Hello and welcome!

I draw and I write. Both are often rough, usually topical and sometimes funny. (I try.)

Substack is a pretty good vehicle for someone like me, a little obsessive but easily distracted.

What you can expect now:

• original cartoons and illustrations posted at least once a week

• accompanied by text - usually short (< 4 mins) not exactly explanatory but part of the 1000 words a picture is supposed to be

• determined contrarian point of view - unusual angles on current events (disaffected leftie or converted rightie, you decide)

• thematic posts on a few favourite topics: at the moment, originality and cartoon heros

• notes and restacks of art, artists, thinkers, pundits as I discover them (for me the best thing about Substack is the people and how they come to you)

What you might have to look forward to:

I’d like to develop a forum-like conversation about originality, in visual art primarily but all the arts, and everything else actually. I’m not quite sure how you do that on Substack but I’m learning.

Another forum idea is a conversation about what they used to call “the art economy” (c. 2010); there is some posting regularly here on Substack about the Substack economy which is helpful because it’s not so different than what happens everywhere in the arts, but it’s a difficult conversation that I’ve seen come and go over the past 15 or so years and it never seems to get any real traction for reasons I don’t quite understand.

Me

I love comics and drawing and think they are important. I expect you do too.

I was schooled in art (MFA) and also have a law degree, which has been my bread and butter for the better part of an otherwise sketchy career.

Artist’s website

If you’d like to see more of my scribbles, please visit my website: RobertLabossiere.com or my Insta @sketch_finish.