Half-naked branches,
black, with yellow flags waving
gentle in the wind.
The guest artist for this cartoon is Nidhi Naroth. Nidhi’s work has a vibrancy I love – even their desaturated colors somehow glow.
I asked Nidhi for a two-sentence bio: “Nidhi is a queer artist with roots in South Asia. They adore conversation and will definitely keep you for an hour or so to talk about various mythologies and folklores (only if you have the time to spare!).”
Please help there be more of these cartoons by supporting my Patreon!
I wrote this strip years ago, based on some eye-rolling complaints I’d heard and read from disabled people, about how some ablebodied people treat them. I showed a rough version of the strip to some disabled readers, and the reaction was mixed. Everyone liked the message, but several people felt that my disabled character, by getting angry, was feeding into a stereotype about disabled people as filled with rage about their disabilities.
Their critique made sense to me, and I put the strip aside. But I still liked something in the strip, so it sat in my unfinished folder for years. Once every couple of years I’d glance at it, say “oh yeah, the test readers didn’t like her being angry,” and move on. Until earlier this year I glanced at it and thought “well, then, is there any reason she has to be angry?” Very often the simplest solutions are the best.
When Nidhi and I were talking about collaborating, I showed them several strips, and they chose this one. I couldn’t be more pleased with how the strip came out, and I’m glad the strip waited years to be drawn, because otherwise Nidhi wouldn’t have ended up drawing it.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels. All four panels show a few people in what appears to be a park, with a path going past some enormous looking trees.
The characters might be teen girls, or might be young women. One of them is wearing a sky-blue tee shirt and has long red-brown hair down almost to her waist. One of them is wearing a brown hoodie, with the hood down, and has a nice-looking short haircut.
The third is wearing a bright yellow button-up shirt open over a brown undershirt, with her brown hair in high pigtails, as well as a necklace and some bracelets. She’s walking with a dog on a leash. She’s wearing shorts, and we can see she has two prosthetic legs.
PANEL 1
Blueshirt, walking next to Shorthair, is talking to Pigtails. Pigtails has turned back to talk to Blueshirt. All three are smiling, but Pigtails is holding up a hand in a “please stop” gesture.
BLUESHIRT: Excuse me, I just wanted to say, it’s so inspiring seeing you walk your dog despite your disability!
PIGTAILS: Please don’t.
PANEL 2
A closer shot of just Pigtails as she cheerfully explains.
PIGTAILS: When strangers say I’m “inspiring,” they mean they’re amazed I can do normal human things.
PIGTAILS: Like I’m a video of a cat walking on its hind legs!
PANEL 3
A long shot shows Pigtails waving goodbye as she and her dog walk away. Blueshirt and Shorthair are silent, and look a little bit remorseful.
PIGTAILS: I don’t want to be your inspiration, okay? I just want to walk my dog.
PIGTAILS: Have a good day.
PANEL 4
A closer shot of Blueshirt and Shorthair; Pigtails is no longer here. Blueshirt is grinning, her eyes wide, clasping her hands together on her chest. Shorthair is smiling as she holds up her smartphone, taking a photo.
BLUESHIRT: The way she chewed us out? So inspiring!
SHORTHAIR: I can’t wait to post this on Facebook!
Wander sits contemplatively beneath our coffee table, pondering something catly. His uncle, Pete, liked to sit in this position, too.
Brisk air on my arms.
Colder days come, and the dark,
but this day: fresh, calm.
It was lovely to attend and meet wonderful people, including convention organizers like Melanie Unruh, Meg Ward, Linda Nelson and Christine Childs, among others! My great thanks to them for putting on a wonderful event and having me there.
Apparently, this was on everyone else’s minds, too, as the toast master and most of the guests considered what it’s going to be like as we return to a world with conventions and people, rather than lonely houses in quarantine. In particular, I was considering how our current global situation feels both science fictional and not.
Here’s a bit of what I said:
It’s hard to think about what quarantine isolation would have been like in 1918. The dystopian imagery from our cyberpunk novels has come out as people wrangling babies while doing video conferences and lawyers showing up to court wearing kitten filters. It’s science fiction, but mundane and liveable. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow–no matter the excitement or import of events–will always be inflected by the tiny things. Our EMTs need bathroom breaks. Our nurses come home with PTSD from full days of both horrible death and also average, ordinary work. Hundreds of thousands of people die, and the dog still needs walking.
They’re all stories that break the rules about what “can” be done in fiction. Dinosaur is written in second person and takes place internally; Purse is a list story that ends just as events start taking place; and Quiet is written in an omniscient, consensus point of view without individual characters. Art is full of possibilities. Why constrain ourselves as artists or readers?
I was on a panel about Gender Beyond the Binary where we discussed examples of non-binary characters in fiction, and one called Starfish Out of Water which discussed stories of aliens on earth (with a digression into the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the Star Trek episode Darmok).
My favorite panel was Art As Resistance with panelists Eneasz Brodski and Chaz Kemp, moderated by Kim Klimek who did an unusually excellent job with posing questions and furthering discussion. Chaz Kemp was passionate about the idea that making and enjoying art is itself an act of resistance. One of the first things fascist governments do is restrain art. They arrest–or even kill–artists. As much as the contemporary United States has problems, I think it’s incredibly important to remember that artists are (by and large) not taking our lives into our hands with what we say and how we choose to say it. The world hasn’t always been like that, and in many places it still isn’t. I worry greatly for our colleagues in countries where government reprisal is more than a threat. I found this panel profound and am grateful to the other panelists, and the moderator, for the discussion.
On a personal level, I enjoyed seeing long-time friends and colleagues like Carrie Vaughn and Matthew Rotundo. Also, it was a blast seeing the masks–sequined masks, fringed masks, masks with cartoon capybaras… I wear a paper mask because I can stand having it on my face, but oh, I appreciate the sequins.
Although it was less of a difficulty in one-on-one conversations, I do have to say it was disconcerting presenting to a masked audience. I didn’t realize how much I rely on seeing people’s faces for their reactions! Without smiles, or even grimaces, audiences seemed to be very raptly paying attention in an extremely sober fashion, which is weird when you’re trying to tell jokes. 
Thanks again so much to MileHiCon–everyone who worked on the convention, and everyone who attended!
If you like my cartoons, please help me make more by supporting my Patreon.
I have to admit, this cartoon would have been more current back in May. But on the other hand, employers complaining about lazy workers – and seemingly not considering (or more realistically, refusing to consider) raising wages – is one of those stories that seems to pop up again and again over the years.
In this most recent iteration, various employers, Republican governors, and the US Chamber of Commerce all blamed staffing “shortages” on unemployment benefits, rather than low wages. It’s as if the most basic lesson of economics 101 – supply and demand – somehow fled their minds.
From 1950 until 1970 or so, the minimum wage rose at the same rate as worker productivity. But since then, productivity has skyrocketed while the minimum wage’s value has gone steadily down. If the minimum wage had kept up with productivity, it would now be around $24 an hour, according to economist Dean Baker.
Instead, low-wage pay in the U.S. hasn’t even kept up with inflation over the decades – meaning minimum-wage workers are in effect getting paid less and less. All that extra money from rising productivity is going to the people at the top.
Is there a way out of this? I think there is – but it would have to start with a stronger labor movement. Which is a cartoon for another day.
I’m having a lot of fun trying to improve my perspective drawing skills. It really slowed down drawing this cartoon. (Partly because I let myself draw details that got lost behind word balloons.)
There are cartoonists who do this sort of thing a lot better than I do – but I do feel I’m getting better, and that’s a really nice feeling.
As usual, when I was done drawing the cartoon, I looked at the ground and thought “that looks so bare,” and started adding leaves and pebbles and litter all over the place. I always feel a bit guilty doing that on cartoons that Frank Young is going to have to color, but Frank claims he enjoys all the little details.
My other big drawing challenge, in this cartoon, was the bike in panel two. Drawing bikes is something that’s really intimidated me in the past, so I’m pleased to have made this one work. (Or, I think it works. There’s always the chance I’ll look at that bike in two years and wince.)
On second thought, the biggest drawing challenge wasn’t the bike or the perspective drawings – it was drawing business dude in panel 3. Drawing someone from above and behind turned out to be very difficult – I had to redraw him a bunch of times before getting a figure I could stand.
The hardest part was the arm and hand holding the phone. The little hopscotch girl was kind to me and isn’t holding a phone, so she was much easier to draw.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon is four panels long. Each panel shows the same prosperous-looking middle-aged white man, wearing a suit and tie, walking on city sidewalks and talking loudly into his cell phone.
There’s an additional tiny “kicker” panel below the bottom of the comic.
PANEL 1
Necktie man is talking into his cell phone with an aggrieved expression. He’s walking pass an annoyed-looking young guy leaning against a wall. The young guy is wearing a backwards baseball cap, glasses, and a tank top, and he’s speaking to necktie man. Necktie man gives no sign of having heard.
NECKTIE: I’ve tried everything to find new workers! I’ve gone to job fairs… Offered them tee-shirts for applying…
WALL LEANER: Did you offer higher wages?
PANEL 2
Necktie dude is now in a different area, still looking aggrieved and talking loudly into his phone. On the street next to the sidewalk, a blonde woman on a bike, wearing a red bike helmet and a blue hoodie, talks to Necktie as she passes him.
NECKTIE: I can’t fill these jobs! I even got the government to throw people off unemployment… Nothing works!
BIKER: Have you tried offering higher wages?
PANEL 3
Necktie walks past a little girl playing hopscotch on the same sidewalk. The girl is wearing a purple skirt with puffy tool at the bottom, and a sleeveless tee with a pattern of red spirals.
NECKTIE: I’m offering unpredictable schedules, minimal benefits and $9 an hour! And they still don’t want my jobs?
LITTLE GIRL: You should offer higher wages.
PANEL 4
Necktie dude walks past a couple of casually-dressed protestors. The first protestor is holding a large sign that says “HIGHER,” and the second protestor has a large sign that says “WAGES.”
NECKTIE: I’ve tried everything. They just don’t want to work!
NECKTIE: Hello, governor? Can we arrest people for being unemployed?
TINY KICKER PANEL UNDER THE BOTTOM OF THE STRIP
Necktie dude, still looking grumpy, is talking at Barry the cartoonist.
NECKTIE: I’d love to pay higher wages, but we don’t have the money! I had to get by on only a $38 million salary this year!
Today, I’m sending my patrons a new chapbook–Scragamuffin.
I didn’t intend to write another chapbook; it just sort of happened. Unfortunately, we lost another one of our cats, and this one was only nine. So, it’s been kind of a bummer.
I wrote a bunch of poems about Pete, and also started drawing pictures based on photographs of him. I lucked into a style I like a lot so I’ve been drawing other animals–pets and otherwise–since.
This Patreon chapbook contains about twenty poems, about twenty illustrations, and the rules for one game (which can only be initiated by a cat).
I hope folks find it fun or funny–or at least furry.
All of my patrons receive premium content every month. Donations of any amount are gratefully appreciated. Every little bit helps. (Especially, alas, as my husband has been laid off again. Poor Mike.)
If you enjoy these cartoons, help me make more by supporting my Patreon! A pathetically small amount of money ($1! $2!) turns into a living for me when multiplied by a whole bunch of readers.
I’m about halfway through drawing a cartoon about city budgets, but the new Dave Chappelle stand up special on Netflix, which premiered six days ago, diverted me. Chappelle’s special was full of misogyny and transphobia, but the transphobia was perhaps more central to his show.
Chappelle closed the show with a long story about a transgender comedian he was, he said, close friends with (although he also said he didn’t know his friend has a daughter until after her death). It’s a sad story, and I’m sure Chappelle really did love his friend. But it was also a transparent attempt to excuse the transphobia of his show by saying “look, I have a trans friend!”
Normally I’d hesitate to do a cartoon about a stand-up special which most people won’t remember a few months from now. But the “one of my best friends” will, sadly, continue being relevant long past Chappelle’s use of it, so that seemed to justify doing the cartoon.
When I was a child, “some of my best friends are Jewish!” was already a cliché. And one that was obviously ridiculous – of course someone could both have a Jewish friend (or a Black friend, or a trans friend, etc etc) and still harbor some bigotry towards the group. It’s commonplace.
The “some of my best friends are _____” excuse implies a model of bigotry in which bigots are always overwhelmed with anger and hate towards whatever group they’re bigoted at. In this model, it’s impossible for a bigot to be nice to, or to feel fondness for, a _____, because apparently they can’t even be in a room with a ______ without trying to punch them or something.
But in real life, that’s not how it works. Bigotry isn’t limited to blind hatred; it can come out in more subtle ways. And people are full of contradictions, including the contradiction between being bigoted against ______ while still liking a particular ______, who is considered “one of the good ones.”
Think about how many misogynists nonetheless love their wives or their daughters.
While I was drawing this strip, I came across this wonderful response to Chappelle by Mx. Dahlia Belle, a standup comedian here in Portland.
Again Dave, some of us are Black, and when I was growing up in the midwest, there was never a shortage of racist white dudes to tell me about their Black friend, who gave them permission to say “nigger”. I hear you, Dave. I hear you holding up our fellow comedian Daphne Dorman as the Good Tranny, who never made Dave feel bad for being transphobic.
My character in this strip is based on Chappelle – both what he says and his appearance.
But I didn’t sweat making the drawings into a recognizable caricature of Chappelle, since this cartoon isn’t just about Chappelle. I just look at some photos of Chappelle and did the drawings, and figured however they came out is how they’re meant to be.
Which isn’t to say I didn’t work the drawings – but I worked, not on creating a resemblance to Chappelle, but on things like expressions and body language and finding ways for four drawings of a guy just standing there to not all be the same.
Incidentally, for me to get this cartoon done only six days after the premiere isn’t exactly a record for me – but it is much, much faster than I usually work. I sometimes suspect I’m the world’s slowest political cartoonist. (But I get there eventually!)
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows a good-looking black man with a shaved head – let’s call him, oh I’m just picking a name at random here, “Dave.” Dave is wearing a gray leather suit-style jacket buttoned over an off-white tee shirt. He speaks directly to the reader.
PANEL 1
Dave speaks to the reader, but with his face turned a little bit to one side. His expression is interested but also a little weary.
DAVE: I had a friend who’s a transgender lady. But she wasn’t like those other transgenders.
PANEL 2
Dave now grins, speaking more directly to us, and holding out a hand palm-up in a friendly fashion, like he’s speaking with his hands while telling a story.
DAVE: When I joked about trans women’s bodies and p******s and called them “dudes” and said “yuck,” she just laughed long and hard.
PANEL 3
Now Dave looks annoyed, looking down a bit, as he thinks of his critics.
DAVE: She didn’t criticize me or make a fuss about “pronouns” or use made-up words like “TERF” like other transgenders do.
PANEL 4
Dave is looking at us again, smiling, arms spread wide.
DAVE: She was a good one.
DAVE: In conclusion, I had a transgender friend, so nothing I say can ever be transphobic. Take that, transgenders!
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