DMA Guests this week: New Yorker Cartoonist Liza Donnelly & The Goblin King of Watercolours (Kyle Beaudette)
Join me as I talk to two of Substack's most popular cartoonists
This coming week, I’ll be doing not one but two editions of Draw Me Anything, where I’ll be talking with two of Substack’s most popular cartoonists, Liza Donnelly and Kyle Beaudette.
Save the Date: Liza Donnelly
Tuesday, February 24th @ 12:30 PM EST
Longtime subscribers will remember her from DMA#25, where we covered everything from breaking glass ceilings to the intricate politics of drawing pigs and aliens. Liza has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1979 (I started in 2017, so I am basically a toddler in comparison), and she has been a tireless champion for women in a field that, let’s be honest, was a bit of a boys’ club for about, ooooh, 90 years.
This time, she is back to talk about something impressive: Liza has directed a new documentary called Women Laughing, which is having several upcoming screenings in New York.
Inspired by her acclaimed book Very Funny Ladies and her own life, Women Laughing is a deep dive into the history of women cartoonists at The New Yorker. It journeys back to the 1920s (did you know the very first issue in 1925 featured a cartoon by a woman, Ethel Plummer?) and traces the strange disappearance of women from the magazine in the 50s and their triumphant return in the decades that followed.
As always, the live stream will be free to everyone; the replay will be available for paid subscribers only.
Save the Date: Kyle Beaudette
Thursday, February 26th @ 4:30 PM EST
Somehow, in a moment of weakness on his part, I finally convinced the amazing, brilliant, and terrifyingly talented Kyle Beaudette to join me on Draw Me Anything.
If you aren’t already familiar with Kyle’s work, you have likely seen it and thought, “I feel seen, slightly attacked, but also delighted.” He describes himself on his own Substack as a “character designer, author, illustrator, balding, man, fat, pig, cartoonist”, which is the kind of brutal self-deprecation I usually have to pay a therapist to extract from me.
Kyle is a “mixed media” artist, which is a polite way of saying he is good at literally everything. He spent 15 years as a sculptor before pivoting to watercolour and ink, and the result is a style that looks as if Quentin Blake and Shel Silverstein had a baby, and then that baby was raised by goblins in a swamp.
We are going to talk about his fantastic book The Garden Witch, his obsession with drawing chickens and frogs (specifically “Frogman”), and his deeply necessary “Toot Fairy” prints that I may or may not have hanging in my bathroom.
This is going to be a masterclass in character design, embracing the grotesque, and drawing with a sense of humour that is both dark and weirdly wholesome.
What is a DMA?
You’ve probably heard of an AMA (Ask Me Anything), and sure, that’s always interesting. But I figured since you probably don’t want to just see my face staring back at you for an hour, it might be more interesting if I point my camera at the drawing board and draw away while you ask me questions, make requests, and I can share tips on the creative process!
Be sure to turn on ‘notifications’ on your Substack app to be notified when I go live. If you haven’t downloaded the Substack app yet, you can do so here. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Put it in your calendar. Do not be the person who misses the moment we discuss the architectural integrity of a goblin’s nose.
‘til next time
Your pal,
Subscribe to Liza’s Substack here: Liza Donnelly
Subscribe to Kyle’s Substack here: Kyle Beaudette