427. A Marx Brother Birthday at the Algonquin, Democracy Under Siege & The Outsider Art Fair
+ A Birthray, Tom Bachtell, The return of 'Someone You Might Like' & Morris finds his happy place.
…Coming to you from a very ink-stained drawing board in Hell’s Kitchen, welcome to Issue #427 of New York Cartoons!
I’m still reeling from the documentary I saw last night at the IFC, featuring former Washington Post cartoonist and now Substacker, Ann Telnaes. The documentary is called Democracy Under Siege and was completed before the election last November. Its prescience is chilling. The film feels like someone standing on the beach as the tide is going out, yelling to everyone, “Get to higher ground! A Tsunami is coming!” while they remain nonchalantly reclined in their beach chairs, sipping piña coladas, muttering, ‘Relax, you’re over-reacting!’
What struck me most was that due to the fact that this documentary was made to explain the US system (and Trumpism) to Europeans, it had a lot of foundational information about how the US Constitution and Electoral system was constructed and how it has since been gamed. As a newly minted US Citizen, I had to study up on this system and its mechanics before my Citizenship Test and subsequent Naturalization Ceremony. This past November was the first time I’d ever voted in a US election. (Hey, comedy is timing!)
Many other countries have had outdated constitutions, but they were able to update and amend them to match the moment— Times change, societies modernize, but sometimes the archaic ideas in an ancient founding document need tweaking. The way things have been designed in the US system almost guarantees that nothing will change to create a more equitable and sensible electoral system.
You can see from the trailer above that Ann’s work features heavily in the film, along with commentary from Heather Cox Richardson, Elie Mystal, Steven Levitsky, and a slew of political science professors and experts in constitutional law. Their commentary throughout the documentary rings very clearly as a clarion call for anyone with the means to sit up, pay attention and push back on the absurd authoritarian actions inexorably steamrolling the us government in these first 100 days of the new nightmare administration.
While we had drinks at a nearby bar after the screening, the President was bloviating at the pulpit for over an hour to a joint session of Congress, including several surreal reality TV moments that must be seen to be believed.
It was hard to put down the phone and pay attention to the room. Fellow cartoonists Signe Wilkinson & Jeff Danziger were also there to support. These days, it’s a rare gift to spend time with fellow scribblers amid the miasma of hate and fear permeating every aspect of our daily lives. But, we keep drawing.
The work Ann has been doing this year is some of her best, and you can read her Substack here. She was one of the first people featured in my (now returning) “Someone You Might Like” series on NewYorkCartoons.
You can find in the “From the Archives” section below my response after Ann resigned from the Post earlier this year—quite a story.
Anyway, enough doom and gloom! Let’s crack on with this week’s edition. As always…
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…
Zoe Si
I've enjoyed watching Zoe Si's meteoric rise from lawyer-who-draws to New Yorker cartoonist extraordinaire, and it's been like watching someone skip the awkward adolescent phase of cartooning and go straight to creating work that sets a new tone for illustration in cartoons.
I first saw Zoe's work when she was still practicing law in Vancouver (a fact that makes me feel like I've accomplished approximately nothing with my life). She started posting her cartoons on Instagram, capturing the particular neuroses of modern life with a perfect line economy and composition that felt so measured and confident. Her use of pattern and texture is always so deliberate but restrained.
Her style is unmistakable – clean, approachable linework with characters that somehow manage to be adorably cute and existentially distressed. It's a visual contradiction perfectly capturing how most of us move through the world these days: presenting a palatable exterior while internally screaming.
A Birthday for the Reluctant Marx Brother at the Algonquin
The Creative Director of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, David Leopold, invited me to a special celebration of Zeppo Marx’s 124th birthday at the legendary Algonquin Hotel in midtown last week.
The walls were adorned with the inimitable work of the aformentioned caricaturist, and the room quickly filled up with friends and admirers of both Marx and Hirschfeld to launch the new book by Robert S. Bader, “ZEPPO: THE RELUCTANT MARX BROTHER”
The crowd gathered as spoke about the book alongside Dick Cavett. (If you don’t know who that is, I’m going to need to see your driver’s license before I buy you another round.)
I managed to ruin a perfectly good photo of Jackie Hoffman with my dorky grin. I’m nothing if not a lurking eavesdrawer in rooms I almost certainly don’t belong in. Paid subscribers, stay tuned for my Algonquin Sketchbook from the event.
The Outsider's Outsider
On Saturday, I found myself at the Outsider Art Fair, wandering through a maze of bizarre creations that seemed to exist in defiance of everything I had learned in art class. The Metropolitan Pavilion buzzed with collectors wearing expensive shoes but pretending they'd just wandered in off the street.
If you haven’t been to this thing, I highly recommend going next time it’s on. Eye-opening stuff!
I’ll be at this very same pavillion in a couple of weeks, shilling my wares at the MoCCaFest event held by the Society of Illustrators on March 15-16. I’ll be there on Saturday 15th, from 3pm to 7pm. Stop by and say hello!
HAPPY BIRTHRAY!
My dear pal and fellow cartoonist, Ray Alma celebrated his birthday yesterday. In true New York style, longtime MAD Art Director Sam Viviano and I took him out for a nice big birthday pie, complete with candles and anchovies before we stuck him with the bill. With friends like these…
You can see Ray’s incredible work here.
Bachtell is on Substack!
I want to draw your attention to the fact that excellent illustrator and longtime New Yorker contributor TOM BACHTELL is on now on Substack! You can follow him below:
This week on Process Junkie, I dive into the art of the gag cartoon— and the importance of letting the reader arrive at the punchline themselves.
He’ll be right with you once he gets over how proud he is about pulling the squeaker out of his new toy…
Don’t forget Gummo!
A lovely picture of you and Ann Telnaes. She is knocking it out of the park right now, but it feels like the other team is playing a different game and Elon Musk has hacked the scoreboard to get it to read 666-0.