Donna Barstow Blog #2 Posts

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Freudian slip therapy cartoon
“ANOTHER FREUDIAN SLIP: “I want to make wild, passionate, chocolate chip cookies with you.”

Well, the wine glasses are empty, and this may explain her behavior. But really, isn’t it fun to be the aggressor?! ;)

The subject for Illustration Friday this week is Balloon. So here you go, the speaking balloon all cartoonists know all too well. And a colorful cartoon that I just remembered I did last month for a little interview I did for Psychology Today. No, not as a patient, silly – though they may have missed the boat on that call – but as a creative person. (That’s what my most recent contract calls me: Creator. What happened to A**hat?)?

New Yorker cartoons


Picture of homemade pie.

You would think that with a title of (take deep breath) Trader Joe’s Chocolate Pumpkin Pecan Praline Tart, how could they miss, right? Nice cheerful orange label with chocolate dots, attractive looking pie. But I won’t make you wait until the end of the review: thumbs down.

What is the difference between tart and pie? [Pause while I go over to Google.]? Okay, here:

A tart is made with a crust formed in a tart pan or a low, straight-walled pan with a removable bottom. A pie, similar to a tart, is baked in a pie pan that has sloping sides. Both a tart and a pie can have the crust prebaked and filled or baked with fruits, custards or chocolate.

Everything 2 agrees with that. Already, things are not quite right with this TJ dessert. This is definitely a pie, not a tart.

Anyway, it has a sweet crumbly crust. I love soft crusts! But it’s not real chocolate, and it doesn’t taste like chocolate, unless it’s the cheap drugstore kind. The filling has a slightly crunchy filling, of substance, but not chewy.

Donna Does Desserts

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doctor patient skeleton cartoon
“Well, I’d want the whole thing taken out, but you might want a second opinion on that.” Cartoon ©D. Barstow.

Not that I’m in the least bit misogynistic. People who know me know I love men, in all guises. But the stronger the better, of course. ;)

This is part of my Morbid series. It’s not that I like jellyfish, which he’d be without the skeleton, but I’m fascinated by skeletons. Once I read a science fiction story that I’ve never forgotten, about the bones inside a man who wanted to come out. They felt the flesh was the enemy, hiding them, hindering them. They knew they were the strength of the man, the real power, and they wanted to be seen. And in the end, they do, don’t they. Now you want to read it, huh?! If only I could remember the author…

One of the first things I studied trying to be a cartoonist was the body form. I’ve taken a few figure drawing classes ever since college, and really should take one every year. To think that you know the body – when every body is different – is a little presumptuous. I’ve heard Sergio Aragones say many times that every time he draws something he studies its form again as if it’s new, so he’ll have a fresh take on it.

Anyway, this was before the internet, so I had to learn skeletons from books. For a while I wanted to do a strip with them! They are pretty powerful, after all, and I didn’t need that scifi story to tell me that.

Earlier version of this cartoon after the jump.

New Yorker cartoons


“If you see any bigger than this, just pretend you don’t see them.”

I hope you understand this cartoon. So far, no editor has.

Well, it is a little ambiguous, my favorite place to be. Originally, I meant that they should pretend to ignore any people, and since everyone is bigger than that, that would mean they ignore everyone. Which they do, anyway!

Then I noticed the mousehole – or I drew it, forget which – and so maybe the cat is referring to big mice. And that, too, is typical of cats – to ignore any fight they can’t win.

I guess I shouldn’t go into the story of how I was running around Silver Lake very late the other night and saw a mouse for the first time. I see coyotes, skunks, raccoons regularly, and hear Great Horned Owls. But I have never seen a mouse. So tiny and sort of helpless, running in short bursts to avoid my thundering feet coming up.  

New Yorker cartoons

The Others

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“The Three Wise Men All Chip In for a Nice Satellite Dish” Assignment for Illustration Friday: Wise. Owl? Too obvious. Wise, as in smartass? Too snarky. So I went with…

New Yorker cartoons