Skimming through the history of the railroad companies (massive debt and bankruptcies, the 1873 bust, unemployment)… and I can’t help but see similarities to AI now. It cost so much to build out the infrastructure. Competing companies built parallel lines.

In my five years full time in academia it was absolutely reality bending to see the way that people who were supposed to be shaping the future were so inequipped to do so and were so desperately chasing any direction at all that might give short gains.

The word 'innovation' has been drained (like, black hole magnitude) of all life & meaning.

I’ll be at the Ashland Library in Massachusetts this afternoon doing a short workshop on Doodling Dinosaurs. It’s a fun comics event for all ages, and includes kids tabling with their own comics. www.bostoncomicarts.org/ALYAC

Come on out to the Ashland Library in Ashland, MA for some good times, generously priced comics, and a live drawing competition with @gabrieljoyyy.bsky.social @normfeuti.bsky.social @kayke.bsky.social and Shaina Lu!

Derek’s bgs for this have so much personality even when minimal, I loved it. More cartoons with playful abstraction that aren’t fully rendered sets please.

I’ve always loved this Simpsons gag because the ‘more realistic’ version is lovingly crafted. Not intentionally designed to be hideous. They work as characters in their own universe, in someone’s portfolio. But holy heck the A/B test provokes a reaction. (Great use of this for the DLSS joke too)

Imagine you’re at work all day, looking at your phone all day. Maybe you have a chatbot ‘running tasks’ too. You have a kid you drop off for school from 8-5 (including afterschool care). There are 2-3 hrs you can theoretically spend with them in a given day, and you offload that time to a chatbot.

You read about studios redoing 60% of an animated movie and it makes me long *even more* for the days when artists and workers armed with paper, peg bars, celluloid, and multiplane cameras would've laughed them out of the building. The fact that it's even possible now is part of the issue.

The confusion began when we began letting them call this stuff "content" rather than, say, "expression." Content is a consumable substance which may as well be synthesized if you can. Expression is an attempt to communicate some aspect of the experience of being alive.

Taxes aren't all that hard to do. Why would you have it do anything of *any* importance for you?

This supports why my son and millions of kids hoard colorful transparent LEGO pieces. Calling them ‘gems’, convinced they are ‘rare’. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/s...

Night at the Pocket Monster museum /

Just your regularly scheduled share of this masterpiece by @tomgauld.bsky.social

Night at the Pocket Monster museum /

The new Gorillaz video is truly a gift. I've watched it a few times now and the thought I keep having is, "thank you, truly, thank you for this."

“Hey boss, are you sure Flamigo is more popular than Charizard, and people aren’t just misspelling ‘Flamingo’ on Google?” “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course Flamigo is more popular than Charizard, Mewtwo, Eevee, and Snorlax. Send the email.”

I don’t buy into any of this at all, but I struggle listening to Anthropic dude talking about significant growth in national GDP as a means for funding unemployment and retraining programs … like, are the handful of winners gonna share their wealth with the government to enact policy?

Ever notice how the world operates on reverse Mario Kart item-weighting logic?

I sometimes worry that iconic cartoon characters are doomed to a zombie-like existence. Living well beyond a reasonable lifespan. A benefit of creating characters that are more 'of a moment' is that they can rest when that moment is over.

maybe a beetle carries it off

First, I probably know tens of dozens of progressives who are happily using Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini. But as for fascinating tech I’m excited about: mRNA vaccines Gene therapy Particle colliders Solar energy capture Space telescopes Planetary rovers Tech that expands knowledge and saves lives.

Working on naming some characters now and my brain is hyper-attuned to any object, phrase, or word that could be the missing puzzle piece. It’s an exhausting way to experience the world and the internet. I don’t do this a lot, so I don’t have a proven approach. Combined with being very very picky.

Is it bad if your stock is down almost 40% over a year despite quadrupling down on AI during a stock market bubble?

Anyone have recommendations for kid-friendly action adventure 70s/80s anime? (with English dub) Kind in temperament, but with a good dose of cartoony humor. We’ve been watching Miyazaki’s Sherlock Hound on repeat. My son can’t get enough. (No complaints, it’s great!)

sorry everyone we at pencil company know you liked pencils, but we can't think of any new ideas for them, so we're discontinuing pencils tomorrow. also, you won't be able to access all your pencil drawings, please burn them, cool

Not everything needs new features. You’d think they’d realize most of the people who’ve decided to stay with Flash after nearly 30 years aren’t asking for anything new (besides periodic bug remedies and crash fixes). We pay to use the tool. That should be enough to cover basic maintenance.

Not everything needs new features. You’d think they’d realize most of the people who’ve decided to stay with Flash after nearly 30 years aren’t asking for anything new (besides periodic bug remedies and crash fixes). We pay to use the tool. That should be enough to cover basic maintenance.

I AM FURIOUS. Adobe Animate remains an industry standard for TV animation. Star Trek: Lower Decks was made in Animate. Haunted Hotel was made in Animate. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was made in Animate. And because you can't buy a permanent licence anymore, it'll just be gone.

I think the expectation of people to pivot fast to changes is one thats rooted in the normalization that we should be automated. Things are so fast and convinent, surely there must be an easy solution. I think that really downplays the nuances of everyone's craft, regardless of what it is

I keep seeing the “reminder don’t use Adobe here are the alternatives” image going around and folks, the problem is not just that Adobe sucks, the problem is they’re blocking legal access to decades of art files utilized by individuals and entire teams

Hoping to christ that they reverse this or the industry is going to take a massive hit... that and force industry people to permanently pivot away from Adobe for good. ughghghhhhhhhhhhhh

Someone has a year to buy the code for Adobe Animate, make it open source like Blender, and really do something worthwhile in this world.

lol Adobe is just killing Animate/Flash for no particular reason, completely upending the animation industry. just your average monday

Everyone make a stink about Adobe pulling the plug on Animate (Flash). Or someone internal, right now, leak the source code so some noble citizen can make a clone of it.

A common thing I see in recent grad portfolios is they're loaded up with what are clearly school assignments, which by their nature have an unfinished quality to them. Realizing that students' time is limited, when I taught I'd give assignments that could be spun into something like personal work.

Design took a practical wrong turn when people thought (or were taught?) that turnarounds are the best way to create characters. You’ll be doing yourself a favor if you conjure your characters moving. Doing the things they do. And an even bigger favor if you can doodle them quickly.

don't draw it the way you think it looks best. draw it the way you have the most fun doing it

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the feds denied them access to the scene even after investigators got a search warrant signed by a judge.

Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026

@acollierastro.bsky.social says it better than I did. "Everyone can have maximum output while accomplishing nothing." www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pqF...

critter peeking out from the coral / #legoMOC

critter peeking out from the coral / #legoMOC

Lots of classic Sesame Street on the youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMXu...

Did communities once track incidents of kids accidentally hitting baseballs into the windows of their cranky neighbors? Seems like it would be important historical data to have. Like, in terms of the prevalence. If it was an up year or a down year.

Another way I phrased this in the past: expectation: “when I get good enough at art I won’t need to use reference” reality: “the better I get the more I realize I am not using reference/doing research enough”

art is often a lot less about making stuff up from your brain whole cloth and more like arranging observations and editing them into delightful and insightful patterns; worry less about invention and originality and more about sincerity and clarity

Last year, I had the experience of being asked to transition to AI generation at my ongoing illustration job, which was surreal for sure. I wrote a post about my experience and my thoughts about using AI as an artist in the workplace, you can read it on my Instagram bit.ly/3NluzS2

A thoughtful obituary for beloved cartoonist Dan Moynihan by Dave Kierch: www.tcj.com/remembering-...