Joe Dator.

Bio: My cartoons have been appearing in The New Yorker for almost ten years. I’ve also appeared in MAD magazine and on a piece of toast.



You can find this print and more here.









This is my desk. I bought it from an architecture student in 2007 for $150. Pretty cheap. If I ever run into her again I will give her s̶̶̶o̶̶̶m̶̶̶e̶̶̶ ̶̶̶m̶̶̶o̶̶̶r̶̶̶e̶̶̶ ̶̶̶m̶̶̶o̶̶̶n̶̶̶e̶̶̶y̶̶̶ a signed drawing.



I keep a lot of little toys around. I probably have too much Star Wars stuff, but it’s essential to the creative process, as having a girlfriend would be far too distracting.



Tools Of Choice:







I submit my idea sketches on cheap printer paper with felt tip pen. They’re pretty rough so usually the finished piece is dramatically different from the approved sketch. I always think I’m going to get in trouble for this but I never do.





I waste a lot of paper trying to get the facial expressions right, so usually I’ll do those first, tracing them directly in ink with a lightbox, onto Vellum-finish bristol. If the faces look right, then I’ll pencil in the rest of the cartoon on that sheet.





This is the stage where I’ll change things up a bit, working out details that I was too lazy to bother with in sketch form. I use cheap Bic mechanical pencils from the drugstore. Cartooning is a very inexpensive venture.







I ink with Dr Ph Martens matte black, and a Spencerian Panama Pen No. 41 nib. I have three of them. They’re vintage nibs, and I don’t know when or how I got them, and I have no idea how to get more. They just seem to feel right to me. They have the right amount of give and the right amount of stiffness. I don’t like my line to be too expressive. I like to keep it fairly deadpan, because I think it suits my humor best.





I paint the tone in with ink wash, and some pretty cheap brushes. Really, cartooning is incredibly inexpensive. I don’t know why more people don’t do it!







“The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath” -Led Zeppelin



Tool I wish I could use better: I wish I were better at painting with the ink wash. I’d like to do some more elaborate scenes and get some more subtle effects with light and shade.





When I was The New Yorker’s daily cartoonist for two months, I changed my technique entirely, because of time constraints. I would draw the line art with a felt tip pen on paper, then scan it and do the “wash” painting in Photoshop. Besides being faster, the digital watercolor brushes let me have more control. At the risk of sounding like George Lucas, I think my work was better thanks to the digital tools. And of course the best part is having “⌘-Z” for undoing mistakes.



Tool I wish existed: I wish I had “⌘-Z” for undoing mistakes in real life.



Trick: One secret trick I’ve discovered is that if you just procrastinate long enough, you will eventually find that your work has miraculously been done for you by benevolent woodland creatures. A busy convergence of squirrels, baby deer, birdies and industrious ants will come to your home to write and draw hilarious gags. Most people don’t know this trick, and they never will know, because they just don’t put things off long enough.



Misc: I’ve never had a hobby, at least until now. I’ve recently started hosting a podcast called Songs You’re Sick Of. It’s a fun show where I get together with friends and colleagues (many of them fellow cartoonists) to dissect the lyrics of classic songs. I think it’s a hobby because I don’t get any money from it, and it’s a mostly stress-free venture. Also, it’s very inexpensive. Podcasting is almost as inexpensive as cartooning, but there are a lot more people doing it. Two-thirds of the total population of the Earth, at last count.





Website, etc: I can be found on all the computers, at the facebook, and the twitter, instagram, and at joedator.com and songsyouresickof.com. It’s a maddening labrynth of digital choices, and isn’t that what life in the 20th century should be all about?

