Hair Dryers, Pen Nibs, and the 610th Cartoon: New Yorker Cartoonist Tom Toro Spills the Ink

Links & References:

Pre-order Tom's book: And To Think We Started As A Book Club (Simon & Schuster, October 7th) - LINK
Tom's Substack: Undiscovered Masterpieces
Live Event: Joe's Pub, November 12th (with Roz Chast!)
Tom's Website: tomtoro.com

Books mentioned:

• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

• Inked by Joe Dator

• Richard's Poor Almanac by Richard Thompson

• The World of William Steig by Lee Lorenz

Remember: Pre-orders matter. Your local cartoonist is depending on you to click "buy" before October 7th. Consider it your civic duty to the republic of silly drawings!

I spent an hour yesterday chatting with Tom Toro, one of the New Yorker’s most compositionally obsessive cartoonists. In that time, we covered his legendary apocalypse cartoon, the proper shade of green for a crocodile, and why two men holding cameras over sketchpads always look like they’re about to be questioned by police.

Thank you

Paul Noth

,

Michael Maslin's Ink Spill

, and many others for tuning into the live feed. Remember— the videos are always free to tune into live. (The replays are available for paid subscribers ($1/week.)

Tom joined me for what I optimistically call a "live drawing session," though, really, it's just two grown men pointing cameras at sketchpads whilst trying to continue sounding professional. He was calling in from somewhere out West, perched in what he described as "not his natural habitat".

The Backstory (Or: How to Pitch 600 Cartoons Breaking Into Hell)

Tom broke into the New Yorker in 2010 after what he cheerfully describes as "two and a half years of submitting" and collecting those classic rejection slips we all know and loathe. His big break came with cartoon number 610—which, as he points out with characteristic self-deprecation, doesn't mean the previous 609 were "undiscovered masterpieces." (This, incidentally, is also the name of his new Substack, because the man understands branding.)

But here's the beautiful irony: his most enduring cartoon (the above, about creating shareholder value before the apocalypse) was submitted almost by accident. He wasn't even planning to send cartoons that week. He was at a writing retreat, dashed off a batch to Bob Mankoff, and went back to pretending to work on his novel like everyone else.

The cartoon shows a businessman in a torn suit telling children around a campfire: "Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time, we created a lot of value for shareholders." the New Yorker wanted it immediately for an issue—meaning Tom had to abandon his retreat, race home, and finish the artwork faster than he'd ever worked before.

The Art of Not Overthinking

This led us into a discussion about the perverse creativity that emerges from deadline panic. I confessed I’d probably fidget with drawings forever if left to my own devices—classic Parkinson's Law in action. "If I have an open deadline, I'm never finished."