Dan Piraro
Dan Piraro lived in Ponca City, Oklahoma, from the age of five until junior high school when his family moved to Tulsa, where they still reside. BIZARRO was first syndicated in 1985 and since then has built a steady and loyal following in the United States and Canada, as well as parts of Europe, Asia, and South America.
In addition to thirteen collections of BIZARRO cartoons, Piraro has published two books of prose, including Bizarro Among the Savages (Andrews McMeel, 1998), and a political satire disguised as a children’s book recounting the Bush administration’s foray into Iraq called, The Three Little Pigs Buy the White House (St. Martins, 2004). In Savages, he recounts his surreal book tour across the country, which was entirely funded by his readers and during which he stayed in the homes of oddball fans.
Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro (Harry N. Abrams, 2006) is a retrospective of his careers as a cartoonist, fine artist, commercial illustrator, and stand-up comic in which he offers hilarious and thought-provoking insights into his life and the world at large via his cartoons, never-before-seen sketches, photographs, and paintings.
BIZARRO has won an unprecedented three consecutive Best Cartoon Panel of the Year awards from the National Cartoonists Society, and in 2010 Piraro was given their highest award, Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.
Piraro regularly speaks and performs comedy across the country and works as an animal rights and environmental activist. For his animal rights-themed cartoons, he has won numerous awards from the Humane Society of the United States. He also writes a monthly humor column for Veg News Magazine and a daily blog commenting on his cartoons.
Since 2002, Piraro has sporadically toured the U.S. with his one-man stand-up comedy show called The Bizarro Boloney Show. The show’s debut in the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival was voted Best Solo Show, and The New York Times called it “...a shrewd tour of a cartoonist's imagination...wildly applauded
Piraro has appeared on CNN and Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR. In 2007 Dan Piraro reached the self-proclaimed pinnacle of his career thus far when he and BIZARRO appeared as a clue on the popular game show, Jeopardy!
As of 2012, Dan Piraro resides in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Ashley Lou Smith, who is related in one way or another to no less than five professional cartoonists.