Listen on:

Ellis Rosen (@ellisjrosen) is a cartoonist for magazines such as The New Yorker, Wired, and MAD. He posts a weekly cartoon series called Junk Drawer on GoComics.com and is the illustrator for a children’s book called Woundabout.

Rosen attended art school and then got a master’s degree, but wasn’t sure where to go with his artwork. Until one day in 2016 when a friend encouraged him to submit gag cartoons to The New Yorker, and he knew right away that he had found his calling. Since then Ellis has sold around 60 cartoons in the magazine.

I loved hearing him explain how gag cartoons are able to tell an entire story arc in just a single panel. Even the most simple cartoons contain story.

Ellis’ work, like many other humorists, combines banal daily rituals with the absurd. So it was really fun to get inside his mind and hear about his artistic inspirations, his weekly process, and how he comes up with the jokes. I would definitely recommend following him on Instagram to see more of his cartoons!