#338: Exclusive excerpt of my book in the New Yorker, Writer's Digest Article Teaser, & Dispatches from the Dugout!

Plus! Brendan Leonard, the New Yorker Softball team ekes out a win against WNYC, and Morris says "Hello."

I hope you’ve had a great start to the week!

This coming week is one that all authors nervously dread: “Pub Week!” Will my book be a huge flop? Will it make the best-sellers list? Did I remember to feed Morris?

1.) My new cartoon book comes out in 6 days!

I’d love you to order it for yourself, or a parent you know… like your Dad?

I’m proud of what my co-author Scott and I have put together in this hard-cover collection of over 100 full-color cartoons about the common challenges of every stage of parenting: from babies to toddlers, tweens, teens, and beyond. It’s out just in time for Father’s Day!

LIMITED OFFER: Become a paid subscriber for just $1.25 a week and I’ll send you a signed copy with a custom cartoon for free! (Offer expires June 30th, US/Canada only.)

The book is available in US/Canada only for now, but please drop me a line if you’re interested in getting a copy, and I’ll see what we can figure out!

2.) The New Yorker is running an exclusive excerpt of the book this week!

Keep your peepers peeled for an exclusive first look at a series of cartoons from the book. I can’t say much more about it, but I’ll share the whole thing next week.

3.) I have a guest article coming out in Writer’s Digest!

Bizarre, I know— It isn’t called “Cartoonists Digest”, why would I be writing a piece for them? Welp… the topic of the article is on finding your voice. I’ll leave the rest until it runs, but keep a lookout for the story and accompanying illustration next week. I had a lot of fun drawing the illustration for it. (Sneaky peek above)

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This week I was doing drawings for a corporate gig in Times Square. I get paid to sneakily draw people from dark corners, then sidle past them, drop the drawing in their lap and scurry off. They freak out (In a good way. Usually.)

Hit-n-Run Caricatures

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For the past few years, I’ve been part of the official…

We meet each week at the softball diamond in Central Park and play people who work at other magazines and media organizations based in New York. I am probably the least valuable member of the team, with the pitching arm of an old chair and the knees of a septuagenarian. That said, I do bring the beer.

Anyway, each week for this season I’ll give you a brief update on how that week’s game went, and probably draw something silly about it. I’ll call it…

05/30: The New Yorker VS. WNYC

Last week The New Yorker softball team was pitted against the podcasting, broadcasting, pearly vocals of WNYC. After a hard-fought battle and several left-field fumbles on my part, we went into extra innings to determine a winner.

The sun set over North Meadow field in Central Park just as the glove of our captain and Talk of the Town Editor, Zach Helfand, snapped shut on WNYC’s final gasp of hope. The victorious team took this photo right before being forcibly removed by the groundskeeper.

I was absent from the smoke-filled game against Rolling Stone last night on account of being bedridden with the flu. Sorry to let the team down. I hope someone brought the beer.

If you’d like to come and cheer us on one night in Central Park, our Season for 2023 will be as follows:

05/30: New Yorker vs. WNYC

06/06: New Yorker vs. Rolling Stone

06/13: New Yorker vs. Paris Review

06/20: New Yorker vs. The Drift

06/27: New Yorker vs. New York Review of Books

07/11: New Yorker vs. Slate (@ Prospect Park)

07/17: New Yorker vs. New York Magazine (@ James J. Walker Park)

07/25: New Yorker vs. Eater

08/01: New Yorker vs. Vanity Fair

As always, thank you for being a subscriber and reading my silly cartoons.

Your pal,

Jason

“Got enough cups, dickhead?”

If you enjoy my work, then there’s a fair chance you might like the people I enjoy too. Each week I will be sharing a new person who tickles my fancy.

Brendan Leonard

Brendan is a brilliant mind, a fellow runner who hates running, and a cartoonist/writer/creative-thinker-type. I always look forward to his weekly Friday newsletter from his blog “Semi-Rad”.

His book “I hate running and you can, too!” had me cracking up but also realizing for the first time in my life that those people sprinting past me when I’m out for a run are also likely hating parts of it as much as me, but persisting nevertheless.

An even better book (which he has coming out now) called “Make It: 50 Myths and Truths About Creating,” is a great redux of his earlier work “Make It ‘Til You Make It.” which I read one chapter-at-a-time each morning for weeks to shake me out of my procrastination, creative blocks, self-doubt, impostor syndrome, and my constantly convincing myself that I couldn’t start my new project until I had the absolutely perfect fountain pen… (Sounding familiar?)

He’s been sending out a daily excerpt these past weeks and there have been more than a few head-slapping moments of “WOW.” with his cartoons. He absolutely nails it.

Here’s a classic Brendan story:

His mug game is incredibly strong. My kitchen cabinet isn’t big enough for me to buy the whole set, so I settled on this nugget of gold:

I drank from this mug every morning while I triaged my garbage fire of an inbox, until one morning I reached for it and my clumsy bag-of-spaghetti for a hand knocked it off the table onto the ground, smashing it to smithereens.

Attempts were made to repair the mug, with the same clumsy hands that caused its demise, but to no avail. Mug boi was no more.

That was, until, I had mentioned it to Brendan, who promptly put one in the post the same day free of charge. It now sits on my coffee table as I write this post.

I finally got to meet Brendan in person last year the day before he ran the New York City Marathon. I think it’s the only time I’ve seen Sophie (a newly minted multi-marathoner) actually look starstruck. (She’s restraining herself from hugging him here…)

Anyway, I’ll let Brendan introduce himself:

My name is Brendan Leonard, and I started this website in 2011. I think we all need to spend more time doing things we love, going to places that make us feel small, remembering to laugh at ourselves, and getting a little cold, tired, and scared every once in a while. I’ve bicycled across America, run several ultramarathons, and lived out of a converted van for three years, climbing and adventuring in the mountains around the West.

I am a writer, and most of my work centers around adventure, travel, and human experiences with both of those. I’m a contributing editor at Adventure Journal and a columnist at Outside. My stories have appeared in Backpacker, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Men’s Journal, Sierra, Adventure Cyclist, and other publications. My books are available here.

I created Semi-Rad.com as a channel for those of us who aren’t elite climbers, skiers, ultrarunners, and alpinists—the folks who love to get out there, but maybe don’t take it too seriously. Semi-Rad is enthusiasm for things regular folks can do, adventures for the every-person. It’s a website for those of us crushing it, kind of. I hope you enjoy it.

The thing I’m most excited about with this new platform is your ability to chat with other readers just like you. Last week’s thread
was really fun! Feel free to click the button to say hello. Or G’day.