Little Ones: Cartoons by Liana Finck

aphorisms


merman


nice


love2


boring


nabokov


egg

Liana Finck’s first graphic novel, A Bintel Brief, was published by Ecco Press. Her cartoons and comics appear in The New Yorker, The Toast, The Forward, and Lilith Magazine.


21 Comments

  1. Sporkening +16

    “Your life’s work is so cute”… yeah, I get that too. Bonus: it turns me into awkward-hypnotic-stare-grin-person, because the only alternative that feels even remotely right is to DECK my INTERLOCUTOR in the FACE! I’ve tried withering sarcasm and it just doesn’t do the trick, probably because most people who say this genuinely mean it as a some kind of weird compliment? I don’t even know. My commiserations to your mom.

    Also, the Nabokov thing is on POINT. You just never know, man… you just never know.

    1. tinypaperme +7

      I let an otherwise promising OKCupid convo lapse because when I told her what I do, she told me, “Oh, I didn’t know that was a thing!”

      What I do isn’t even weird.

  2. nopemobile +42

    One of the ladies at my job is a self-professed very huggy person but she actually asks if you want a hug and then respects whatever you tell her. It blows my mind.

  3. treereenee +13

    I am interpreting the last one as a toddler being presented with a spoonful of food which he previously gladly accepted. Specifically, my toddler.

    This face is almost always followed by a dodge or parry.

  4. pseudonymica

    Brilliant as usual! I'm the awkward nodder but my stare is more hypnotized than hypnotic, I think.

    I am going to imagine that ambush hugger's sinister arm and claw hand next time I see this guy who DJs with my boyfriend. He'd never said a word to me before, saw me hug a guy I actually know, and pulled that "don't you like me?" crap. So I felt obliged to hug him and he CRITIQUED MY HUG. Without a word to me, he told the other guy "I only got a one armed side hug but the pressure was decent."

    Even before the hug he gave me that creepy feeling I've never been wrong about. You know, the "loves Nabokov for the wrong reasons" type. (Great classification system!)

    PLUS, despite never speaking to me – aside from the hug and this other time when he asked me to bring drapes and decorate the club (ha! Shall I also make you a sandwich?) – his version of DJ booth guy gossip* is to interrogate my boyfriend about why we've been together for so long without getting married.

    *Sometimes male DJ packs do the "check out that chick" thing but mostly, I'd say, if they're not talking about music or cables it's gossip.

  5. The Elitist Semicolon

    I let an otherwise promising OKCupid convo lapse because when I told her what I do, she told me, "Oh, I didn't know that was a thing!"

    What I do isn't even weird.

  6. Xolandra

    Next time he demands a hug, actively try to kidney punch him while he's judging your pressure and approach. It'll give him something wholly new to critique.

    Note: I am not an actively violent person, despite all comments to the contrary.