The January 2025 Cab Post
The oily towel syndrome, drawing a mess and the rise of losers
January 2025 News
Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well/holding up okay. January started off on a very high balcony, in the company of my friends and a keg of Beau’s bee. It ended on a slight existential hangover, though. After absorbing a million words on the political and social landscape of the United States, I feel like the paper towel beneath a long-eaten stack of bacon: soaked and a little gross. Despite everything, I cling to the hope that it won't be that way forever. These few resolutions for 2025 are a good starting point. Let’s go 2025!
I'm working on lots of stuff that I can't show at the moment and it’s haaaard! Still, I had time to finish a photo study I had started at the end of 2023, based on a photo by Kyoichi Tsuzki. I would love to spend six months drawing over nice photos, were it possible. The process, sketch and reference photo are on Patreon!
It's no secret, I have a devouring passion for books, notebooks and by extension, stationery. Inspired by other authors/artists who share their notebooks/sketchbooks and others, I decided to write about what I use to manage my brain in 2025. Hint: it’s not an app.
Announcements
Following the logic above, some would think that I obsessively keep pretty sketchbooks full of beautiful drafts. Well, no. My sketches are scattered across 1000 different piles of paper. When I feel like I have accumulated enough good drawings, the urge to make a new artbook overtakes me. There seems to be a renewed interest in fanzines and small press these days, perhaps in response to the horrible experience of using mass technology in 2025. All this to say, if all goes well, I should have a new artbook of linearts, sketches and inked drawings in time for MCAF. In the meantime, I still have some copies of the one I did in 2022 (Inky Fingers) in the shop.
The following is not an announcement but an observation that I would like to share: our choice to stay or not on platforms full of radioactive, hateful and un-moderated content, managed by comic book vilains, has a real impact on real people. Their owners have an influence that is now impossible to ignore and many media, companies and institutions are thankfully beginning to understand this. So here are some reads that stuck with me this month.
We’re ruled by losers (J.P. Hill)
“These men are not losers because they used to look like nerds, of course, far from it. Their physical appearance is mostly immaterial, other than their personal obsession with it and the way it conveys who they’re attempting to appeal to. Their sociopathy is what makes them losers, the ways they’ve harmed countless workers and are eagerly throwing as many people as possible under the fascist bus makes them losers, and their obsession with hoarding wealth makes them losers.”
The Most Fragile Men control the Internet (Liz Plank)
“The men running the internet aren’t just controlling the narrative, they’re starring in their own all-male drag show, desperately performing masculinity for each other. Musk, Zuckerberg, and their billionaire boy band are so obsessed with proving who’s the most alpha that they’ve lost the plot. They’re not exuding strength; they’re just insecure men rigging platforms and rewriting algorithms like a group of closeted frat boys terrified of being the least manly guy in the room.”
Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy (Jason Koebler via 404 Media)
“If it wasn’t already obvious, the last 72 hours have made it crystal clear that it is urgent to build and mainstream alternative, decentralized social media platforms that are resistant to government censorship and control, are not owned by oligarchs and dominated by their algorithms, and in which users own their follower list and can port it elsewhere easily and without restriction.”
This said, I'm reposting my good ol’ website, which is safe from algorithms and psychopathic billionaires. I updated my links page, my personal Rolodex of people I love, helpful resources, and artists who inspire me. This is my little contribution to the internet :P I am also on Bluesky, with a growing list of local artists and cartoonists. Here is even a starter kit to follow a bunch at once.
That's all for January! I hope the Trumpesque storm calms down a little in the coming weeks. Until then, take care of yourselves, go outside and hug your loved ones. I’ll see you again in March!
This newsletter is and will ALWAYS be free. If you like what I do, I suggest visiting my online shop or hunt down my books at your favorite bookstore or library. You can also support me on Patreon or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi. Thanks a lot!
Two good new tracks from the punk band Meat Wave: Voicemail/Dehydrated.
Gentle, melodic darkness: Whisper and Wane par Shedfromthebody.
Bright, luminous pop with wonderful arrangements:Journal d'un loup-garou by Lou-Adrianne Cassidy.
Perfect work music: various DJs filmed mixing funk, city pop, soul and disco on the Humano Studio Youtube channel.
I read the novel Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and rewatched the animated film just after. It was an interesting experience! In the book, Howl actually comes from our world and I was like ??????
Cool artist: Guy Pascal Vallez aka GAX, has a super expressive style, full of texture and colors. Very trippy!
