more zining

Second instalment of Sweenie's Wienies, available only in the Chosen Family zine at select locations, and at my Patreon, Carolitaland. Here's my favorite panel. If I'm honest, I'll just say that Sweenie in this panel is really the inner me in 2020 just before the Shutdown, by which time I was burned out after five years of serving progressively clueless gentrifying elements at a cafe that was thankfully frequented mostly by regulars I loved. I still miss working there except for times like in the panel below!

Zining for my upstate buds

I was asked if I wanted to contribute to an upstate zine, and the answer was heck, yeah! It was a pleasure to be able to contribute an idea for two 2-page spreads (one this month, and one next month) based on a little combination of a re-imagined Sweeney Todd (demon barber of Fleet Street) and Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal.

To see the entire thing, you'll have to head to the Hudson Valley. Follow Chosen Family on Instagram to see where you can find it. Or, sign up to my Patreon at Carolitaland, where I'll share it with you for a small fee (or a large one, if you so choose).

Here's a sneak preview:

It ends badly... 

Drawing with my "twin" Fred Armisen for The New Yorker!

And hey, I got a note from a viewer who told me I'm wrong about "La Parka" -- apparently the Parcae were the women in Ancient Greek mythology who decided life and death matters, and only are coincidentaly homonymic with the Russian etymologically rooted "parka," meaning the hooded garment. 

How to draw a wedding cartoon! And Carolitaland meets Monsterland!

Emma Allen, the illustrious Cartoon/Humor Editor at The New Yorker, interviewed me on how to draw wedding cartoons, on being/not being invited to weddings, getting/not getting married, and what is funny (what's not?) about the insanity of weddings. Just click on the cartoon below to watch:

There is a transcript below the video if you (like me) don't love videos, but the video is worth watching if only to watch my drawing speeded up to amusing speeds by the wonderful editors Christopher Hwisu Kim, Sara Joe Wolansky, Soo-Jeong Kang and Brian Redondo. Added, admittedly dubious, bonus: learning that I apparently still laugh like a dorky seventh-grader.

Another thing I just learned about was the appearance of my Kingston O+ Festival installation in an episode of Monsterland! I expected the film crew to erase my work for the shoot, but it seems they kept it, and so my work is immortalised! For now, at least, if you click on the screengrab below, it'll take you to one of the scenes in which my work appears (it appears earlier, about 6 minutes into the whole episode, as well). See previous post about O+ Festival for details on the installation.

I have a Patreon!

Now that I have time and no one has any money, I thought I'd just do it for love. Here's a teaser image for my shiny new Patreon. Click on it to get there, and send me good vibes if you can't send money. It's really, really okay. We'll muddle through somehow, as the song goes. Hang in there, and wash your hands! xoc

NB: RIP Hammy, who was the inspiration for this story. He left us in August. A prince among dogs.