We love food, and we’re big fans of these comics by Nate! The artist shared with Bored Panda that food serves as a fantastic muse for his gag comics. According to him, the things we eat hold personal connections for people, and every food item has a unique story. "I have a great time deciphering what, for example, a hot pepper thinks of itself if it were able to walk around in public. Would it think of itself as 'hot'? As in, attractive? I seem to come up with a somewhat endless supply of ideas based on my eating habits and observing how others approach food.
I recently wrote a fruitcake gag about how it’s ignored at parties because, from my observations, many people don’t exactly love it. A lot of people actually love fruitcake, so maybe it just has a bad rap. Anyway, I approach these particular cartoons by trying to figure out the personality of a specific item of food, combining it with my own observations."
Creating art is not just about expressing oneself but also about discovering new things along the way. Nate shared that throughout his creative journey, he realized that the original playbook was thrown out the window a long time ago. "Growing up, I just wanted to be a cartoonist in the newspaper. That's it. However, my career has consisted of being a cartoonist for Red Bull ads, greeting cards, MAD Magazine, and many other things. What’s weird is, decades later, after the original dream, my syndicated gag cartoon, Break of Day, is expanding quite a bit in newspapers! It’s now published in more than 90 of them daily. I'm really happy about that and would love to continue to see that number go up and up.
Creative journeys are shaped by our choices—some paths we take and others we leave behind—and each decision impacts our work in unique ways. Nate shared that he’s consciously chosen to avoid political or religious topics in his work.
"I dabbled in both a while back and found I hated it. I like things that are humorous and fun for me to make. Anything else just doesn't cut it for me. That said, I think cartooning is kind of like acting. You can take on different roles in your career. It's okay to do things outside your norm if you want to, or if you're just trying to make a living. Actors do it all the time, by playing in a car commercial or something to pay rent. It doesn’t mean that the actor loves cars -- it’s just a role. Cartooning is the same thing. But still, now at my age, I'm a bit more picky. So again, I avoid political and religious stuff. Also, speaking of cars, I’m not a fan of drawing them -- so I try to avoid doing so.
