Political Cartoon: Living Through Current Events is Hard

With big news for Eliot the Late-Night Host Cat!

Hello all! I have two cartoons to post since I last updated Substack but I’ll post them in order. Here’s the first one, published through Cagle.

I’ve written on a few social media platforms about how I want to use my late-night host cat character Eliot as a self-insert commentator. This is that:

Since initially sketching this, I think that it would be most strategically wise to focus on building recognition with Cagle subscribers through cartoons the readers are more likely to currently identify with, but I'm glad I did this.

However… a fantastic development has taken place since I wrote that with the initial writing of the above paragraph. This specific cartoon was picked up by The Brooklyn Eagle (also known as The Brooklyn Daily Eagle), a daily newspaper that “aims to serve all of the borough’s 2.6 million residents.”

Eliot can be seen fretting in the Brooklyn Eagle’s May 7th Cartoon Sketchbook, which means… [checks notes]… that he is officially a nationally syndicated cartoon character. This has of course been a lifetime dream for me.

See Eliot’s syndicated debut at the link here.

As of now, the Brooklyn Eagle has actually picked up numerous cartoons of mine via Cagle in their daily “Cartoon Sketchbook” posts. I am beyond grateful to them for their regular support of my work.

Even if I’m still working on building that recognition with other Cagle subscribers, it seems I have that recognition with the Brooklyn Eagle.

I feel a thrilled, ecstatic obligation to do more with Eliot now. Should I make plushies?

I have actually had a cosplay of him (in the Cats style) in the works for a while. I recently acquired a perfect gray suit for him from a recent Theatre Development Fund bag sale, and have had the blue kanekalon for his wig in storage for quite some time now. That may need to be expedited.

Until next time!