Dan Piraro interviewed by Hogan’s Alley

Regarding Bizarro creator Dan Piraro, Tom Heintjes writes,

Creatively restive, Piraro also produces fine art, some of which uses the Catholic imagery that he was exposed to at parochial school. Yet after 17 years of deadline-mandated creativity, Piraro has refused to coast or repeat himself, and his peers in the National Cartoonists Society have acknowledged their respect for him by voting him the winner of its Best Newspaper Panel award for three years running, a string of victories without NCS precedent. Although from time to time Piraro mulls over leaving cartooning for other creative pastures–again, shades of Gary Larson!–he won’t be hanging up his brush any time soon, having recently inked a multiyear contract with King Features Syndicate. Since sustained excellence like Bizarro’s is rare in any medium, his willingness to shepherd his panel into its third decade is great news for comics fans and for the more than 200 papers that carry the strip. Though Piraro maintains that Bizarro is a comic strip for people who don’t read comic strips, we all know better: Bizarro is a comic strip for people who love comic strips. —

Go on and read the full interview. Tom and Dan run the rounds from everything from the early Bizarro days, his animal rights work, personal life, etc. An interview well done.

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