Odd Can Be Good

I'm not talking politics here, for a change

For a break from politics, I thought I’d share some drawings with you.

Below are a few drawn recently and were in my weekly batch for The New Yorker. They ended up being ones that they did not want to publish. I have been drawing for the magazine for over forty years, and this is the system which some of you have heard me describe before: you create as many drawings as you want each week (usually 8-10), send them in on a Tuesday and then they decide. The senior editor and the cartoon editor choose from the thousands of submissions that come in each week.

So for those of us who are in this crazy business, we audition every single week for a spot. It’s kinda nuts. There used to be other publications to sell to after you got rejected by The New Yorker, but there really aren’t any anymore. So it’s not easy, and involves a lot of rejection… but then the more you draw, hopefully the better you get!

(btw, I am very grateful to you all, because I get to show you my rejects and get your feedback and support)

This first one was inspired by all the bikers I see (not motorcyclists, but bicyclists). I noticed that they tend to have a lot of gear. And what also inspired this was just modern-day consumer habits: people have a thing for everything. If you know what I mean.

This next one was inspired by something I saw on the street as well. Walking somewhere in NYC, I hear a bird noise nearby— it was different from any pigeon coo, or sparrow chirp I sometimes hear. Then a woman passed me and I saw she was carrying a small, strangely shaped, ovalish cage. The bird sound came from the cage. She was moving pretty swiftly, and I wanted to ask her to stop so I could identify her caged bird (I have been known to go birding, I admit it). But I was too shy to ask, and off she went.

So when I sat down to draw last week, I recalled this encounter, and I thought, what other kind of carrying cages are there?

This next one just came about from wanting to draw two people on a picnic. So I did. Then I drew the sunset and wondered what could be surprising about a sunset? That it has its own PR team? And hence it has promotional flags? Something along those lines…

Pretty strange, I admit it. But you have to push yourself to do odd things to get to the good things. And sometimes the odd ones are the ones that work!

Finally, here is a drawing The New Yorker bought years ago, and they finally ran it this week in the magazine. I am personally fond of it because it’s so simple. This one came about with a drawing of a grazing horse, then a woman sitting backwards on the horse, and then I gave her a bowl. Then the caption. Sometimes cartoons come out of drawing, not “thinking,” and I like that kind.

Thanks for being here, see you tomorrow!