Swiftie New Year

I went out with a couple friends last night with one of them visiting from out of town. Rob is actually one of my few friends in the real world who follows my work. I had just posted this cartoon when Rob messaged that he and Chris were heading to a stinky smoky bar and I invited myself to come along. It was good timing after drawing three cartoons yesterday. I’m really going to have to detox when the holidays are over…or after Rob leaves town.

Rob posted a comment on this cartoon before messaging me, and while we were hanging out, he mentioned something about this year’s “baby” cartoon, referring to Baby New Year which I usually draw every year. I told Rob, “Nope, not this year.” This Swiftie cartoon is my New Year cartoon for this year.

The baby/old man cartoon is one trope I like doing. I always try to incorporate something from the year with it. Last year, I used Bitcoin for CNN. For my newspaper clients, I used the Southwest meltdown (which Rob can appreciate because he got caught in it last year AND this year, having to spend an entire day in Salt Lake City. Poor bastard. Chris got caught in it last year as well and decided to rent a car and drive back to Virginia from Milwaukee). I was looking to use the trope again for this year and I had what I thought was a great idea for it.

I was sitting on a baby/old man idea for two weeks, two freaking weeks, and then someone beat me to it. I was pretty annoyed as it was my only idea for the new year. Son of a… But a day later, a second cartoonist used that same idea which got me over not using it first. For me, if only one other cartoonist has the same idea (of course you don’t know this beforehand), I want to beat them to it, but if more than one cartoonist has the same idea, excluding myself, then I don’t want anything to do with it. I went from cursing that I missed out on drawing what I thought was a good cartoon to relief that I didn’t draw a bad cartoon with several other cartoonists (I’ll post the idea in my next batch of roughs). But I was still left without an idea.

Yesterday, I had to pitch ideas to CNN for the year-end edition of the newsletter and while doing that, I thought of two new year ideas I liked and I knew I’d be able to use at least one for my syndication clients. CNN didn’t want either of the two, so I bounced them off both of my proofreaders and a good friend (my proofers are good friends too) and all three picked this one.

So I drew yesterday’s cartoon on Nikki Haley, drew CNN’s cartoon, and then I drew this one last night. I’m opposed to drawing three cartoons in a day because when you do that, it usually looks like you drew three cartoons in one day. I know a guy who does that frequently and they all look like rubbish with shitty writing (it’s probably one reason he’s a tracing plagiarist). But I made an exception yesterday.

And no, I’m not on a Taylor Swift kick, but there’s a reason why I was focused on the theme. This is my New Year cartoon for my syndication. And, right after I woke up, proofreader Laura, my friend who’s one of the sharpest people ever, told me it’s “Swiftie,” not “Swifty” and I figured, eh….I don’t need to make a change…until one minute later, the Washington Post emailed asking if I could make that change. Why of course I could. I sent the corrected version to all my clients.

You will get at least two more cartoons from me before this year ends but this is my last cartoon dated for 2023.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Tales From The Trumpster Fire: I have ten copies and you can order yours, signed by me, for $45.00. You can pay through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Knee-Deep In Mississippi: There are only 16 copies left of my first book, published in 1997. These can be purchased for $40.00

Tip Jar: If you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw: