The global corona virus pandemic is altering so many things. It’s changing lives; it’s changing life.  We are all in this together, all over the world, but it is affecting people differently, and in different ways. As a cartoonist, my job is to reflect what is going on in the world, or in my small sphere of the U.S. I have been drawing a lot about how the virus is affecting us.

This cartoon on the left was actually drawn pre-pandemic, but it was run during the pandemic. The one on the right was certainly autobiographical and done during the pandemic. It ran this week in The New Yorker

This was submitted to The New Yorker for a Daily Cartoon, but they didn’t buy it. I drew this at the height of the surge of cases in NYC.

 

 

 

These three cartoons were done in the last few weeks. The New Yorker didn’t buy these either.

Being at home is something that most cartoonists are accustomed to, but it’s starting to get to me. I feel disconnected. It’s true that I draw to connect with people, even at a distance, and I still do that. That’s one reason why I love social media so much. I can just put drawings there for people to enjoy, comment on, share. But being home all the time, I was searching for something else to do to connect, to help. One day, early in the pandemic, I set up my phone over my hand and drew for the camera, lightly talking about what I was feeling and doing. But also letting the pen make it’s lovely pen-sounds for the video. People told me they felt calm after watching me draw, and that is all I needed to hear. I would do it every day if watching me draw helped some people to feel better. And so now I am doing just that. Every day, I draw on Instagram Live and Periscope at around 5pm ET.

Here is one of the early ones.

Beginning soon after this one, I started talking to the camera more, as I drew.

And I began doing animations every day as well.

You can see all my animations and live drawing on my YouTube channel, or Instagram.

We do what we can to cope, and this is what I can do.