Other Neds Helped Out.

Hello! 

Today I’m going to discuss one of my more popular cartoons, “Ned Helped Out.“

People like this cartoon! Some folks have told me that they like to say “Ned Helped Out” when they do some minor housework, kind of like a catchphrase. Around my house, my catchphrase is “Oh god, it’s back! It’s coming through the walls! What is it? WHAT IS IT?” Unrelated, my wife’s catchphrase is “Ellis, wake up, you’re having that nightmare again.”

“Ned Helped Out” is a simple cartoon, but like many of my simple cartoons, its inception was overly complicated. I wish I could just conjure up my ideas fully formed, but that’s rarely the case. I often struggle with a concept and try out all sorts of angles, until the obvious approach becomes clear.

That’s how this cartoon happened. What was unusual is that I submitted all my versions of Ned to The New Yorker. I sent in four Neds total, and no other toon that week. I don’t know exactly why I did that. It’s not a good strategy. I should have been thinking up other cartoon ideas instead of spending so much time on what Ned was up to. Regardless, I got lucky and sold “Ned Helped Out.”

Here, just for you subscribers, is the other three versions of Ned:

“Ned Dreams of Great Things” was the first Ned. Then my buddy and brilliant cartoonist Lars said he should be dreaming about having a hat. So I made the hat version. Then “Adventures of Ned” sprung from that.

“Adventures of Ned” was getting a bit out of control, so I went back to “Ned Dreams of Great Things,” and tried to insert a little bit of specificity unrelated to hats. It just so happens that I had taken care of some minor chores earlier, and was feeling a bit too proud of myself. So “Ned Helped Out” was born. I hadn’t been vacuuming, but vacuuming was a good visual shorthand to get the point across quickly.

This kind of cartoon wrestling usually takes place in the sketchbook, but like I said, for whatever reason I submitted all of them to a very confused editor who asked “who’s Ned?”

I didn’t have an answer and I still don’t. That’s the Ned story! Thanks!

What Else?

• A cool thing you can buy is this Customizable "Ned Helped Out" cartoon. Put anyone’s name on it! Good gift!

• Did you know that I have years’ worth of cartoons on GoComics? I think I get around .0000000001 percent of a penny per each click, so go through them all and make me rich!

• You can follow me on all sorts of crap: Instagram, Twitter, Substack, blah blah.

• You can also license and/or buy merch from CartoonStock and the Conde Nast store.

• I got a Pickleball cartoon book! And a companion Jigsaw Puzzle. You can buy them if you like them. You can also buy them if you hate them. You can buy them no matter what mood you’re in.