Drawing children is “more fun and interesting,” the cartoonist Maddie Dai says, “if you imbue them with a kind of world-weariness.”
A lot of us are starting to feel a bit nostalgic for an office life that we didn’t know to treasure till it was gone—the communal pot of burnt coffee (but you didn’t have to make it!), the ladies’-room gossip (human interaction, albeit with awkward sound effects!), the smell of a fresh ream of printer paper (who owns a home printer?!). I mean, I’m writing this in bed while eating a sleeve of Carr’s crackers for breakfast. You don’t have to miss the commute to miss the motivation to put on a practical low heel and count down the minutes until your daily Pret latte jaunt. But, for Maddie Dai (who at the time of this filming had arrived in New Zealand and was midway through her enforced quarantine, in a hotel patrolled by national forces), that thrillingly awkward crowded-elevator banter is perhaps as much a distant dream as for anyone else. Good thing Maddie—ever the master chronicler of the weird world of startups, with its attendant jargon, wardrobe, and rituals—was allowed to stay on her old company’s Slack, just lurking, mining for fodder.
—Emma Allen, New Yorker humor and cartoon editor
Do you draw with your left or right hand?
Right.
What art do you have hanging on your studio walls/above your drawing desk?
My desk sits in front of a window, which I use to peer into London flats and back yards around me. My neighbors have a collection of headless mannequins in their garden, which is incredibly unnerving but useful for anatomy lessons.
Do you snack while you draw? If so, on what?
If I’m actually trying to work, I’ll drink coffee. If I’m using snacks as a means of procrastination, something elaborate, cheesy, and layered.
Do you listen to music or podcasts while you draw? If so, specify.
Religiously. Lately, lots of podcasts about ISIS brides.
What object or setting do you absolutely hate drawing?
There’s absolutely no animal I tackle with confidence. I’ll Google reference imagery for a worm.
What’s your favorite New Yorker cartoon trope or cliché (e.g., desert island, grim reaper, Rapunzel tower, etc.)?
I don’t know if this is a trope per se or merely the backbone of society, but I like cartoons that involve middle-aged married couples in a quietly unfolding crisis that doesn’t require either of them to get up from their armchairs.
If you could have dinner with one cartoonist, living or dead, tonight, who would it be?
Charles Addams, preferably in his living form.
What would you serve?
An exciting modern innovation . . . Maybe Four Loko, since the worst-case scenario is that he has a great time re-dying.
What was your favorite cartoon (strip or animation) as a kid?
“Footrot Flats,” a New Zealand strip about a farmer, Wal, and his dog, Dog, that seemed to exist in every Kiwi bathroom. I swear they came with the loo—you never purchased a book firsthand. I also loved “Tintin” and “Asterix.”
What did you spend your first New Yorker cartoon sale check on?
I made such an enthusiastic trip to IHOP that I got a call from my bank.
If you had to get a tattoo (or a new tattoo) right now, what would you get?
Maybe my résumé, so that it doesn’t affect my employment prospects.
Dogs or cats?
Dogs, but if offered I’ll happily take both.
