My Eleven Favorite MRC Comics of 2017 (in no particular order)

Traditionally this is when I’d do my year-end wrap up and post the Top 10 Most Popular Comics, talk a little about the previous year and look ahead to the new one. But this time I want to do something a little different.

2017 was a difficult year for me, personally and professionally. I missed more Monday updates this year than in 2011-2016 combined. I released a new book that sold an embarrassingly small number of copies. And of course the hostile takeover of the United States by its worst enemies hasn’t helped my productivity any.

But I did exhibit at some art shows, which was a fantastic experience and something I plan on doing much more in 2018.

And now, what you’re all here for, the Top 10, which is a Top 11. And it isn’t the most popular comics of 2017, it’s the ones I like the best. Enjoy!

These are my Eleven Favorite MRC Comics (in no particular order)

This is the first thing I published in 2017 and I’m as proud of it today as I was then. I could (unfortunately) change the number and it would apply equally well to this year. It’s literally just me voicing my personal opinion in cartoon form. Art reasons I like it: drawing these two characters in a location besides the bar was fun. Also this is the best rain I have ever drawn.





A group of owls isn’t called a congress, it’s called a parliament, I know. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I just love the absurdity of the scene here. Taking a situation many readers will find familiar and completely turning it on its head - what joy! That the cop is wrong about the “fact” he so enthusiastically shares just makes it funnier to me.





The Far Side by Gary Larson is a huge influence on my work. Every so often I’ll sit down and attempt to do my version of a Far Side cartoon. This is the only time where I think I nailed it.





Anyone working in food service or retail knows the struggle depicted here. Also it took - no joke - three hours to draw all those damn donuts.





Some cartoons I’ll slave away for hours only to have seven people like them on facebook and zero retweets on twitter and it’s super disheartening. While other times I’ll dash off some half baked idea in 45 minutes and people will share it far and wide. This comic was one that I finished in under an hour that I was sure would hold that mass appeal… and didn’t. It was almost universally ignored.





My Most Googled Comic of 2017. Wherein I poke fun at Elon Musk and anyone who ever overenthusiastically shared that dumb “simulation hypothesis” meme.





My most literal political comic in a year where it was impossible for anyone with a conscience not to draw political comics. Based on the famous Captain America cover by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, I wanted to make unequivocal my views on the worst US President in my lifetime and possibly of all time.





Another multi-panel comic! I definitely spent a lot of time outside of my comfort zone this year. This one is a goof on the “millennials are killing the _______ industry” scare pieces that lazy baby boomers are continually pushing in an effort to shift the blame for their systematic destruction of the middle class and subsequent incredulity that the people being denied living wages and basic health care aren’t buying fabric softener or department store diamonds or $10 Applebee’s cheese sticks. Fuck off.





Another one inspired by Gary Larson, with a twist. Tangentially, some people have asked why the MRA douchebag is wearing an “I Love SF” hoodie. In my lifetime I saw San Francisco go from a vibrant city full of life and art and music in the mid to late 1990s to a corporate wasteland in early 2000s and slowly, painstakingly over the next decade return to its former glory after the dot com crash, only in the 2010s to see the city I once loved evict grandmothers from their homes in the Mission, become home to Mark Zuckerberg and a tax shelter for Twitter, close uncountable restaurants and clubs, and almost overnight become one of the worst cities in America. With shit like James Damore’s sexist screed at Google and the human garbage that was until just recently CEO of Uber, making the men’s rights activist a SF tech bro was an obvious choice.

I don’t usually draw myself into my own comic but when I do it’s to reference actual events.





This is one of the best things I drew all year. It was one of the least popular comics I’ve ever drawn.

Thank you for your love and support and friendship this year. I’m looking forward to a better 2018 for us all.

