Cartoon Combat Returns!

My dear loyal Substack subscribers,

Thank you for your patience during Cartoon Combat’s hiatus. It’s back this week and better, or possibly worse, than ever. To reward your loyalty, I’m going to mail you a present! Details below.

But first, my cartoon in this week’s New Yorker…

…has me wondering why I do so many about pantomime horses. Maybe it’s because they’re so much easier to draw than regular ones.

My first of the pantomime variety ran in the New Yorker way back in 2008:

Before you accuse me of cultural insularity, you should know I’m equally obsessed with Chinese dragons.

We’re having a five-way royal rumble this week, because I can’t decide which two of these are the best, which may mean they’re all good or they’re all terrible.

First up, we have Scaled Down.

Next up, we have Cards on the Table.

The third contender is called Sub.

Fourth we have Horseman.

And finally, Waiting Up.

And Now, Your Gift

As I may have mentioned, I have a beautiful hardcover collection of cartoons coming out on October 13th. Well, I would like to sign and personalize a copy for each Substack subscriber who buys one, by mailing you this cool signed bookplate!

Just send your mailing address and what you would like inscribed to paul@paulnoth.com. Should you include a screengrab of your preorder or some other proof of purchase? That would be great. Will I send you a signed bookplate without a proof of purchase? Probably, but I am liable to drop in on you in person and demand to see your book—which looks like this, by the way:

Noth Things is member-supported, like PBS, and look what happened to them. Help us avoid the same fate by becoming a paid subscriber. This will get you access to exclusive paid-subscriber content that’s so exclusive there hasn’t even been any yet. But there will be soon. The Substack algorithm demands it if you want to grow your account. So some paywalled content is in the works, though Cartoon Combat will remain free.