#004 Drawing about current events

Also: Deciding which day will be newsletter day / Coping when the house is hot

Hello Diagram Club

Admin announcements

One. First of all, there have been a significant number of new Diagram Club members over the last 24 hours. Hello! We are essentially all fairly new around here, as this is only newsletter 004 in week 2. Even the old-timers are still finding their feet after the tumult of Launch Week. So you won’t be alone in fathoming out how Substack and this newsletter work, finding the secret door to the canteen, etc etc. [Insert tangentially-relevant picture.]

Anyway, welcome! I hope you enjoy being part of Diagram Club. The intention is that it’s fun, but with some thought-provoking content too.

Two. I’ve been deciding which day newsletters will go out, and here is the long-awaited official verdict (*weak and distant fanfare*):

So yes, for now, it will vary a bit. The aim is one newsletter a week, but during August life is complicated, and so it could be as early as Wednesday, or as late as the weekend. Keeping you on your toes. Hopefully in September I’ll settle down to more of a routine.

Three. Please write in. I’d quite like some letters to reply to. There’s no need to start them ‘Dear Sir’, and they can be about anything. Perhaps I will draw diagrams in response to some of them - we’ll see how it goes. You can write by replying to this email. Small print: I won’t be able to use everything. If you reply to my emails I will use common sense about what is and isn’t printable, and I will only use first names in newsletters to say who it is from. If you definitely do or don’t want something printed please feel free to specify.

Once again, I aim to reply to all messages when I can, but it may take me a while, particularly during August. (Whose idea was launching a newsletter during August…?).

Enough dilly-dallying. On with the diagrams.

Cycling cartoon of the week

We begin each week with a cycling cartoon. It’s just the way things have always been done around here.

Cartoon from The Cycling Cartoonist, published by Bloomsbury Sport. [All my books]

I was asked on social media, to explain how bicycle racing works, so here is my attempt. Essentially, in a race try not to be at the front as it involves more effort, but then at the end really really try to be at the front.

Topical cartoon of the week

This won’t be a weekly feature, but I wanted to draw something about current events, in particular the scenes we, in the UK, have seen in some of our towns and cities over the last week.

As I’ve said elsewhere online, it’s been horrible to see what’s been happening. It’s utterly unacceptable that people should live in fear because of the colour of their skin, but time after time I’ve heard that this has been people’s very real experience. I hope, in some small way, this diagram expresses the point that refugees really aren’t the cause of anyone’s problems.

I have more to say about this drawing and in particular some of the challenges of drawing about current events in general, which Diagram Club Paid readers can read at the end of this email.

Household problem of the week

This week’s Household Problem diagram addresses the tricky issue of it being nighttime and hot.

Analysis: It could be argued that any moth / insect life is a good thing, which is normally a viewpoint I’d have a lot of time for, but 1. Any such ecological considerations go rather beyond the scope of the format; 2. Clothes moths may be an exception to normal rules; 3. There’s a time for considering things from your trousers’ point of view.

Annotated photograph of the week

Never let it be said that my annotated photos aren’t addressing the pressing issues of the day. Things like seeing back-to-front lettering in a mirror please me (and, I accept, quite possibly only me).

Colour of the week (unashamed filler)

Grey. It’s the general theme of this afternoon’s weather.

Audience feedback of the week

This one is from Twitter, one of many responses to ‘Possible causes of your problems’:

I’ll happily accept this isn’t a three-dimensional cartoon. It’s flatter than that, for one thing. If pressed I think most people would say it’s probably a two-dimensional image. An X axis and a Y axis, for those mathematically inclined. As for one-dimensional cartooning - it’s a challenge. I think (though I’d need to consult an expert in this kind of thing) that every one-dimensional cartoon would need to be a dot. Please let me know if you have an alternative opinion.

Well, that’s it for this week. Planning to be back in your inbox very soon with issue, well, 005, I suppose. The next one will probably be in slightly more than seven days’ time.

Some further thoughts about my ‘Possible causes of your problems’ cartoon is below, for Diagram Club Paid members.

Dave

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