Once more for the seats in the back!
Cartoons, road trips, hell gigs, dogs, robots, and the things you somehow kept reading in 2025
Hey, friend!
As we wind down 2025 tonight, I wanted to share yet another best-of list from the year. (Yes, your inbox needed another one of these.)
Let’s be honest, you’ve probably been banking up a bunch of these for ‘when you get time to read them’ anyway… so now that your holiday dinners are out of the way and you’re digesting various leftovers with your belt undone, why not scroll mindlessly through some of this year’s posts that made you laugh, comment, share, gasp, and ask, “What is wrong with this lunatic?”
This was such a big year for this newsletter, and it wouldn’t have been possible without you, especially the paid subscribers. Your support makes all of this possible — it pays for ink, coffee, sketches, interviews, guests, and the occasional gin at a bookstore bar. Thank you.
Aaaaand if you’re reading this as a free subscriber and enjoying it, imagine what you’d get on the paid side next year: Deeper essays, more big guest interviews, audio versions, sketchbooks and the whole archive unlocked. 2026 has massive guests and stories brewing. You can upgrade your subscription right now for just $1 a week!
And with that… here are my top 20 posts from 2025:
Ten years on from Charlie Hebdo, and the vibe shift has only gotten nastier. Islamic and other fundamentalist extremists are still doing their thing, and it’s not getting better. A serious one, but one I still think about weekly.
A cartoon in solidarity with Ann Telnaes. Also, a small reminder that a spine is an underrated artistic medium.
Death of Illustration by a Thousand Prompts
Skechers, AI ads, and the slow napalming of the creative playing field. If you’ve ever yelled “WHO APPROVED THIS?” at a billboard, this one’s for you.
Ann Telnaes: Talking Musk VS Trump & Freedom of Expression!
A Draw Me Anything episode that turned into a masterclass in staying sane while the world does a backflip into a hedge.
The Comedians in the Coal Mine
On satirists, cartoonists, stand-ups, and why we’re basically the same anxious animal in different hats.
Notes on Notes (and Why I’m Cautiously Optimistic about Substack)
A sermon for the algorithmically wounded. Also, me trying to understand the internet without my head collapsing.
Homesickness, gratitude, memory, and the weird dignity of being Australian in Manhattan for one solemn early morning.
Comedy Over Tragedy: Austin Kleon’s Masterclass On Creative Survival
A conversation that’s basically a creative defibrillator. Practical, calming, and insanely wise.
Dan Driff, Rabbits Paying Child Support, Skydiving Otters & A Skeet Shooting Rhino!
One of those DMA episodes where we start talking about drawing and end up somewhere spiritually adjacent to fever dreams. It was a fun one.
A reality check that isn’t meant to depress you. It’s meant to confirm you’re not imagining the ground moving.
My career became old enough to drink. Unfortunately, it immediately started kvetching to me about its lower back pain.
Huge Announcement! Cover Reveal of Our New Book About Dogs…
A proper milestone post. Excitement, nerves, dog show chaos, and me trying to act like a normal adult.
Book Creation Process: from Concept to Finished Book
A behind-the-scenes look at how books actually get made, aka spreadsheets, panic, revisions, and hope.
‘How do you decide who you’re going to be when you get up in the morning?’
One piece of advice that rewired how I work. Also, a reminder that “style” is often just stubbornness with better lighting.
A pared-down version of my FIT guest lecture. Equal parts pep talk and existential shrug? Maybe?
My ride-or-die drawing kit, plus the ongoing delusion that I’m a person who is “organised”. (Spoiler alert: I’m not.)
I landed in America on the 4th of July.
An anniversary reflection that’s part gratitude, part disbelief, part “how has this place not ejected me yet”.
A conversation with a living institution, and a reminder that longevity is its own kind of creative muscle.
Artist Spotlight: Sergio Aragonés
A love letter to my favourite living cartoonist, and a gentle shove to keep making stuff from the margins.
The Robots Are Coming (And They’re Just as Dumb as Siri)
If your Roomba has ever tried to end its life under your sofa, you already understand the thesis.
Anyway, thanks for reading my stuff. Here’s to another 12 months of weird, absurd, and deeply unhinged cartoons.
‘til next year,
Your pal,
You did all that in a year? You are a MACHINE!
Wait. ARE you a machine?
Nice work, mate.