Random Batch of the Week

Welcome back to to Random Batch of the Week, an ongoing segment where I take you on a trip through one batch of cartoons that I have submitted to The New Yorker. I got a lot of numbers thrown at me last week, thanks for that. I’ll get to them eventually, today we’re going with Batch 23, chosen by ‎Rony Vardi. Thanks Rony!

Batch 23 is good batch, a fine, strong batch. He’ll make a good husband and provide for your family. Created on July 13th, this batch has a fair amount to talk about. But first, a little context. Emma Allen had just taken over as the new cartoon editor from Bob Mankoff, so I, the lazy guy that I am, took this opportunity to resub a bunch of previously rejected cartoons that Emma had never seen. This batch is four batches into her role, and it still had a bunch of resubs in it. Okay let’s get into it.

This was a resub. This is also one of those times where the joke wasn’t translating. In my head, the joke is, here’s this guy on his way to work, he somehow gets caught in a situation where every corner of the sidewalk is closed off. Resigned, he sits, grows a beard and his clothes tatter, as if he were stuck on a desert island. In my head this made sense, but that’s a lot of dots to connect and it just ain’t there in the image. This is a rare situation where it would have worked better as a multi-panel comic.

I remember Bob’s advice on this one when I first submitted it to him. He said it would make more sense if “instead of some guy, it was a banana peel.” That’s a different joke, but a much funnier one. I got excited, I wanted to draw that. But then he added, “But that’s been done.” Oh well. Emma didn’t take it either. Next!

This one is also confusing. Listen, I was still new to this. Who am I kidding, I still make confusing bad cartoons every week. Anyway, the joke here is that we got a team of some sort looking at a graph. But that graph you see, is supposed to be the Rubin Vase, that optical affect where you can look at it as a vase or two heads in profile. The effect doesn’t really work well without the silhouette, and the silhouette can’t be in it because it’s also supposed to look like a graph. Now you see the underlying problem with the joke. A swing and a miss, I guess. Whattyagonnado.

This one I ended up selling to Barron’s right before they stopped taking cartoons forever. It’s the rare toon that is both political and evergreen, which considering the topic, really sucks. This cartoon also marks my first foray into politically oriented cartoons. Just a week later I sold my first Daily Cartoon to The New Yorker. These are always specific to the moment and usually political. I did a lot of Daily Cartoons throughout Trump’s first term until something broke inside of me and it all became just too sad. There’s a lot to say about political cartooning, lots of ways to look at it, how they function in culture and politics. I’m of several minds about them and often find my thoughts are inconsistent. Maybe I’ll write about it sometime in the future. Or maybe I wont. I don’t know! I can’t see the future! Leave me alone!

Here’s another political one. The joke is, Trump loves golf and doesn’t care about the country, so sometime in the future he’ll turn the capitol building into a Trump golf course. Not a terrific joke, but perhaps a little prescient of Jan 6th??????

Yet a third political joke! You can tell I was just throwing stuff at the wall. Actually, as I write this, I remember what was going on. Before Emma took over, the Daily Cartoon was done by one cartoonist who was tasked with drawing them each morning for two weeks or so. That system changed when Emma came in. Now, every morning any cartoonist can submit a cartoon sketch before 9 am. If chosen, they are told by 10 and have until 12 to draw the finish. That would be the day’s Daily Cartoon.

Under the old system, there was no way I was going to be picked to draw them, I was still new and had I no experience with politically bent cartooning. Under this new system, however, I had a shot. Drawing the Daily gave you extra money and extra attention and a new way to get your work out. So I started drawing them. These last three cartoons are all rejected Dailies that I put into this batch on the off chance that I could get one in the magazine. None of them sold, obviously.

Anyway, the joke here is that Trump is a child and everyone is scared of telling him no.

This cartoon was also a resub. It didn’t sell anywhere, but when I posted it on IG, it did somehow get the attention of cartoonist Nathan Pyle, who graciously shared it, as well as some others, with his gigantic following. That post is what got the ball rolling on my IG numbers. Always thankful for that!

And here is the cream of the crop! It’s also one of my moms favorites, which she wants you to know. There’s so much to say about this one. I did sell it to The New Yorker that week, and I was really hoping that I could keep the handwritten caption, but alas, I could not. They gave it the regular font and rightly changed the date to reflect when it was actually published.

This was the fourth cartoon that I had sold to The New Yorker about NYC transit. The subway was like “my thing;” I was like “the subway guy.” Only in me head though. Everyone else just looked at me funny when I asked to be called “King of the MTA.”

The other fun thing about this cartoon is that it was performed live on Late Night with Seth Myers. Unfortunately I can’t find a proper video of it, but that link will send you to my IG where I recorded it from my phone, which honestly, is the best way to watch anything. Ask any film director that. Christopher Nolan famously wanted everyone to watch Tenet as a bootlegged recording on their phone.

If you don’t want to bother with all that here’s a pic:

There used to be this segment every time David Remnick would come on the show. They would get comedians to perform some of the cartoons as live sketches, sort of. Anyway it was fun to see my work all blown up like that. The guy who played the trapper is Seth Reiss, who went on to write The Menu, a movie I really love.

OKAY enough gloating. I’ll get back to my usual self-deprecation next week. Want a taste of it now? “Boy, I hate myself.” Happy?

Okay, thanks for reading! See you next time.