Welcome to New York Cartoons!
Illustrated stories about city life from a New Yorker Cartoonist & Comedian
Welcome to New York Cartoons!
By subscribing, you will get a weekly post in your inbox with a free cartoon and a picture of my Frenchie, Morris.
As an Australian cartoonist and comedian who transplanted myself into this concrete jungle, I document the absurdity, hilarity, and occasional moments of surprising humanity that make this city simultaneously unbearable and impossible to leave.
This Substack is my sketchbook-turned-diary—observational comedy drawn from life (literally). Every essay features stories you won't find anywhere else: from navigating comedy club green rooms with A-listers to sketching strangers on the subway without getting punched, to overhearing conversations that confirm New Yorkers are, indeed, a different species entirely.
This city is a living cartoon—chaotic, exaggerated, and occasionally profound. Sometimes, you need an outsider's eye to truly see a place, and my perpetually baffled Australian perspective offers exactly that.
If you decide to upgrade to a paid subscription for just $1 a week, you’ll get additional cartoons, stories, and sketches from my life in all forms, as well as audio versions of stories recorded in the location where they were drawn/written.
In addition to that:
🗝️ UNLOCK THE ENTIRE ARCHIVE:
As a paid subscriber, you can go to New York Cartoons and read the entire back catalogue of previous posts.🔉 GET NARRATED VOICE POSTS
I go to the places in New York that I write about and narrate the story into my phone, complete with New York atmospherics (and unplanned cameos from passing New Yorkers…)
As well as my weekly cartoon on a Tuesday, you can expect posts in such categories as:
🗒️ SKETCHBOOKS: I’ve always carried a sketchbook everywhere I go in New York. I have years of journals and sketchbooks with stories that I’ve never shared before now…
☕️ LONG READS: Stories that you could read over a big mug of coffee.
⚡️ SHORT READS: Stories that you could read over a shot of espresso.
🎙️ COMEDY: My gig stories and tour journals from doing stand-up comedy for the past 17 years in both the US and Australia.
✍️ LIVE DRAWING: For over 20 years, I’ve been doing live drawing of special events— both for private clients and sometimes just for myself.
😇 PEOPLE YOU MIGHT LIKE: I share people from all walks of creative life who, if you like me, you’ll probably enjoy too.
🗯️ YOUR SHOUT: I love hearing stories from other New Yorkers, so if people send me theirs, I sometimes post them with a custom illustration.
You can get a 14-day free trial to take a peek behind the curtain of what Paid Subscribers get. If it doesn’t float your boat, no worries!
If we haven’t met yet…
Hi, I’m Jason! 👋
I’m a New Yorker cartoonist, author, and comedian originally from Perth, Western Australia. I live in New York with my ridiculous dog, Morris. We’ve been here for 10 years, which means my journal is full of crazy stories I haven’t shared with anyone. Yet.
I’ve worked as a professional cartoonist and served on the boards of cartoonist organizations for 20 years, serving as President of the Australian Cartoonists Association (AU) and National Cartoonists Society (US). A real glutton for punishment, I know. 👉 More about me here.
The stories I share aren’t in any particular order.
Sometimes they’re long. Sometimes, they’re short. Sometimes they’ll be sketchbooks, and sometimes they’ll have audio embedded in them from the location I wrote/drew them in. Some of them will be made while I’m at my drawing board in my studio using…
…aaaaand sometimes I’ll only be able to make them wherever I’m standing at the time, using…
Either way, I hope you enjoy the stories I tell and that you share them with people who might like them too.
✉️ Catch up on some popular posts:
Coming to America: My first days in New York.
Dangerfields: Tales from the oldest comedy club in the world.
Overheard at the Comedy Cellar: An eavesdrawing assignment from the New Yorker.
Paris Sketchbook: Christmas Creatures of Bar 228
Outback Mistake-House: My Surprising First Encounter with a Bloomin’ Onion
Six Duck Salads with Gus Van Sant: A New Yorker Cartoonist Lunch with one of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors.
Curlie: The Canary in the Coalmine of the Lower East Side.
Tiger Hood: A chance encounter with a Greenwich Village legend.
Tour Diary: Hitting the road to do Comedy During the 2016 Election.
Studio Habits: Clearing Physical Space to Make Way for Mental Creative Space.
🙏 You can further support by:
Submitting Stories for the Your Shout section here (sample: #1: The Chess Pigeon of Washington Square Park.)
Gifting a subscription to a friend you think will enjoy it.
Engaging with fellow readers in the comments. Sending good vibes.
With love, your new pal,
…and Morris 🐶
