A fun podcast this week with cartoonist, Lynn Hsu and frequent contest finalist, Carol Lasky.
Lynn and carol have been collaborating on cartoons since Carol won a CartoonStock contest that used one of Lynn's cartoons. Their collaborations have appeared in the New Yorker and other respected publications.
We talk with them about their process and the cartoons they've created together.

You can find Lynn's cartoons on instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/loopyline/

And her website here:
https://lynnihsu.com

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #976 (Wait, what?)

Finalists for Contest #978 (Surfin' so far, eh?)

Current Contest #980 (Soon to beheaded B-listers.)

We forgot to do our favorite cartoons from the issue this week. Be assured that they were all very good!

We did have some technical glitches in this week's podcast. Vin continues to have some connection issues and we lost Carol for a bit. It all worked out in the end though.

You can purchase original New Yorker cartoon art from Curated Cartoons here: https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  [email protected]

This is an off week for the New Yorker (double issue last week), but we do have Larry Wood joining us for our monthly discussion about the CartoonStock contest. We dive into our likes and dislikes about the captions selected as winners for that contest and talk about captions we liked that didn't make it into the finalists.
In the first half of the podcast, we talk about the New Yorker contest in general and discuss the pros and cons of entering an obvious caption.

You can order Larry's book, "Your Caption Has Been Selected: More Than Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest" here:   
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Caption-Has-Been-Selected/dp/1250333407/

You can watch the judging video of the recent CartoonStock contest here:
https://youtu.be/ss69roKniyc?si=mhT2iWbYWYgi4cme

And read Larry's commentary on the CartoonStock contest here:
https://www.cartoonstock.com/blog/bigfoot-and-reporters-caption-contest-commentary-with-lawrence-wood/

You can purchase original New Yorker cartoon art from Curated Cartoons here: https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  
[email protected]

Rich North joins us on the podcast this week.
Rich is a fairly new cartoonist with his  cartoons first appearing in the New Yorker just over a year ago. 
We talk with Rich about how he got into cartooning, his process, how bowling changed his life and, as always, we get distracted by shiny objects along the way.
You can check out Rich's cartoons at his website:
https://www.rich-north.com
And on his Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/richnooorth/

On Part 1 of the episode, we discuss the current contests:

Winning captions for New Yorker contest #975 (Selfie sticking the moon landing.)

Finalists for contest #977 (Dogfish-eared book.)

Current New Yorker contest #979 (Led foot Zeppelin.)

We also talk about our favorite cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.

You can buy original New Yorker cartoon art at Curated Cartoons:https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  [email protected]

We're happy to have cartoonist, Dan Misdea return to the podcast this week! 
We talk with Dan about the children's book he had published after the last time he was on the podcast and his more recent collaboration with Rob Meyerson, "AB@C And Other Gramograms", an homage to the great William Steig's classic book "CDB!" (See the Bee!). 
We also discuss the winning captions for his recent cartoon in the New Yorker contest and he joins us for the rest of the contest discussions and our favorite cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.

You can check out Dan's webpage here:
https://danmisdea.com

His books and other fun stuff here:
https://danmisdea.com/books-stuff

And his cartoons (TBD) at Comics Kingdom:
https://comicskingdom.com/tbd-toons-by-dan

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #974 (Rats in the barbelfry).
Finalists for Contest #976 (Wait for it...). 
Current Contest #978 ('Lo, Tide).

You can buy original New Yorker cartoon art at Curated Cartoons:https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  
[email protected]

New Yorker cartoonist, Drew Dernavich, returns to the podcast for the ninth time (one more punch on his podcast ticket gets him a free pizza!) We talk about the book he's working on that he hopes to have out by this time next year, his Whisperbubble project  and his Great Holiday Hat Fail. 
You can find out more about Whisperbubble at his Substack:
https://whisperbubble.substack.com
You can find Drew's website here:
https://www.drewdernavich.com
And his collaborations with Nesja Press here:
https://www.nesjapress.com/drew-dernavich-collaboration

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #973 (Snowman is an island).
Finalists for Contest #975 (Now THESE are nosebleed seats). 
Current Contest #977 (Catch of the Day on Rye).

You can buy original New Yorker cartoon art at Curated Cartoons:https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  
[email protected]

Katherine Bettis Joins us on the podcast this week.Katherine is a fairly new cartoonist to the scene, but has already had her cartoons published in Airmail, Woman's World, The Weekly Humorist and a small publication called the New Yorker.We talk with her about how she got into cartooning, her process and her cartoons.
We also learn that she has a degree in architecture and is a musician. Once again, we try to figure out what the connection is between these vocations and cartooning. 

You can find Katherine's cartoons on her instagram page here:
https://www.instagram.com/katherinebettis

On Part 1 of the episode, we discuss the current contests:

Winning captions for New Yorker contest #972 (Comedy of terrors.)

Finalists for contest #974 (Squeaky clean lift and jerks.)

Current New Yorker contest #976 (I never Maître d' I didn't like.)

We also talk about our favorite cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.

You can find the reverse caption contest Katherine mentions here:
https://www.reversecaptioncontest.com

And the results of The New Yorker reverse caption contest can be found here:
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/bob-mankoff/the-reverse-caption-contest

You can buy original New Yorker cartoon art at Curated Cartoons:https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  [email protected]

Larry Wood joins us for our monthly discussion about the CartoonStock contest. We have a good discussion about whether an obvious caption should be picked as a finalist (and congratulations to our own Beth for having her not obvious caption picked as a finalist in that contest!)

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #971 (I've been chipper.)

Finalists for Contest #973 (Long time listener, first time colder.)

Current Contest #975 (That's one small snap for man.)

As Paul mentions in the podcast, cartoonist Tommy Siegel has an excellent podcast, "Extremely Accurate Bird Songs". You can find it here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/.../extremely.../id1809194651

You can order Larry's book, "Your Caption Has Been Selected: More Than Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest" here:   
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Caption-Has-Been-Selected/dp/1250333407/

You can find Victor Chongchua's Words Below Website here:
https://wordsbelow.app

You can purchase original New Yorker cartoon art from Curated Cartoons here: https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  [email protected]

On this week's episode, Vin, Paul, Beth and Nicole review past and present contests from 2025 and choose our best and worst of the year.  We also talk a bit about the CartoonStock contest and our favorite regular cartoons from the issue for the year.
We talk a bit about Keith Huie's caption for the Finalists of contest #972. Keith is a terrific artist living in Wisconsin (just a couple of towns over from Paul) and you should check out his art here:
https://shopotlag.com/collections/all/artist_keith-huie?

And you can follow him on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/KeithHuieArt
https://www.instagram.com/huieart/

And of course, we discuss...  
The winning captions for New Yorker contest #970 (A deathly good read.)  
(Congratulations to our own Nicole for her first place win!)
Finalists for contest #972 (Caption flame out!) 
Current New Yorker contest #974 (The Rat Six-Pack.)

Dig into the contest data at Victor Chongchua'a great website, WordsBelow:
https://wordsbelow.app

You can buy original New Yorker cartoon art at Curated Cartoons:
https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  
[email protected]

A short podcast this week with just the hosts talking about the contests and their favorite cartoons from the current week's issue of the New Yorker.

Our scheduled guest, Shannon Wheeler had something come up at the last minute and had to drop out. We hope to have him on again sometime early in 2026.

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #969 (Ever see a bun dance?")

Finalists for Contest #971 (Get to the chopper.)

Current Contest #973 (Snowman is an island.)

Original New Yorker cartoon artwork can be found at:
https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send questions or comments to:  
[email protected]

Larry Wood joins us on the podcast this week to talk about the recent CartoonStock contest. There was some controversy with the cartoon in this contest with a happy family gathered together in their living room, with each of the family members holding a gun (including the cat, dog and potted plant). We discuss the use of humor to help make sense of sensitive subjects (particularly in the aftermath of the horrific shootings in the last few days) and when it is appropriate or inappropriate to do so.
We then talk about the actual contest and we all were impressed by the quality of captions that were entered. Larry also noted that this was the 200th contest since it started and it has given away $40,000 dollars since it started the cash prize. 

You can order Larry's book, "Your Caption Has Been Selected: More Than Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest" here:   
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Caption-Has-Been-Selected/dp/1250333407/

You can purchase original New Yorker cartoon art from Curated Cartoons here: https://www.curatedcartoons.com

Send us questions or comments to:  [email protected]