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About a decade ago, Will McPhail was just an ordinary zoology student. Now, he's regularly drawing for the world-famous The New Yorker magazine. How does one make such a change in their lives? Well, McPhail admitted to "doodling lecturers" when he was supposed to be learning. And even though he did graduate, it was enough to pursue a cartoonist's career.
So, instead of continuing to study the animal kingdom, he chose to immerse himself in the wildlife of Edinburgh's coffee shops and libraries. There, he analyzed peoples' social behavior, turning his findings into clever and funny comics.
McPhail is now expected to have between 8 and 10 ideas per week for The New Yorker cartoons, a popular American magazine established 94 years ago. "The best I can do is to find an area that I want to do a cartoon drawing on and accept the stage - then hope that my sense of humor moonwalks on to that stage," the artist told the BBC.
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"I don’t really have any artistic qualifications," McPhail told Bored Panda. "In fact, I actually studied zoology at university. Because when you ask a seventeen-year-old what they want to do with their life, they always make the correct decision. Thirty grand and four years of my life is a small price to pay for the three armadillo facts that I now know. I’ve had creative ideas and did drawings all my life, though. Or at least as long as I’ve known about pencils."
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The artist mostly draws single-panels because he's usually drawing cartoons for The New Yorker, which are classically a single-panel deal. "The weekly submission of cartoons to the magazine is really the only structure I have in my life and every career opportunity that I’ve been given has been directly because of my work being seen in The New Yorker. So I owe them pretty much everything! Armadillos always give birth to four identical quadruplets," he explained.
Despite having a career that allows him to live and work anywhere in the world, Will made up his mind to remain in Scotland even after his cool drawings blew up on the international scene.
"Scotland's got some kind of draw on me," he explained. "There's something about Scotland that just draws creative people and I've definitely felt that."
One of the reasons behind this choice is the abundance of inspiration he finds in the country. "It's my job to capture all different walks of life, the idiosyncrasies of life, and Edinburgh and Scotland have got a plethora of different classes and niches of people."
"There's all sorts of fascinating social avenues you can go down and find people from all backgrounds. It's super inspirational when it comes to coming up with drawing ideas."
We might invent a lot of our problems, but McPhail never usually tries to trivialize those problems in his cartoons. "I’m usually on the side of the character with the problem because it’s invariably based on my problems! I just think that desperation and panic is very funny. Armadillos are one of the few animals that can contract leprosy."
Also, he blames the pressure he felt at a young age to find a "realistic" career path and is happy he chose to deviate from it. "I realized I didn't need permission to be creative."
Having experienced it firsthand, Will encourages others to follow their dream careers as well. "Education is a good thing - but I think a lot of the time, people feel like they need some sort of academic permission to be creative, and you don't, you can just do it."
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Kate Schools 6 years ago
Will we be up past our real bedtimes arguing the distinction between gender (social and personal identity and role) and "gender" (sometimes used to identify male, female , ie biological sex)?
April Simnel 6 years ago
I remember making the kid's face when I was little—a LOT! As for the arguments in this thread, there's much research happening on brain chemistry and endocrinology, on people who have XXY and other types of chromosomes, etc. Scientists are studying this, and a spectrum apparently does exist: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-redefined-the-idea-of-2-sexes-is-overly-simplistic1/
Monika Soffronow 6 years ago
This is correct for most people, but, crucially, it is NOT correct for all people. Reality is much, much more complicated than we usually believe it to be. "...worldwide, up to 1.7% of people have intersex traits, roughly the same proportion of the population who have red hair" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/02/male-and-female-what-is-it-like-to-be-intersex
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Lip 6 years ago
A lot of people seem to exist in their society without questioning it and don't examine how everything they do is a construct of said society. Language is a construct, cities are a construct, religion, law, social interactions and yes, gender, among many other things. If you stop politicizing it it truly isn't that remarkable or difficult to see. Sex is different than gender. Again, an unremarkable and easily tangible thing too understand.
Monika Soffronow 6 years ago (edited)
"In general terms, “sex” refers to the biological differences between males and females, such as the genitalia and genetic differences. “Gender” is more difficult to define, but it can refer to the role of a male or female in society, known as a gender role, or an individual's concept of themselves, or gender identity." From "Sex and gender: Meanings, definition, identity, and expression." www.medicalnewstoday.com /articles/232363
Marc Lauzon 5 years ago (edited)
Bedtime is also a construct. You've arbitrarily decided a time of when she should sleep, often because it's been arbitrarily decided that school starts at 8-9am. Although, what isn't a construct is that child need a certain amount of sleep, so does adults. Time isn't a construct, but all of our markers (minutes, hours, days, months, years) are.
Noemie Houtekie-N'Da 6 years ago
The sad part is that later on, she would complain she goes to sleep to late.
Kaisu 6 years ago
Gender is a construct. No other animal has a concept of gender except humans, so it's a thing constructed by humans, not something that's natural in nature. Biological sex is a different matter though, there we're generally stuck to natural sexes of man, woman and interesex
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Lip 6 years ago
A lot of people seem to exist in their society without questioning it and don't examine how everything they do is a construct of said society. Language is a construct, cities are a construct, religion, law, social interactions and yes, gender, among many other things. If you stop politicizing it it truly isn't that remarkable or difficult to see. Sex is different than gender. Again, an unremarkable and easily tangible thing too understand.
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Ruth Mayfly 6 years ago
To....study that construct? Like studying different societies, even though all societies are constructs, or studying economics? Or politics? Or marriage or religion or race or crime or the impact of technology or actually most of the things that make us human.
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Blue Cicada 6 years ago
_GENDER_ is a _CONSTRUCT_ of the human world. Animals do not recognize gender or behave based on gender. Animals respond to their sex, and the sex of other animals. Depending on species, 1%!to 10% of animals are born with ambiguous sexual genitalia. Because SEX is the set of genitals, chromosomes and hormones of a person or animal. GENDER, for those who forgot basic vocabulary, is the set of societal norms, expectations and restrictions humans develop to attach to the individual based on their actual or assigned sex.
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Christopher Lee 6 years ago
Yeah, because conservative nonsense never messed any kids up.
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Alexandra Pharmakidis 6 years ago
Dragon? Nah you're a transphobic troll.
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Evil Little Thing 6 years ago
Finalizing a divorce you've been fighting for for months/years is one of the best feelings ever!
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Clinton Yew 6 years ago
nowadays they just try to brainwash you to think your office is your home and co-worker is your family to try to make you give more effort to work...
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Wottermehlon Doge 5 years ago
That's really true. Subways are nasty nasty places. I have seen lots of stuff, like people urinating on those columns and it grosses me out. I get it that a lot of people go through subways but we can still clean it up. This also shows how people don't really take responsibility, she wants the subway to be clean but she does nothing about it
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*Clears throat* 6 years ago
hehe cause female mantises bite off the males head when they are done mating
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Dianna Siever 6 years ago
I feel ya sister. My sweet husband does everything right but sing. Luckily, out son's got a better knack for holding a tune.
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Catherine Hankinson 6 years ago
This is missing the caption. It should say "son, your dad and I are divorcing"
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Add New Image
What do you think ?
PaulV 5 years ago
Agree. They're "just" cartoons, but I aspire to that level of drawing realistically.
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Full Name 5 years ago (edited)
I like the general observation ones, but the progressive virtue signalling ones were cringey. I don't think they got him laid.
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Leslie Cully 5 years ago
I really like McPhail's artwork! I wish I could draw such realistic people with so few lines. They have volume and life! And the women look like REAL women, not anime porn.
bill marsano 6 years ago
It's not often you see real wit and imagination in BoredPanda's cartoon selections. Plus, excellent drawing. I'd seen several of these before in the New Yorker and will be glad to see more anytime.
PaulV 5 years ago
Agree. They're "just" cartoons, but I aspire to that level of drawing realistically.
Load More Replies... Full Name 5 years ago (edited)
I like the general observation ones, but the progressive virtue signalling ones were cringey. I don't think they got him laid.
Load More Replies... Leslie Cully 5 years ago
I really like McPhail's artwork! I wish I could draw such realistic people with so few lines. They have volume and life! And the women look like REAL women, not anime porn.
bill marsano 6 years ago
It's not often you see real wit and imagination in BoredPanda's cartoon selections. Plus, excellent drawing. I'd seen several of these before in the New Yorker and will be glad to see more anytime.
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