John Atkinson’s 42 Smart And Funny Comics About Books, Culture, And Art (New Pics)

As a student of fine art, Canadian cartoonist John Atkinson has quite a refined sense of humor. He creates funny illustrations that reference literature, art, and culture. His work thrives on wordplay, irony, and unexpected connections.

Today, we would like to share John’s latest cartoons, created since his last post. While Atkinson's comics are intellectually stimulating, he remains a down-to-earth kind of guy, who's not afraid to be misunderstood; as he previously shared, when people comment that they don't understand his comics, he often replies, "I don’t get it either."

So, without further ado, scroll down to explore Atkinson's unique comics, which you can also find under the handle "Wrong Hands."

More info: Instagram | wronghands1.com | x.com | ko-fi.com

#1

Image credits: wrong.hands

Previously, Atkinson shared that his inspiration to create comics that also heavily draw upon classic books was when he came across a survey that revealed that around “60 percent of people pretend to have read books they haven’t and around 40 percent rely on movies and TV to feign knowledge of popular books.”

Because of this, he thought it might be a funny idea to create “tweet-sized” synopses of these famous books.

#2

Image credits: wrong.hands

#3

Image credits: wrong.hands

Though the artist doesn’t shy away from the subjects surrounding our culture, he does refrain from politics. He wrote: “I naturally have my personal political leanings (which may or may not come through in my work), but I don’t consciously try to take a stand in the cartoons.

Atkinson also added that he stays “away from profanity simply because it’s just too easy and lazy to have an expletive as the punchline.”

#4

Image credits: wrong.hands

#5

Image credits: wrong.hands

The artist also revealed how he approaches his comics: “My work isn’t character-driven. Every once in a while the same chicken might show up, but for the most part, my work is idea-driven. The concept dictates the drawing or the characters for a particular gag, but that generally changes from one idea to the next.”

#6

Image credits: wrong.hands

#7

Image credits: wrong.hands

If you were wondering how Atkinson comes up with his ideas, he shared: "Usually I get ideas when sitting and staring off into space. Sometimes (actually too often) in the shower. I have on occasion woken in the middle of the night to jot something down only to read it in the light of day and discover I'd written the lyrics to 'Yesterday.'"