25 Clever One-Panel Comics By John McNamee That Find Humor In Life’s Little Moments

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Meet John Mcnamee’s Comics

When asked what inspired him to start creating one-panel comics and how his journey as a cartoonist began, John explained, “I started doing a daily comic strip for my college newspaper, and when I graduated, nobody told me to stop. I kept doing strips and after about ten years I finally figured out how to draw and started submitting toThe New Yorker. That got me into single panel cartooning.”

Meet John Mcnamee’s Comics

As for how he comes up with ideas for his comics, the artist shared his improvisational approach: “I just start drawing and try to improvise the joke as I sketch. My thinking is if I don’t know where I’m going with it, the reader won’t either.” He also mentioned a personal favorite comic, saying, “My favorite thing I’ve ever created was a short series calledMy Boyfriend’s Falcon. I drew two unrelated pictures, one with a girl looking angry and another with a guy holding a falcon lovingly. They just happened to be next to each other in my sketchbook, but then I was like, ‘What if they were dating?’ and that was very funny to me.”

Meet John Mcnamee’s Comics

John’s ability to adapt his humor to different audiences is one of the reasons his work has been featured in such prestigious outlets asThe New YorkerandMAD Magazine. “WithThe New Yorker, you’re operating within a very specific cartoon tradition, so there’s a lot of parameters: more realistic drawings, muted cartooning, contemporary references,” he explained. “You read about 10,000 of their cartoons and you get a pretty good idea of what they’re looking for. WithMad, I try to inject it with more liveliness. The acting and jokes can be more broad, and the scenarios can be sillier. But I’ve always aimed for a brand of high-brow dumbness, so I find it pretty easy to cross back and forth.”

Meet John Mcnamee’s Comics

As a writer forThe Onion, John also credits the experience with shaping his comedic style. “The Onion helped me raise my standards for myself. They are just so funny and will reject hundreds of ideas without blinking an eye,” he noted. “There’s also something about formulating jokes in the form of a headline that gives it no place to hide. You’re just deadpan saying what the idea is, so it’s got to be really funny to be good at all.”

Meet John Mcnamee’s Comics