ComicsDEC 12, 2024

For Humor And Museum Lovers: My Top 16 Cartoons

I'm a fan of Bored Panda, so it is a real treat to share my own stuff here. I've been creating humor my whole life and have appeared in MAD magazine, National Lampoon, SPY magazine, The New Yorker, and many others. I hope you enjoy the drawings!

My work has been exhibited in places like the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco, the Smithsonian Institute, The Cartoon Museum of London, and the Sordoni Art Gallery at Wilkes University. I’ve had the privilege of speaking on over 200 TV and radio shows, as well as at events and venues such as The Mount, the Milford Readers & Writers Festival, Stroud Mansion, the New York Public Library, the Miami Book Fair, the MOCCA Arts Festival, the National Cartoonists Society, the Norman Rockwell Museum, Yonsei University in South Korea, the Millbrook Literary Festival, and The Grolier Club.

More info: eckstein2.wixsite.com | Facebook | x.com | Instagram

#1 Welcome!

It's very difficult to make a living solely from cartoons, so I also do other jobs...like teaching. If you are familiar with any of my work, it may be this one as it is popular around the world. I've seen it painted on a doorway in India. I've seen it tattooed on someone's backside.

39points

One of my goals when I started the museum book was to humanize museums, make them fun, even witty. My first impression of museums, as a kid, was that they were homework! I’ve since learned how exciting they are, no matter what your interests. They have even inspired many cartoons about museums.

#2 How I Met My Wife

I married my college nemesis after we ran into each other a dozen years later (at a funeral). You never know.

30points

#3 If You Can Make It Here

I've lived in New York City my whole life. I'm originally from the South Bronx of New York City and now live not far away at the northern tip of Manhattan with my wife.

27points

And of course, museums have inspired me in oh so many ways. I’m an illustrator, and after visiting a museum like MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, or The American Visionary Museum in Baltimore, I couldn’t wait to get home and create...anything. Visiting so many museums in a short period of time––a year or so––was life-changing and opened my eyes not only to the endless beauty and art out there but also to a general sense of being. Museums are giant selfies, reflecting everything we’ve done on this planet, even the unusual or bad (yes, there is a Museum of Bad Art and a SPAM Museum…). One highlight I recall was hearing that the head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the greatest museum in North America, loved my book.

#4 There's No Business Like Snow Business

I have since published two books on the subject, with the last in 2018 called the Illustrated History of the Snowman. It's being adapted into a movie.

27points

#5 Laughter Is The Best Medicine, After Ice Cream

I often include people from my life in my cartoons. Especially if it will help pay the bills. The patient here is my mentor, the late Sam Gross, who was the best cartoonist in the world. I tried cartooning on a dare from him. I sold the first cartoon I drew two weeks later to the New Yorker.

26points

These all become the library in my head, from which I draw, literally and figuratively, ideas. My cartoons are autobiographical. Everything in my life has happened by accident. And accidents are… as long as they are happening to someone else.

#6 Good Grief!

The first thing I, myself, found funny was the comic strip Peanuts. I remember tracing that cartoon to learn how to draw.

25points

#7 Good Luck

I worked as a carpenter at one point and love doing home projects myself. Of course, I have no choice because I can never find someone to show up.

24points

The key to success in the arts is to tap into your own life experiences and make them your own, giving you an individual voice. Everyone is weird. I’m weird, you’re weird, everyone is. So tell your own story, and it will be interesting to others.

#8 Scary Times

Here is another cartoon for the upcoming holidays. It can take a few minutes to come up with a good idea for a cartoon...or sometimes I can work on a cartoon for a year or two before it kind of works. I've done about 2,000 cartoons. Some of them I like!

24points

#9 Put On Your 3-D Glasses

The first audience I tried to make laugh was my family, of course. They were a tough crowd.

20points

#10 Finally, I'm A Click-Bait Model

I love writing humor, too, and today I do stuff for American Bystander, Funny Times, AirMail Weekly, and Writer's Digest. I had a piece come out in November and I was on the cover of that issue. That being said, I feel very lucky to have all their support and that I get to make people laugh for a living.

19points

#11 From There, It Snowballed Into A Career

Before that, I was the world's leading snowman expert. I had spent 7 years solving the great mystery, who made the first snowman.

18points

#12 I Saw These In The New Cars

I've been doing a lot of driving the past year while working on an exciting new project...

18points

#13 Very Scary Times

Let's all at least try to keep our sense of humor. There's one thing I do know America is best at, and that's humor.

15points

#14 What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

I hoped I raised awareness for museums. We sometimes take these great institutions for granted. Maybe you can use my book as a bucket list. Thanks for looking.

Link to the book

Report

12points

#15 The Los Angeles County Museum Of Art

This is an excerpt from my new book, Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums: Stories and Memorable Moments from People Who Love Museums. It's my love letter to these great institutions and a chance to showcase the other side of my work: illustration.

11points

#16 All Aboard: The Steamtown National Historic Site In Scranton, Pennsylvania

One of the goals for my new book was to demonstrate that there is a museum for everyone, even those who hate art. As a matter of fact, the book includes The Museum of Bad Art. There are museums for cars, tennis, ships—even SPAM.

10points