32 Hilarious Comics That Satirize Modern Life, By David Ostow (New Pics)

When asked how he juggles parenting and cartooning, David opened up about the challenges of finding time to create. "At different points in my parenting journey, it's been hard to a greater or lesser degree. When my older son was a baby, it was possible to sneak some drawing in early in the morning or maybe during nap times. Now he's five and his younger brother is two, and I'm definitely at a low point in my productivity. Sometimes it's frustrating, and I need to tell myself it's temporary and also remind myself to enjoy this time with my kids because I'll never get it back. Soon they'll both be in school, and I'll be freer to do my work but also maybe sad to be exiting this phase of parenthood."

The artist also explained how he approaches sensitive topics in his work, particularly when it comes to dark humor. "It doesn’t happen very often, but if I think of a joke that feels too dark, I’ll probably scrap the idea before even drawing it because in general, I like to keep my work enjoyable for people of all sensitivity levels (within reason). The beginning of 2020 was very interesting in this regard because death is a perennial topic in gag cartooning, but when COVID came, and we started to lose so many people, it began to feel immensely wrong to joke about death. So—like many of my peers—I veered away from that subject matter."

Reflecting on the challenges of creating humor in a single-panel format, David shared with us what makes a successful comic for him. "Since it’s such a stripped-down medium, it’s hard to make people laugh out loud with single-panel cartoons. When I see cartoons I like, mostly I’ll chuckle inwardly and say to myself 'That’s clever.' So it’s very special when something I see literally makes me laugh out loud. Even just generating ideas that seem worth drawing feels like a victory to me, but if I make something that makes people laugh out loud or spit out their coffee—that’s always the dream.

David also took a moment to reflect on how his love for drawing developed over the years. "When I was in elementary school, I used to enjoy copying drawings out of the comics. My friends and I would also think up our own superheroes and spend all day drawing them. That fell by the wayside, though, as I got older, and I never imagined I’d actually grow up to draw cartoons."

When asked about future goals, David shared his aspirations for the year ahead, particularly his dreams of writing and illustrating children's books. "I have a number of ideas, and I’m hoping 2024 is the year I can finally make something happen. Eventually, I’d love to be writing and drawing books for adults too, but that may be further down the line. Right now, I’m taking notes from the books I read to my kids. And of course, I’ll continue to draw single-panel cartoons. They’re too much fun to come up with and draw to ever stop."