The 'Keep it Open' Cartoon, A NY-based Comedian & A Berlin-based Aussie Cartoonist...

#441: Plus! Ann Telnaes, Austin Kleon, & A Citizenship Sketchbook

Reminder: Father’s Day is this weekend — my dog book or a gift subscription to this newsletter make excellent gifts!

Hey again, friend.

Welcome to Issue #441 of New York Cartoons. If you know anything about how much I fought to find the cartoon above a home, you’ll know why it makes me so happy to finally see it published in this month’s New York Newsletter for The David Prize. 🙏 Read this month’s edition of their newsletter here.

Comedy Over Tragedy: What Austin Kleon Taught Me About Creative Survival

Last week, I had the pleasure of chatting with the brilliant mind behind Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work, and my personal favourite, Keep Going. What started as a conversation about creative routines turned into a masterclass on attention management, the importance of play, and why treating your art like a comedy might be the secret to actually surviving as a creative person.

Here’s a little taste:

Watch the rest and read the recap, complete with book recommendations below:

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Two Megalomaniacs Walk Into a Democracy: Ann Telnaes on Cartoons, Chaos, and Why We Can't Look Away

On Friday, I got to speak with Ann Telnaes, 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most fearless voices in political cartooning. (Also, one of my favourite people in the world.) We discussed the urgent question: “How do you document democracy's slow-motion car crash when two unhinged maniacs are fighting over the steering wheel?”

Ann doesn't mince words. She never has. When I described Trump and Musk as "a petulant toddler and a drug-addled lunatic lobbing bombs," she laughed and countered with her more accurate assessment: "Male adolescents who have too many toys."

We're not dealing with political disagreements here. We're watching what happens when unlimited power meets unlimited ego, and spoiler alert: it's not that funny.

Keep reading and watching in the full post below:

COMING UP…

Special guests this week include Comedian Matt Ruby and Berlin-based Cartoonist Chaz Hutton (who I only discovered is Australian this year after nearly a decade of following his work.) I’m excited to speak with them both.

Tomorrow at 1pm Eastern, I’ll be drawing while speaking with New York writer & stand-up comic Matt Ruby

Matt's the mind behind The Rubesletter, a weekly newsletter with over 16,000 subscribers who enjoy having their assumptions challenged while laughing hysterically. I'm genuinely excited to meet someone whose comedy consistently makes me feel both smarter and more cynical about the world, which is exactly the kind of emotional whiplash I love in my entertainment.

You can ask questions, make requests, or just watch me attempt to keep up with his brain. The stream will be FREE to all subscribers, because some conversations are too good to put behind a paywall. The replay will be available to paid subscribers because I still need to eat, and Morris still can’t feed himself.

The Sketch I’m sharing with you this week is a self-portrait from when I became a dual US+Australian Citizen…

Terrible photo of me mid-blink by Emily Azrael.

1. I had a great show at Young Ethels in Brooklyn on Friday night— thanks to Emily Flake for having me. If you aren’t already following her work, do so, post haste! She’s an excellent writer and cartoonist.

   

2. I have a show tonight at West Side Comedy Club if you’re in Manhattan and want to see comedians working on their new, undercooked jokes. It’s always a fun mix of comics— tickets here.
   

   

3. I went into Washington Square Park on Sunday and drew both cute & deeply offensive caricatures of people with a couple of friends. I’ll be writing about it and sharing the cartoons with paid subscribers in the next week or two… stay tuned.

Four years ago, I added Matt Inman to my “Artist Spotlight” series, not just because of his excellent work on The Oatmeal, but for his outstanding “10 Marvelous & Melancholy Things I’ve Learned About Creativity” which he dropped in 2020. He has just updated it to “Eight Things…” and if you can believe it, it’s even better. Take a look below.

If you’re new here, or you haven’t had a moment to wander back through the archives of profound genius I’ve shared up to this point, take a peek at the following scribblings: