[COMICS] David Kantrowitz
Everyone has problems in 'Sorry Thank You'
Sometimes I like to convince myself that I’ll learn how to draw. I fantasize about buying a sketchbook, streaming a MasterClass on my TV, and locking myself in my bedroom until I emerge with the next Drawing of a Horse.
Then I remember artists like David Kantrowitz, whose illustrations are hilarious AND dynamic AND original, and I convince myself that I didn’t wanna draw anyway. Kantrowitz’s two-volume Sorry Thank You is packed with an essential collection of jokes, oddities, and insights. Each page is so dense that your eyes are tempted to try reading every panel at once, but that would be like inhaling a steak without chewing it.
In fact, reading the tabloid-sized prints reminds me of flipping through the Santa Cruz Comic News. It’s a newspaper full of funny pages, and reading it makes you feel like the coolest grown-up in town. For more on Kantrowitz, read below for his answers to a few questions about what keeps his creative engine chugging along.
Ed Vaca
head scrambler at the egg
What are your goals as an artist?
I’ve always loved drawing, and no matter what’s going on in my career I’ve learned I’m happiest when I have personal projects to keep me creatively excited. I also have a background in comedy writing and performing, which greatly influences my ideation process as a cartoonist.
Tell us about your process. What happens after you've settled on an idea?
Even though I work digitally, my favorite ideas always start on paper. I like sitting somewhere comfortable away from my computer with just a pen and sketchbook. This will often just start with some mindless doodling, until I draw something that I think is fun and worth exploring further. Most of my comics are born this way!
How do you distribute your art, and does that inform the process of making it?
Over the pandemic I really fell out of love with social media and decided when it comes to my personal work, I’d no longer make anything purely for the sake of posting it online. Instead, I wanted to reclaim that time for larger projects, and that materialized in self-publishing my own comic zines. I sell them online, at zine fests, and through distros, and sometimes even just hand them out to friends and acquaintances - whoever will take them! All of which has been super rewarding and a way more meaningful way to connect with people than throwing my work into the void of the internet.
Where can people find you?
I know I just griped about social media a bunch, but I’m still on Instagram, which has become an extension of my newsletter/portfolio. You can follow me at @davidkantrowitz.
Newsletter: davidkantrowitz.substack.com
Portfolio: davidkantrowitz.myportfolio.com
Comic Zines: davidkantrowitz.gumroad.com
Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity. ⬤
