#354: My First Bloomin' Onion, New York Comic Con, Joe Dator & Nells Bells!

+ Digital VS. Analog Sketchbook & Morris asks the BIG question.

I hope this fine day finds you safe and relatively mentally stable. What a time.
I hope you like this week’s cartoon above. I drew it a while back… it is, sadly, an evergreen.

1. After 9 years in America… I finally tried Outback Steakhouse for the first time.

Paid subscribers will be receiving a fully-illustrated report in the next week. In the meantime… here is the abridged Note:

2. New York Comic Con!

I will be at New York Comic Con this week from Thursday to Sunday at Booth #4106. Come by and say hello, or G’day, or whatever you say to passing strangers. Buy a book! I’ll draw your kid in it. Or your friends’ kid. Saying G’day.

3. Nell’s Bells!

I’m just back from a brand new comedy festival in Pennsylvania called Nells Bells. On the second day, we had lunch at the St Nell’s Humor Writing Residency and got some great photos from the incredible Mindy Tucker.
I’ll be writing up a full recap with cartoons next week.

Photo by Mindy Tucker (@WithReservation)

The things I send in addition to this free, weekly email are available only to paid supporters. If you’re seeing this and you’re already one of those exquisite legends, thank you for your support. If not, I would love you to…

This week’s Sketchbook: 3x Analog. 3x Digital. You tell which is which.
While I do love the convenience of a Wacom tablet/Xenselabs tablet/iPad pro or whatever you like using… I can’t ever replicate the joy of using analog tools. I’m starting a new Substack in 2024 called “Process Junkie” to explore all of the joys of the Process of making art. If you’re interested in that kind of thing, you can sign up here.

If you enjoy my work, there’s a hefty chance you might like the people I enjoy, too. Each week, I share a new person who tickles my fancy. This week’s person is…

Joe Dator

An award-winning cartoonist, author, illustrator, and regular contributor to The New Yorker for the past 17 years, I think Joe Dator’s cartoons are some of the most reliably funny in the magazine.

Some of you might remember Joe as the hero who helped one of my favourite cartoons find a home.

Speaking of finding a home… Joe was forced out of his studio apartment by a flood. It was a modest space, but affordable for NYC on a cartoonist’s wages, and it allowed him to live and work in comfort and dignity. Not only was he put out of his home, but his friend Walter (below) suffered severe crinkling from the water damage.

If anyone out there has such a space, knows of such a space, or knows someone who knows someone who knows of one, please contact Joe.

You would have not just his eternal gratitude, and the knowledge that you’ve helped an artist keep doing what he does, but also some original New Yorker-published art by Joe!

Until next time,
Your pal,

Jason

Play?