Watercolour Dogs, Ann's Pulitzer, & The Cartoon Pad Podcast!

#437: + Jazz Album Design, Tom Richmond storms NYC, & Baby Morris with his grandma...

Welcome to Issue #437 of New York Cartoons!

We have a new American pope! Also, the Chipotle across the street from me has a new Regional Manager! Things are really happening over here.

Thank you to everyone who has been buying the book and sharing photos of it with their pets. It’s so crazy to see them finally out in the wild! It’s surreal to have a book in the world and to hear that people are enjoying it so much. I really appreciate everyone leaving nice Amazon Reviews: if you haven’t already, I’d love you to please jump onto the platform and leave a nice review so more people can discover the book! It makes a huge difference.

This past week, I shared the process of how I created an album cover for one of my favourite musicians:

…

There's something uniquely torturous about illustrating jazz. It's like being asked to draw what water sounds like, or sketch the taste of a Wednesday.

Early in the pandemic, I found myself hunched over my drawing board, locked in my East Village apartment with a commission that felt both thrilling and completely terrifying – my first jazz album cover. The musician, Seattle-based Ryan Burns, had been using his quarantine time with suspiciously productive energy, recording sessions remotely with his bandmates from their individual isolation chambers. The album title, "Postponed Parade," was so painfully apt it made my molars ache.

To Ryan's eternal credit, he not only insisted on paying properly (a radical concept in the arts), but gave me complete artistic freedom. "Just listen to the music and do your thing," he said, which every artist knows is simultaneously the best and most paralyzing instruction possible.

Continue reading…

Also, I talked shop and learned how to use watercolor with the very talented

Jessie Kanelos Weiner

on the latest episode of “Draw Me Anything”. Take a look below:

Thank you to Tom Richmond for the kind shout-out on his Substack

The Ink Stained Wretch

. It was good to see him in NYC last week as he slowly made his way around Manhattan watching Broadway shows and draining Guinness taps. If you aren’t already subscribed to his brilliant newsletter, do so here.

I’ve got to take a brief moment to plug a new book by my pal Jason Chatfield and his writing pal Scott Dooley called “You’re Not a Real Dog Owner Until…”. Jason is hands down the hardest-working cartoonist I know. He’s a fantastic artist and writer, a fellow member of “The Usual Gang of Idiots” at MAD, a New Yorker cartoonist, did the now retired comic strip “Ginger Meggs” for years, former president of both the National Cartoonists Society and the Australian Cartoonists Association, a stand up comic, actor, performer… I’m getting tired just listing all the things he does and does well. He also has an incredibly successful Substack that I never miss.

Oh, yeah… and he co-wrote and illustrated this book that just dropped. It’s laugh out loud funny, and beautifully drawn. If you love dogs or known someone who does, this is for you. You can get a copy here from publisher Andrews McMeel, but better yet Jason offers a signed copy complete with a sketch of your pooch in it! Here’s mine:

Congratulations to the incredible Ann Telnaes on her Pulitzer Prize win!

I’m very proud to call Ann a friend, and someone I’ve looked up to since I was just starting out as a cartoonist. Well deserved. 🥂

Read more on Ann’s Substack here.

I got to attend the book launch for Ross Barkan’s long-awaited novel “Glass Century” which I haven’t been able to put down since I bought it. It’s one of the great “New York City” reads, —reviews have said “Glass Cen­tu­ry earns its place in the canon of the New York City nov­el, along with Don Delillo’s Under­world, Tom Wolfe’s The Bon­fire of the Van­i­ties, E. L. Doctorow’s Rag­time, and many others.” The launch was sold out and a big success.

You can grab a copy of the book here: amzn.to/4m6nMZp

Aaaaand lastly, I guest edited this past week’s edition of

ToonStack

—which was, unsurprisingly, DOG-themed. Take a look below:

FETCH THE STACK!

This week’s Sketchbook is pulled from the dog drawing I made in this past week’s edition of Draw Me Anything. You can see how I drew it here.

Podcast Appearance on The Cartoon Pad:

Had a great time talking with the guys at the Cartoon Pad about dogs and using Substack to promote my new book. Thanks to

The Bob

,

Marty Dundics

and

Michael Shaw

for having me. (Yes, Morris made a cameo. )

Listen wherever you get podcasts.

There are still a few shirts left over at Waking Up — grab yours before they sell out!

Baby Morris the day we got him, sitting on his grandma’s lap. (Happy Mother’s Day!)