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Life is Strange Dan'Bizarro' Piraro, and We Thank-You For It
Your work is edgy, offbeat and very funny. Your cartoons are quirky. Are you yourself a quirky guy, Dan? I guess I am what you could call a quirky thinker. (laughter) Would it be correct to say you have an aversion to a normalising patented view of the world? Yeah I do. But I think most creative people are that way inclined. That's why we are creative. We seek different ways of doing things and different ways of looking at things. It leads to artwork and it often leads to life changes and can lead to music and any creative endeavor really. I think the term, 'Think Outside The Box' came from the business community but it's the same thing - it's a way of thinking creatively. Not just starting with all these 'givens' and trying to force them into a situation or pattern of thinking. So I think thinking this way made it easier for me to embrace veganism and animal rights. This has been true in many aspects of my life. If I see something that isn't right, I'm quicker to want to change it than an average person is because I've never been the sort of person who's been afraid to do something differently. If I see something isn't working, I'll move to change it instead of sitting in that same routine, that rut all the time, which is a big problem for human beings and society in general. We just don't want to change. We just don't want to rock the boat. When I see injustice, it's easy for me to stop buying that thing or wearing that thing, owning that thing or eating that thing and backing that kind of politics. I don't mind making personal sacrifices when I know there's a higher good involved. That's very much how I see animal rights. It's a little bit of a sacrifice to me to change my behaviour but it's a huge sacrifice for the animals involved to live in misery every single day of their life then be slaughtered mercilessly so I can have a snack at a bar. It's unconscionable for me to participate in it. Initially I was afraid veganism was going to be like quitting smoking (laughter) or kicking the heroin habit (more laughter) and in truth it ended up being far easier than I thought it would be. Also, it's a lot more rewarding than I thought it would be. There's a kind of undercurrent of additional valuable insights with being vegan that can by-pass some vegetarians and meat-eaters. It's hard to nail it down to just one thing. I agree. There's a lot more to it than I thought there would be just in terms of the general spiritual benefits and the karmic rewards associated with veganism. What's an average day in Bizarro's world? Typically I work constantly. I get up about 11 am and I answer any emails, eat some breakfast and write some cartoon ideas down if I can. Then after that I start working on whatever project is happening that day whether that's a book cover or daily cartoons. Today I've been working on a pamphlet for a farm animal sanctuary that I'm involved with. Every day there's a different project and then there's always relentless deadlines to meet.
I'm not the first animal rights cartoonist but I might be the first person to include much of that in my work. .and don't forget you've been embraced by the mainstream as well which is rare, wouldn't you say? Possibly so. Berke Breathed from 'Bloom County' was a very famous vegetarian and animal rights guy also. What made you become a vegan? I began dating one (laughter) and we subsequently married. Previously, I'd always been very sympathetic about animal causes but I had not really investigated food production or vegetarianism. I had always instinctively been against hunting and the wearing of fur and I had done cartoons against these things in the past but quite honestly, I had never given much thought to food. I used to think: That's just the natural way of things. We're omnivores. Animals eat each other so as long as they are not treated cruelly in the meantime then that's the natural way of things and it's no big deal. Very soon after I began dating my future wife I began to learn about factory farming, which I had never heard of before. They keep that very well hidden in the United States. I was appalled by it. Very, very quickly I became vegan. I simply cannot subsidise this kind of cruelty, simply for my own pleasure. I think the transition was easier for me that it would be for a lot of people because I was married to a long-time vegan who was an excellent cook. In the long run it's not that difficult for anyone. There are plenty of great alternatives. .once you get into the groove. Yeah, once you get into the groove. I was pleased to find that out. When I first made the decision it was a moral imperative but it really scared me to death. I thought: "Oh my god, what am I letting myself in for." Veganism appealed to my nature though as I have always thought outside the box. I have never had any use whatsoever for traditional bogies or behaviours that didn't have some rhyme or reason to them. I never cared much for standard traditions while growing up, much to my parents chagrin. They were constantly trying to explain to me why I had to do certain things, certain ways. I expected something more than the answer, "because I said so" from them which is why we do so many of the things in our lives. I have always been quick to throw out convention if it doesn't actually suit some visible purpose. My parents always expected me to step in line when I grew up, but it never happened. What's the feedback been like from the broader community to the comic strip, "Bizarro?" Pretty quickly I became well known to animal rights groups and I've gotten a lot of feedback from them but I can't say I've gotten a lot of feedback from the general public. Quite often I give talks and I do comedy performances and people ask me to speak a lot at vegetarian festivals so when I speak in those situations I do get a lot of feedback especially from younger people. I assume that because they like my work and animal rights is important to me, they feel they should look into it.
Is your latest book, "Three Little Pigs Buy The White House," an extension of where you are now at politically speaking? Yeah. It's the same with my politics. It infuriates me to see the current administration using age-old fascist techniques and getting away with it. They get people into a war, they scare them to death, and then they fall into line then they become super patriotic. Anybody who disagrees or who even wants to discuss it is suddenly a 'traitor' to the country. It's kind of a penalty on people who didn't pay attention in history class. Anybody who knows anything about world history has seen this pattern over and over and over. And it's exactly what the Bush administration is doing and it infuriates me how mindlessly patriotic so many Americans are. It's simply wrong. If your country is going down the wrong path, it's insane to follow them patriotically. It's not patriotic, it's foolish. Especially in the United States where we embrace this tradition of freedom of speech and this kind of administration tries to squash that because they don't want dissent. Actually, I find it far more patriotic to step up to the microphone and say, "Wait a minute. This is not what America should be doing. We shouldn't be at war with this country. We shouldn't be cutting these programs". It has nothing to do with patriotism to fall behind someone who has lead you down the wrong path. The mystery is why so many Americans supported Bush for a second term and you haven't even mentioned the evangelicals yet. I grew up in the bible belt in Oklahoma. They are very deep into that mind-set. It's a difficult thing to explain. They are fundamentalist Christians for the same reason that Bin Laden is a fundamentalist Muslim. For some reason, it strokes some important part of their psyche and makes them feel good. In America the people that are like that are typically less educated, they are typically not people who enjoy thinking for themselves. They like being told exactly what to do. Here is the book. It's all in black and white. Follow it and you won't go astray and anybody who doesn't follow it, is wrong. It's a very easy way to get through life if somebody hands you a guidebook. I have always thought about this, living in that environment with those people. I don't live there anymore. I've always contended that this God they believe in would never have given us such an incredibly complex brain if we weren't expected to use it. This is really the direction that they push. You are not expected to think for yourself. You are expected to look at what's in the Bible and do it. Infact just today I saw a headline in the Washington Post that a lot of major political figures are lining up to dispute school programs that teach the theory of evolution in science classes. These are public schools in the United States of America. In 2005, these are people are trying to get the Book of Genesis version of Creation taught alongside evolution as science. I was reading yesterday there is some resistance in the States against animals in pounds being micro-chipped. Do you think this resistance is because what happens to animals first then usually happens to humans? What are your thoughts on micro chipping? I haven't heard about the resistance but it doesn't surprise me. Evangelicals believe in the Book of Revelation and they think that at some point in history the government is going to find a way to electronically track and keep tabs on every single person on earth and that's going to be the "Mark of the Beast 666." When I was a kid they thought it was going to be a tattoo. Then they thought it was going to be an ultra-violet tattoo where you shine a light on your forehead or something like that. As a teenager back in the 70's I remember the fundamentalist Bible folks in Oklahoma where all up in arms about bankcards and credit cards. They thought that was the way the government was going to track everything that you brought and sold to keep track of you and somehow this all had something to do with bringing on the end of the world. Now they are talking about microchips. Every few years brings new technologies. It's unfathomable. There are a number of things embarrassing about the United States but that whole movement of Evangelicals, to me, is the most embarrassing. The truth is they are not the majority in the country. The majority of the people in the United States do not believe that nonsense. I would be surprised if there was 30% of Americans were "Evangelical" yet they are very vocal and politically very powerful. Simultaneously in the 70's both the evangelicals and the animal rights movement began to organise and agitate. While the evangelicals soared ahead, the animal liberation movement has been left behind. Why Dan? I think it's the same reason why right-wing politicians tend to be more successful than left wing is because they will do anything to achieve their goal. For the right-wing people the goal is money and power and for the evangelicals the goal is this religious agenda that they have. The rest of us, like the animal rights people and left-wing politicians, liberal thinkers and progressives, tend to think that the means are as important as the ends. You can't break certain moral codes and rules along the way to get what you want. In that context we are at a disadvantage. When the other side is willing to do anything to beat you, you are at a disadvantage. Give us your thoughts on a couple of your favourite topics featured in some of your comics: Let's start with fur wearing. When you massacre and make other animals suffer so you can feel pretty, it's just got to be the lowest and the most revolting form of abuse. My favourite ad of all-time is a woman holding up a skinned carcass of a fox and she says, "Here's the rest of your fur coat." I would love to hand that photograph to every person I see wearing a fur coat or wearing fur. And the food industry? In the US alone we kill an estimated 9 billion animals a year for food. This is not food that is needed to keep anyone from starving. This is food that is a luxury item. Once again, if it was a matter of survival I would probably eat meat, but it isn't. Human beings in First World countries do not have to eat meat. To brutalise, torture and kill that many animals per year, purely for your pleasure is unconscionable. I have some sympathy for people who don't think that way yet because a few years ago, I didn't think that way. So I have to remember that. But once you see it and that switch flips in your head you can't go back. Are we making a difference in the world with vegan laughter and vegan food? Yes, as a culture I think we are heading in the right direction. There are more vegan options all the time, more products on the shelves. There are more vegetarians now and there are more articles now on animal cruelty in the last 5 years than the last 100 years. The Vegan movement is moving ahead. Bizarro's website is www.bizarro.com
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