Steam Powered Drawing

At last night’s Steam Powered Hour at the Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn, I had the privilege of joining a great Halloween-themed multimedia event: horror/suspense writer Jack Ketchum read one of his stories, and I did a live illustration for it, along with illustrator Natalie Ascencios. Kris Gruen and the Bowman sisters accompanied on music. Here’s a little teaser montage for the second of Jack’s stories, with drawing by Felipe Gallindo, Matthew Diffee, and R. Sikoryak, and music by Jacob Tilove, Rick Snell, Bridget Kearney, and the Party People:

Introducing… FISTICUFFS!

It’s on, comrades! On Thursday, November 18, the Tribeca 92Y will be the location of our brand-new cartoon improv show entitled FISTICUFFS!

Well, it’s not entirely brand new. You may have seen us do this last year at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, or at the NCS convention this May, or maybe even at Humor on the Slopes in the Vail valley in Colorado. We’re rounding up cartoonists, putting them into teams, and letting them battle it out the only way cartoonists know how to battle: by drawing cartoons. The format is simple: the audience provides the topics, and the cartoonists let it rip. It’s like Iron Chef, but the secret ingredient is punchlines instead of asparagus. Cartoonists don’t often perform in public without having the benefit of their usual crutches: a comfortable desk, oodles of time, bathtubs full of whiskey. So this is a rare opportunity. There will also be a surprise musical guest for your entertainment, just in case you actually need more entertainment.

Participating in this epic battle are: David Sipress (the New Yorker), Michael Kupperman (Tales Designed to Thrizzle), Emily Flake (Lulu Eightball and the New Yorker), Paul Noth (“Pale Force” and the New Yorker), Matthew Diffee (the Rejection Collection), Zach Kanin (The New Yorker), and myself.

Ticket info is here. Hope to see you there!