MOnsTer STaCk

Dearest Readers,

Open up your closet doors, look under your bed, heed the hairs standing up on the back of your neck - it’s time to think about the monsters in your life.

How are your monsters? Are they striving? Charming? Vicious? Harried? Supportive? Terrifying? Cute?

Do you run screaming from the monsters you create or grow secretly fond of them or is it an uneasy balance between the two? Or, do you calmly take their measure and walk away until you’re out of the reach of their grasping claws? (If so, bravo, you really let that therapy in).

Are your monsters cats?

Enough questions. I can’t get at your monsters by guessing, and I can hear their teeth getting restless. Here’s a tiny tour of some of our monsters. Feel free to share it with yours.

-Kendra

This is one of those cartoons where the drawing has to be very charming to make the silly, kind of willfully cumbersome joke work, and I've really come to love this striving green monster. It was written by KJ, a friend who is very funny, but can be reserved about feeding me ideas to draw, ideas for which I have (with dignity) begged. KJ was enthusiastic and forthcoming about this monster book idea, which, all by itself, is very funny to me.

HILARY CAMPBELL

I could write a whole tv show on this guy.

I know some people like to think they can just slap a sticker on their pet and call it an 'emotional support animal', but truly the most ambitious version of this was when I saw a guy carry a clear plastic bag with a baby octopus into a San Diego Chipotle, referring to it as his "Emotional Support Cephalopod". He said he was from North Dakota. Fun!

Every week clean laundry transforms my sweet cat into a paranoid creature jealously guarding her fabric hoard from human hands that dare commit the crimes of sorting and folding.

It's true, I was afraid of the Wild Things as a child. Those Sendakian fur beasts were almost as scary to me as Suess's psychedelic creatures. I preferred my picture books to be about humans, not monsters. But now that I'm a grown up, you know what's really scary? The beach! Sun? Sand? Body dysmorphia? This summer you can find me in a city park, seated comfortably on a bench, under a tree, fully clothed, thank you.

KENDRA ALLENBY

I’m so fond of this monster. The romance may never work, but maybe, if the monster nudges the wine forward just a little bit more - they could be friends?

But wait, there’s more!

• Check out Support Craft - Sara Lautman’s new award-nominated book and find more from her on Bluesky and Instagram.

• Find more from Leise Hook on Instagram.

• It’s the 2 year anniversary of Hilary’s Real Live Girls! Come celebrate with our fantastic lineup! May 28th from 6-7:30 at Young Ethel’s!

• Jason is offering a custom sketch of your dog in his new book "You're Not A Real Dog-Owner Until..." Click here to order yours.

• Hilary releases

  Cartoons by Hilary
  every Friday!

• Amy Kurzweil
  ’s graphic memoir, Artificial: A Love Story, was named a best book of 2023 by The New Yorker, NPR, and Kirkus!

• Check out Navied’s critically acclaimed graphic memoir, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America.

• Amy Kurzweil
  l teaches cartoon classes on Patreon! Sign up now to get the recording of every past class!

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  ’s regular weekly Substack at NewYorkCartoons.com