Episode 404 - Michael Shaw

Got the election / pandemic / climate change / midlife / inexplicable rash blues? Then listen to me and cartoonist & humorist Michael Shaw talk about his new book, The Elements of Stress and the Pursuit of Happy-ish in this Current Sh*tstorm (co-authored by the great Bob Eckstein, from Weekly Humorist Press)! We get into how Michael and Bob managed to mash up Strunk & White with Thurber & White to create a prose & cartoons handbook to dealing with This Whole Situation, then explore Michael's history in cartooning and humor, how he balances that with a day job in writing and editing, his discovery that if he drew cartoons any better he'd be terrible, and why he took a hiatus from submitting gags to The New Yorker (and whether they know he's taken said hiatus). We also get into his literary loves, the perils of listening to William S. Burroughs audiobooks on late-night commutes, how his florid-rococo style balances with Eckstein's Hemingway-on-valium approach, the lesson he learned from Milton Glaser about One Element of Dissonance, and more! Follow Michael on Twitter and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal