a group of good-looking, talented cartoonists sitting around a table outside.

Cartoonists tend to be a a more introverted bunch, but that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy getting to hang out once in a while. Having moved to Los Angeles relatively recently, I’ve been looking for ways to meet more cartoonists here. With some help from an unofficial New Yorker Cartoonists’ Slack group, I connected with a few and have organized a couple get-togethers in downtown LA.

Meetup in September of 2023 clockwise from lower left: yours truly, Tommy Siegel, Erika Sjule, Lila Ash, Ariel Rucker Ehlers, Ivan Ehlers, John McNamee

Above, our first get together, a great turnout!

Four cartoonists sit around a dinner table
From left: Ken Levine, Jose Arroyo, Lisa Rothstein and me! There were many other cartoonists there at other tables out of frame.

I didn’t organize the above dinner, this was the National Cartoonist Society holiday party. I met some new folks who have been in the humor writing game longer than me!

Four cartoonists at a coffee shop
Meetup in March 2024 with some of our show and tell! From left: Theora, Jose Arroyo, Erika Sjule and Tommy Siegel.

I coordinated another get together in March on what turned out to be a pretty soggy day. Still, we had a great time chatting about the creative process and our methods for churning out new joke ideas.