#386: The Return of New Yorker Softball, A Halfternoon with Picasso, & Morris VS. AI Robot Dog

+ Morris *also* meets Allergy Season, & more!

…I hope you’re having a great week!

Thank you all for making this Substack a best-seller. I really appreciate all the support these past two years. I’ll be investing a lot more time into this newsletter going forward. I hope you enjoy what pops out of my head.

Let’s kick on. It’s a long one this week, so maybe click the title above so it doesn’t get cut off by your email browser?

1. I don’t know if you saw that episode of Black Mirror…

It aired seven years ago, and was called “Metalhead”. It featured those eerily uncanny valley-esque robot dogs you see in those Boston Dynamics videos, aiding the military and such. It’s a monochromatic, dystopian horror that was incredibly stressful to watch (but let’s be honest, who’s watching Black Mirror to chill out before bed?)

2. An OnlyFans Comedy Night at Rodney’s

I went to a comedy show at the new Dangerfield’s reboot run by my pals at @NewYorkers. It was fun to see the logo I designed used as a big neon sign on stage when they did this at The Stand.

Rodneys

It’s hard to pinpoint the highlight of the show… it was something between free pizza and meeting a New York Icon. Paid Subscribers can read the full account on Friday.

3. New Yorker Softball: Season 2024

Each week, the New Yorker softball team meets at the softball diamond in Central Park and plays writers, fact-checkers, and cartoonists* who work at other magazines & media organizations based in New York like Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Paris Review, and many more.

I am probably the least valuable member of the team, with the knees of a septuagenarian and the pitching arm of an old chair. Each week I will document our wins, our losses, and everything in between. So, get your lukewarm light beer out, and get ready for another season of…

*I’m kidding. Nobody else has cartoonists anymore.

The 2024 official team uniform was designed by the inimitable Roz Chast.

This week, we were pitted against longtime rivals, New York Magazine.
It was one hell of a game to start the season.

You can keep tabs on this season’s wins and losses at:

This week’s Sketchbook is a selection pulled from last week’s premium post “Quick Lorraine on Pablo’s Patio” 👈 You can read it here.

Speaking o’ sketches…

…go check out fellow cartoonist

Ed Steckley Illustrator

in his newsletter

The Steckley ‘Stack!

Ed taught me nearly everything I know about live cartooning, making the perfect queso, and drinkin’ whiskey. Oh! And he’s got a video showing you how he does drawings using one of my all-time favourite pens, the Tombow Hard Tip Fudenosuke Brush Pen

While I do love the convenience of an iPad/Wacom/Xenselabs tablet… I can’t ever replicate the joy of using analog tools. I’m launching a new Substack 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.

He’s been having a hell of a time with allergy season this year…

(It got him extra chin scritches this week…)