When asked what inspired him to start creating one-panel comics and how his journey as a cartoonist began, John explained, "I started doing a daily comic strip for my college newspaper, and when I graduated, nobody told me to stop. I kept doing strips and after about ten years I finally figured out how to draw and started submitting to The New Yorker. That got me into single panel cartooning."
As for how he comes up with ideas for his comics, the artist shared his improvisational approach: "I just start drawing and try to improvise the joke as I sketch. My thinking is if I don't know where I'm going with it, the reader won't either." He also mentioned a personal favorite comic, saying, "My favorite thing I've ever created was a short series called My Boyfriend's Falcon. I drew two unrelated pictures, one with a girl looking angry and another with a guy holding a falcon lovingly. They just happened to be next to each other in my sketchbook, but then I was like, 'What if they were dating?' and that was very funny to me."
John’s ability to adapt his humor to different audiences is one of the reasons his work has been featured in such prestigious outlets as The New Yorker and MAD Magazine. "With The New Yorker, you're operating within a very specific cartoon tradition, so there's a lot of parameters: more realistic drawings, muted cartooning, contemporary references," he explained. "You read about 10,000 of their cartoons and you get a pretty good idea of what they're looking for. With Mad, I try to inject it with more liveliness. The acting and jokes can be more broad, and the scenarios can be sillier. But I've always aimed for a brand of high-brow dumbness, so I find it pretty easy to cross back and forth."
As a writer for The Onion, John also credits the experience with shaping his comedic style. "The Onion helped me raise my standards for myself. They are just so funny and will reject hundreds of ideas without blinking an eye," he noted. "There's also something about formulating jokes in the form of a headline that gives it no place to hide. You're just deadpan saying what the idea is, so it's got to be really funny to be good at all."
For young or aspiring cartoonists looking to break into the field, the comic artist's advice is rooted in commitment and practice. "Before the career, you have to develop a practice. My cartoons really took off when I committed to drawing a strip every day at lunch for about 2 years. It taught me to not be precious and just do the work with a long-term outlook on cartooning. Some comics were good, some were bad, but I just moved forward and raised my baseline. Find the space every day to make a thing, and then let a few years go by."
