Rizzo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For people named Rizzo, see Rizzo (surname).
- For the character from The Muppets, see Rizzo the Rat.
- For the character from Grease, see Betty Rizzo.
Rizzo is a comic strip written by Chris Riseley and illustrated by Sean Simmans, syndicated in the U.S. by King Creators United. Rizzo was first published in Salt Lake City Weekly in May 2005.[1] Since its inception, it has run in over twenty periodicals, including Maclean's magazine.
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[edit] Rizzo himself
The titular character, Rizzo, is a balding, overweight university professor with left leanings and multiple neuroses. A quasi-vegan and a conspiracy theory nut, he rails against church and state, spews hypothyroidal rants, and often accomplishes nothing at all. He is illustrated with a round, nearly featureless face - just a plain, average Joe.
Rizzo lives in a Black/Orange house in the fictional town of Tromso, Utah, with his wife, Roberta, and their four year-old son, Delroy. (In certain markets, such as Sonoma, California, the setting is unidentified in order to seem "local.") Rizzo's friend, the divorced Bill Czolgosz, lives in his basement.
Bill was once the mascot for the Tromso Reptiles, but even after being fired he refused to remove his lizard costume. Thus, his face is never seen and his mouth never opens.
[edit] Tromso, Utah
The comicstrip Rizzo is postmodern in its self-awareness. In Rizzo's world, he and Bill conspire to produce a daily comicstrip called Rizzo. Bill is the artist and Riz writes the gags. The cast includes everyone they know, including the shoeless hippie, Byron, and their hapless Mormon neighbor, Andy.
The strip tackles trivial themes such as lost socks and babysitting, as well as serious issues like the September 11, 2001 attacks and illegal wiretaps. (Some of the specialty markets receive customized versions of the strip with localized humor relating to zoning laws and mayoral elections, etc.)
Daily Rizzo is a three-panel, black and white strip. There is also a nine-panel color Sunday version, a single-panel color Sunday, an oversized (tall) weekly version, and a 9-panel black and white feature called Rizzo Explains. Because of multiple formats, over 600 strips were completed in 2005.
Creators Chris Riseley and Sean Simmans (upon whom Rizzo and Bill are based) have never actually met in real life.
[edit] Origin
The Rizzo character was doodled as a mean-spirited jab at Chris Riseley, who, in real life, is neither as fat nor as bald. (In his own words, "Sean Simmans is actually much fatter than I.") Turning a negative into a positive, Riseley wrote a series of three-panel gags featuring the character and emailed the scripts back to Simmans. Within a week, they had fifty strips ready for press.
The sketchy look of the strip is intentional. According to Simmans, he fell in love with the early "rough" drafts and decided not to refine them.
But according to Taylor Simmans, brother of the artist, "those guys just wanted to do something marginally better than Luann. Sean is not a big fan of Luann. I think that's why he churns Rizzo out so quickly. It borders on contempt, in my opinion."
[edit] Other characters
- Roberta is Rizzo's wife. She's too smart and too pretty for him. Usually seen talking sense into him.
- Delroy is Rizzo's son. Intitially, he was drawn as an infant, but within 100 strips he was advanced to the age of four ("For better kid jokes.")
- Andy Thorvaldson is one of Rizzo's neighbors. He is a vacuous conservative and a Mormon - often a character of ridicule.
- Byron is a recovering addict who has fallen out of the recovery process. Early strips seem to indicate that he is one of Rizzo's AA sponsees.
- Rob is the only Afro-American in Tromso. Level-headed and conservative, but completely absorbed in heavy metal music.
- Tweed is Bill's pet extraterrestrial. He cannot speak English except to loudly declare his fascination with excrement.
- Phil is a gutter drunk. He often vies with Byron for the affection of...
- Jackie, a decrepit nightclub queen.
- Dee Dee, Rizzo's nemesis and next-door neighbor.
- Also, two ghosts, various "G-Men", and a nephew named Dustin, among others.
[edit] Samples
