ANNOUNCEMENT: A brand new book and a Kickstarter campaign!!
Back “Rules For Dating My Daughter” HERE
Help publish a brand new book from Mike Dawson, the Ignatz award winning cartoonist behind Freddie & Me, Troop 142, and Angie Bongiolatti as well as the host of the TCJ Talkies comics podcast.
“I loved these so much!“ - Lisa Hanawalt, My Dirty Dumb Eyes, BoJack Horseman
"Interesting, and worth a read” - Zainab Ahktar, Comics & Cola
“(Mike’s) comics are just blowing me away!” Keith Knight, The K Chronicles
“Weird and vaguely sociopathic” Kim O’Connor, The Hooded Utilitarian
Rules For Dating My Daughter: Cartoon Dispatches from the Front-Lines of Modern Fatherhood is my new book of comics about marriage, parenthood, politics, and raising two small children in present day America.
The comics in this collection examine a wide variety of topics, from after-school pickup and Disney’s Sofia the First, to gun control issues and impending environmental collapse. Simultaneously political, philosophical, and humorous, these first-person cartoon essays all seek to answer the book’s central question, Am I Good?
The comics expand outwards from that premise. Am I good because I try to be an engaged father? What does being an engaged father mean? What does it mean to respect my children as separate individuals apart from myself? I like the sound of being a “Feminist Father”, but what does that really entail? Can it even be considered ethical to have brought children into such a terrible world?
Please check out the campaign page and pledge $16 to get a copy of this new book.
I remember discussing my first-born with my brother, and saying, I don’t know if it’s right to have a second child, just because of the planet etc, and being instantly embarrassed (he bullied the shit out of me as a kid, and got a masters in English, so I feel a shameful need to seem not stupid to him, which usually means I stick my foot in my mouth when he’s in the room). As if I was considering the planet when I made my baby, much less what the baby might make of the world. Morally, people who have such ideas/doubts are more obligated to parent than people who couldn’t care less, since they have consciences about living on this planet, and they are the minority. That sounds so snotty. Sorry. I worked at Toys R Us for five years, and have taught in the Japanese school system for ten years, and I really wish parents cared what went into their children’s head more.
Anyway, Dawwwwwwwwwson writes heart-on-his-sleeve works with sincerity, I enjoyed Angie Bongiolatti, but I think I enjoy his short pieces a bit more. They have a strong theme and point to them, a good rhythm and sophistication. They really resonate. And I love his inking. It creates a depth within his stylised world.
If this looks interesting to you, it probably is. He’s a good writer/artist.
