What Happens After the Great Operas?

Illustrations for "Liberating the Librettos" by Anthony Tommasini, for the 11/10 NY Times. Bonus fact: Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" helped inspire Weezer's "Pinkerton," my go-to warm-up album for high school track meets. 

After the Curtain Falls

This drawing appears in the Sunday, November 10 NY Times Arts & Leisure section alongside this article by Anthony Tomassini. Tomassini explores the unanswerable question of all opera (and for that matter, all fiction): what happens to the characters after the story ends?

I had a great time studying some classic operas and speculating about the future of the living (and non-living) characters. I also watched this video for inspiration. Thanks to AD Paul Jean for the gig!

People of the Art Museum

This illustrated journal of a trip to the Denver Art Museum first appeared in my series "Who Needs Art?" for Medium.com.

Horror Story

Sculptor vs. Painter

This comic first appeared in my series "Who Needs Art?" for Medium.com - check out the original post for some of the history behind the feud between Tatlin and Malevich. This comic could also be called "Constructivist vs. Suprematist." I think Constructivism was a fascinating movement, but I'm partial to the geometric energy of Suprematism. 

The last panel alludes to the Russian artists who combined the language of both movements in their work. One of my favorite examples is A Story of Two Squares by El Lissitzky, a remarkable children's book that advocates Constructivist principles of cultural progress through Suprematist shapes and colors. 

Autumn Sketchbook

Looking at Art

The final comic in my ten-part series "Who Needs Art?" is now up on Medium.com. I've spent the last 5 months exhaustively researching 20th-century art. I've visited museums, searched digital galleries, and lugged piles of extremely heavy art books home from the library. It felt like getting an art history degree - without the pesky exams or crippling tuition. The last entry in the series is an incomplete summary of some things I've learned by looking at modern art. The visual inspiration for the drawing was the sculpture park at The Nelson -Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, one of the best places to spend a fall afternoon.

Thanks to my editor at Medium, Charlotte Druckman, for helping make the series a reality!

The Joy of Reading #3

This is the final drawing in my series on the romantic possibilities of reading. Next week Incidental Comics will return to fully-clothed content. 

Just a reminder: you can order posters of almost any comic on this site at my shop. And you can now find the Best American Comics 2013 at bookstores and online! I features four pages of Incidental Comics, plus an outstanding selection of work from other notable cartoonists.

The Joy of Reading #2

The Joy of Reading

I had the great honor of illustrating the cover of the special Sex Issue of the NY Times Book Review! Thanks to art director Nicholas Blechman for the assignment. It’s full of thoughtful and hilarious pieces on writing about sex - one of the stickier topics to tackle in literature. The issue also features an autobiographical comic by Alison Bechdel (one of my favorite cartoonists) and gorgeous spot illustrations by Luci Gutierrez (one of my new favorite illustrators). 

I’ve turned my cover illustration and a couple of my unused sketches into a series of posters titled The Joy of Reading. I’ll post the other drawings throughout the week. 

American Art

This comic first appeared in my series "Who Needs Art?" for Medium.com. I originally posted it the week of Independence Day, but it takes on a new meaning today as the U.S. government begins an ineptitude-induced shutdown. In this country, as in every country, our art is far greater than our politics.

A New Style

The latest comic in my series "Who Needs Art?" for Medium.com features the geometric abstractions of Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg - the two main figures of the Dutch art movement De Stijl. You can read the full comic here. Caution: may contain primary colors. 

Dada Day

While researching the history of modern art, I noticed some parallels between the early-20th-century Dada art movement and the reckless enthusiasm of childhood. My daughter is not yet old enough to recreate the art of Marcel Duchamp, but in the next few years this comic may become a reality.

This is the third comic in my series "Who Needs Art?" for Medium.com.

The Ghosts of Creativity

My Neighbor Magritte

Read the full comic in my series "Who Needs Art?" at Medium.com.