Inspirations

This cartoon ran in the Wall Street Journal recently. I remember this idea being inspired by a Liza Donnelly cartoon I saw in her book with her husband, Michael Maslin, Cartoon Marriage.

This was hers…

I liked the idea of having a funny sounding food in the caption, and the idea of it being a semi-catastrophe. 

I sometimes feel wary about my cartoons coming across as too similar to cartoons that already exist, especially if my idea sprang from seeing someone else’s cartoon. It’s a fine line between copying someone, versus being inspired by them or taking on a similar subject matter or joke structure. In the end I felt this one was different enough to justify it standing on its own. 

Recently I was reading James Thurber‘s cartoon collection, Men, Women, and Dogs…

And I came across this cartoon:

And I thought, “Hey, that reminds me of a Liza Donnelly cartoon I saw recently. This one:

Now, I don’t know for certain that Liza‘s cartoon was inspired by Thurber’s, but I do know that she is a big Thurber enthusiast, so it stands to reason… I thought, “If a great cartoonist like Liza is clearly inspired by giants like Thurber, I guess it's OK for me to be inspired by her!”

I actually briefly got to chat with Liza and Michael when I was in NYC last year for the New Yorker 100th anniversary. I couldn’t believe it. I basically just gushed to them about how great they both are. 2 of the best for sure.