This Artist Makes Hilarious Comics Where Talking Bugs And Existential Dread Collide (35 Pics)
Interview With ArtistThe artist behind "A Return to Normalcy" knows exactly how to turn everyday weirdness into one-panel, hilarious comics. With simple, expressive drawings and sharp deadpan humor, they blend talking insects, anxious humans, and random objects having breakdowns into something that’ll make you laugh, and then wonder if you just got called out by a cartoon.
As the artist’s fans know, “It’s like if your intrusive thoughts had their own comic strip,” full of existential spirals, absurd scenarios, and secret bug conspiracies. So yeah, Pandas, buckle up because these comics will hit you right in the overthinking part of your brain.
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The mind behind A Return to Normalcy has a knack for making the bizarre feel familiar, like if Kafka had a meme account and a Wacom tablet.
“I was raised by a magician,” the artist shares, half-laughing, half-resigned. “Not a particularly good one—but theatricality and storytelling were prized in our house. My dad wasn’t great at the tricks, or parenting, but the drama? That stuck with me.”
After what they describe as some “awkward teenage years,” they went on to study Sequential Art at the Savannah College of Art and Design. That dream lasted until the reality of ten-hour comic workdays in a dark room hit. “I didn’t have the patience,” they admit, “so I escaped with a film degree and a passion for screenwriting.”
And that pivot paid off. In 2013, they co-founded Some Nerve Productions, a political media company that won a CPAC award for creative messaging across the political spectrum. While they eventually left to chase bigger creative dreams, they stayed on as a consultant and kept honing their voice in other projects.
In 2021, they produced Superhuman Public Radio, a tongue-in-cheek audio drama imagining NPR in a superhero-infested world. “It was an absolute blast,” they say—and the show went on to win Outstanding Comedy Podcast 2022 at the Catalyst Story Institute. Their screenwriting also took off, with several contest placements including a win for their pilot Profit at the San Francisco International Screenwriting Festival.
But behind all the accolades is a chaotic, heartfelt reality: “Most days, I’m just running after my son Milo, trying to keep him from terrorizing our dog Spencer, while my wife Brenna grades papers in the middle of the bombshell that is our happy home.”
OMG - a dirty word many times over! I feel like I've hit the BP jackpot!
I feel like about 80% of these need an explanation. It's not just that I don't think they're funny, I just don't see what part of them could be found funny by anyone.
I didn't understand most of them, so I am going to come back tomorrow by which time many helpful Pandas will have provided clarification. Whether it will have been worth it remains to be seen.
Load More Replies...I feel like about 80% of these need an explanation. It's not just that I don't think they're funny, I just don't see what part of them could be found funny by anyone.
I didn't understand most of them, so I am going to come back tomorrow by which time many helpful Pandas will have provided clarification. Whether it will have been worth it remains to be seen.
Load More Replies...
