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]

Kate Isenberg Joins us on the podcast this week.
Kate is a New Yorker cartoonist, illustrator, animator and musician, but mostly she is a story teller. Along with the New Yorker, Kate's cartoons have appeared in The New Republic, Alta Journal, Air Mail, and Narrative. 
We talk with Kate about her background and journey to becoming a New Yorker cartoonist and her cartoons that have been in the New Yorker and CartoonStock caption contests. We also talk a bit about the value of being a creative person. 

You can find more about Kate at her website here:
https://www.kateisenberg.com
And follow her on Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/thekateisenberg/

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

Winning captions for New Yorker contest #968 (Global puppidemic.)

Finalists for contest #970 (Booked for murder.)

Current New Yorker contest #972 (Oh Godzilla.)

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]

Kyle Bravo returns to the podcast to talk about what he's been up to since we last talked with him. He's had a couple more cartoons in the New Yorker and a number of cartoons in the Daily. He's also had cartoons in the Wall St Journal, Sat Eve Post, Antigravity, Air Mail, Alta, Private Eye, The Oldie, Woman's World, Weekly Humorist and other publications.
We also talk about what makes a good cartoon and caption and he also joins us as we discuss  New Yorker Caption Contests and our favorite cartoons from the current issue.

We talk about the winners for contest #967 (We'll always Have Paris of animals).
Finalists for Contest #969 (Plenty of nothing). 
And the current Contest #971 (We get stumped).  

You can Buy Kyle's books at his Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/KyleBravoThings
Subscribe to his SubStack:
https://kbravo.substack.com
Or his Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/c/kylebravo/posts
And check out his cartoons on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kyle_bravo_

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

Send us questions or comments to : 
[email protected]

Scott Green joins us on the podcast this week.
Scott was the winner of contest #962 (Octopus Pilot) and heard us on the podcast talking about it. He contacted us to see if we’d have him on to discuss the caption and his unique way of coming up with captions (it was his first time entering the contest, so  his method seems to work!)
Scott is also an accomplished magician (he has appeared on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us), comedian and a frequent game show contestant. We talk about all this and more!

You can check out Scott’s website here:
https://www.scottgreenmagic.com

See his Penn & Teller appearance here:
https://www.youtube.com/@ScottGreenMagic

Buy his book, "Excellence in Family Magic", here:
https://www.amazon.com/Excellence-Family.../dp/1548665223

And see a couple of game show appearances here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist...

Scott also joins us to discuss the current contests:

Winning captions for New Yorker contest #966 (I'm paranoid because everybody knows my name)

Finalists for contest #968 (Teacher's pets)

Current New Yorker contest #970 (Dewey Dismal System)

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]