Author Archives: Ampersand

Cartoon: Our Loss, Your Gain

Posted on December 10, 2023 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by Becky Hawkins and I. The book Diets Don’t Fail, by Jascha Fishburn, says (in its jacket copy): A diet has never failed anyone; however, many people fail diets, again and again every day. This attitude is … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | Leave a comment  

Cartoon: Women Need To Be More Warm And Approachable

Posted on November 4, 2023 by Ampersand

I saw this exchange on Twitter. For context, “David” is an anti-feminist with 7,000 followers, and Andrew Tate is a famous misogynist: David’s sentiment is common among incels and anti-feminists (two groups with significant overlap) – if young women would … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, misogyny, Sexism | 4 Comments  

Cartoon: The GOP Tax Policy Cycle!

Posted on October 24, 2023 by Ampersand

Bobby Kogen, at the Center for American Progress, writes: Long-term projections show that federal debt as a percentage of the U.S. economy is on a path to grow indefinitely… House Republican leaders have used this fact to call for spending … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc., Economics and the like | 44 Comments  

Cartoon: Service Animal Blues

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Ampersand

Another collaboration with Nadine Scholtes, who has quickly become a fixture. I asked Nadine if there were any topics that she’d particularly like to do a cartoon about, and she surprised me by saying “something about service dogs. Like people … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Disabled Rights & Issues | 7 Comments  

Cartoon: Reality vs Imagination, Trans Kids Edition

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Ampersand

Recently, the journalist Jesse Singal – who has a well-earned reputation for being anti-trans – made an error that he thought was understandable, but to many people – me included – seemed ridiculous. He came across an interview with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 45 Comments  

Diets Don’t Work Therefore You Must Diet

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Ampersand

This cartoon, drawn by Becky Hawkins, is a straightforward adaptation of a Michael Hobbes tweet (with Michael’s kind permission). Michael, for those who don’t know, is a popular podcaster, whose three podcasts (past and present) are You’re Wrong About (a … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | Leave a comment  

Cartoon: Self-Made Billionaire

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Ampersand

This feels like a very old-fashioned lefty cartoon to me; it’s super-didactic, reliant on labels, has no real punchline, and it’s less about telling a joke then it is about trying to illustrate a basic principal of lefty economics. Other … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Economics and the like | 8 Comments  

Cartoon: So Where Are You From?

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by Nadine Scholtes and I. ══✿══╡°˖✧✿✧˖°╞══✿══ This, or something very like this, is an annoying experience a lot of Asian-Americans seem to have. In a TV interview, Grace Kao, a sociology professor at Yale, explained: The first … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Race, racism and related issues | 3 Comments  

Cartoon: Shoving It Down Our Throats

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Ampersand

Welcome to new collaborator R. E. Ryan!  R. E. Ryan is a history and comics enthusiast from Portland, Oregon who makes both fiction and nonfiction comics. (Oddly, although he and I live in the same city, we’ve never met outside … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 7 Comments  

Cartoon: Eventually You Gotta Inhale

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Ampersand

In 2020, Helen Pluckrose and I had an online debate over if dieting works. During this debate, I said “Not a single weight-loss model – including long term approaches – has ever been shown to work in a peer-reviewed controlled … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | 17 Comments