545}}
* ''Best of Bizarro'' (1992) {{ISBN|0811802760}}
* ''Best of Bizarro II'' (1994) {{ISBN|0811807711}}
* ''Bizarro #9'' (1995) {{ISBN|0836204301}}
* ''Bizarro #10'' (1996) {{ISBN|0836222350}}
* ''Bizarro Among the Savages: A Relatively Famous Guy's Experiences on the Road and in the Homes of Strangers'' (1997) {{ISBN|0836221737}}
* ''Life Is Strange and So Are You: A Bizarro Sunday Treasury'' (2001) {{ISBN|0740718487}}
* ''The Three Little Pigs Buy the White House'' (2004) {{ISBN|031233074X}}
* ''Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro'' (2006) {{ISBN|0810992213}}
* ''Bizarro Buccaneers: Nuttin' but Pirate Cartoons'' (2008) {{ISBN|0740777408}}
* ''Bizarro Heroes'' (2011) {{ISBN|0867197560}}
* ''Creative Haven Bizarro Land Coloring Book'' (2016) {{ISBN|0486808688}}

===Audiobook narrator===
* Author – [[Daniel Levitin|Daniel J. Levitin]] (2016). ''[[A Field Guide to Lies]]'' (a.k.a. ''Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era''); {{ISBN|978-1524702526}}, {{OCLC|934676963}}, {{ASIN|B06XCLKYTG}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category}}
* {{official website}}
* [[National Cartoonists Society]] (NCS)
** {{cite web |url= http://www.reuben.org/ncs/members/biogs/piraro.asp |title= Dan Piraro |publisher= NCS }}
** {{cite web |url= https://nationalcartoonists.com/ncs/archive/divisions/panels.asp |title= Newspaper Panel |series= Divisions |date= 2007 |publisher= NCS }}
** {{cite web |url= https://www.nationalcartoonists.com/awards/ |title= Awards |publisher= NCS }}
* {{cite web |url= http://media.libsyn.com/media/tsoya/tsoya012806.mp3 |format= mp3 |title= Interview with Dan Piraro |first= Jesse |last= Thorn |authorlink= Jesse Thorn |date= Jan 28, 2006 |work= The [[Bullseye with Jesse Thorn|Sound of Young America]] }}
* {{cite web |url= http://www.satyamag.com/aug06/piraro.html |title= Myth: Vegans Aren't Funny
|publisher= [[Satya (magazine)|Satya]] |series= Interview |first= Ashley Lou |last= Smith |date= Aug 2006 }}
* {{cite web |url= https://www.toonsmag.com/dan-piraro-interview/ |title= Dan Piraro Interview |first= Arifur |last= Rahman |date= July 12, 2019 |publisher= [[Toons Mag]] }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piraro, Dan}}
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:American comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:20th-century American painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]
[[Category:21st-century American painters]]
[[Category:21st-century American male artists]]
[[Category:Booker T. Washington High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Artists from Dallas]]
[[Category:Artists from Tulsa, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni]]
[[Category:Reuben Award winners]]
[[Category:Artists from Kansas City, Missouri]]