August 25th, 2013

Art & Self Defense

by Wayno & Piraro

(For enlargering, click the Martian’s pjhxrn.)

This Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by Knowledge.

Today’s cartoon stars my lovely and badass SpecialLadyFriend, Klamelda. I chose her for this role not because she is beautiful, smart, and funny, but because she’s also a 3rd degree black belt in Karate. For reals, pickles. I think she’s also the top-ranked active female in the state of California in her style of Karate, the name of which I can never remember. Sounds like a sushi dish. (It’s a type that does not break planks of wood or piles of bricks, by the way.) She actually wears black Karate pajamas (don’t know how to spell the name of those outfits, sounds like “gee” with a hard “g”) which you can only do if you’re a black belt. But I used white jammies for this image so that readers would immediately recognize it as a martial arts outfit. Sometimes cartoonists have to rely on stereotypes to keep the reader from stumbling on their way to the punch line. I made the place purple to make up for putting her in white pajamas because that’s her favorite color.

There are many wonderful things about Klamelda, not the least of which is that finally, after three decades as an adult, I can leave the house at night and feel safe. Thanks, sweetheart!

Here, of course, is the title panel that appeared with this cartoon in some newspapers, depending on which of the many formats they use for their Sunday comics.

PreBIZTORICALS: As I was posting this, an old cartoon of mine about karate came to mind so I thought I’d throw it in as a bonus. The funniest thing about this one is that I got a letter from an angry reader who thought this cartoon encouraged violence toward women, “which is already a big enough problem these days.” Gosh. I didn’t see that coming. I’m speechless.