431. April Fools, New Yorker Covers Masterclass & Draw Me Anything!
+ Adolescence, Consciousness, Draw Your World & Morris gets a new handbag!
…Coming to you from a slowly thawing Manhattan sidewalk, welcome to Issue #422 of New York Cartoons!
I’ve been working hard on the new book that will be following the one that comes out in (eep!) ONE MONTH from today! Be sure to pre-order your copy here.
Here’s a sneak peek of a couple of pages:
Don’t forget: This week on Process Junkie, I’ll be hosting my very first live “DMA” or…
Tune in this Thursday, April 3rd at 3pm US EDT. I’ll be taking live requests and offering drawing tips for the first of this weekly series!
And lastly, keep an eye out on April 9th for my guest pop-in to the fantastic
’s series over on :Together, we’ll explore the connection between writing and drawing—especially that moment when handwriting shifts into illustration. We’ll discuss the differences between calligraphy and hand-lettering, how the way we write words can enhance journal-keeping, and the role of lettering in storytelling and self-expression. I can’t wait to dive into this with you!
I also have some AMAZING special guests coming to visit during the sessions.
The amazing cartoonist, Jason Chatfield, is going to visit us in the first meeting to talk all about handwriting and its role in his work. Here is a little teaser of Jason writing. ✍️
New Yorker writer, Rachel Syme, will be visiting to talk all things letter-writing and share highlights from her new book, Syme’s Letter Writer.
This week’s Sketchbook is from my Commonplace Book. I’ve been keeping one of these for the past 5 years to capture things I need to remember…
And an outtake from one of the best meals I’ve ever had in NYC…
New Yorker Covers Masterclass / Exhibition
I got to attend the final night of the “Covering The New Yorker” exhibition on Sunday night at the L’alliance New York.
Not only did I get to meet some of my favourite illustrators in the world (like Christoph Niemann!), but I got to hear them speak on stage about the thing they do better than anyone: drawing covers for the New Yorker.
The talk/masterclass with longtime Cover Editor Francoise Mouly was excellent; she invited Barry Blitt, Peter DeSéve and Anita Kunz on stage with her to discuss the craft of the perfect cover alongside her daughter, Nadja.
I’ll be writing up a full review post of the event for paid subscribers, but for now, I’ll just leave you with one of the most indelible images from the exhibition...
Below: The New Yorker cover that was slated to run if the Dems won… then, on the right: The one that did.
See more of my coverage of the event here.
What If Consciousness Is Fundamental?
A conversation with Annaka & Sam Harris
I got to illustrate another conversation for the Waking Up app this week—
speaks with his wife, Annaka, about LIGHTS ON, her ten-part audio documentary exploring the perplexities of consciousness and the cosmos. They breezily discuss the ‘hard problem of consciousness’, whether consciousness is fundamental, what split-brain patients can teach us about consciousness, what consciousness being fundamental could mean for the world of physics, and other topics. I love this stuff. I could talk about it all day.If you like, you can see more of my portraits for Waking Up here.
Rejected Shorts
Great advice from
this past week:"Stories of failure resonate more than stories of success. Few people reach the top, but everyone has failed—including those who eventually succeed. If you're teaching people how to succeed in a given field (or talking about your own success), start with how you failed."
To that end…
Selected Shorts is an NPR program where celebrities read award-winning short works. Rejected Shorts is that show's evil twin.
The show has people share their scorned satire, bad headlines, failed essays, and other art that didn't make the cut. It's cathartic. It's funny. It's for anyone who’s ever heard the response, "Thanks, but no thanks".
If you’re in New York on April 6 at 5pm, I’d love you to come by to hear my excruciating tale of trying to get a joke sold to the New Yorker over the course of several years.
Yet another person telling you how incredible Adolescence is…
Adolescence (Netflix) is so unsettling to watch.
It’s a masterpiece in storytelling, and a really important story to discuss. The influence of Meta’s social media platforms on the developing minds of young people is something we'll look back on years from now in bewilderment; how we could have let them access this mess?
Co-creator Stephen Graham mentioned that the series was influenced by various news reports about young boys involved in knife crimes, prompting an exploration of the societal factors contributing to such tragedies.
Ginger Meggs Gets His Own Cocktail 🍸
There it was on the glossy menu - a "Ginger Meggs Old Fashioned" at Bar Q88 in Hong Kong's JW Marriott. The cocktail features Ballantine’s 12 years, gingerbread syrup, chocolate bitters, and Angostura bitters.
For the uninitiated, Ginger Meggs was Australia's longest-running comic strip character - a redheaded kid terrorizing the suburbs since 1921. I was the cartoonist for this comic strip for 16 years.
I'm torn between feeling flattered and litigious. My cartoon ancestors have drawn this character for over a century, passing him down like an ink-stained heirloom. Now he's an overpriced whisky concoction for finance bros.
Maybe I should embrace this bizarre brand extension. After all, isn't this the dream? Your work immortalized as a $28 cocktail businessmen order while closing deals before jumping on a plane to Singapore?
RELATED READING:
Tune in this Thursday, April 3rd at 3pm US EDT. I’ll be taking live requests and offering drawing tips for the first of this weekly series!
“Dis my bag now pls.”
I haven't watched Adolescence and probably won't (I'm restricting my diet to funny cat videos these days) - but what you describe does make me yearn for the days when it was comics that were suspected to turn young minds criminal...