"One Million Followers"

This was the one panel out of the batch for the year, where I actually got the idea from a friend (hat-tip to the amazing Ima Timling - check out her awesome prints here and follow her here), who mentioned it in passing in the art department's parking lot last year (see 2021's previous example here). Straight/no chaser: no doodle this time, just went right to paper without any of the usual reference sketches. I also enlisted the assistance of both classes of cartooning in this year's Visual Art Academy, so my students added their own unique "biological and technological distinctiveness" to my own. Those and another five-hundred+ additional digital (think WETA's MASSIVE tech but manually made).

Grifters gonna grift: From the same person who accused a newspaper for having a paywall

It also reminds me of another incidence earlier in the year involving an internet personality's equally desperate trolling for attention over a huff & puff with Interior media, most notably with the newspaper I freelance with. The FNSBSD had itself yet another a hissy fit/purity purge led by regressive board members over the sexual content of some health-related YouTube videos created by one "Mama Doctor Jones," and it quickly was made all about someone else instead - think an Oprah-caliber influencer like a "Dr. Oz" or "Dr. Phil" (albeit with a much more wholesome image + actual intelligence). It also unfortunately resulted in the usual horde of flying internet monkeys being unleashed upon local journalists and resulted in harassment and threats on these women by victims of groupthink. As you can easily tell from the attached grab of an ensuing post it was all a thinly veiled excuse to milk the outrage (and we've all lately seen where that can lead) and literally use it as a branding opportunity. Personally I'm grateful to be so low-down on the social media foodchain that I still need to keep a lame blog just to explain just how obtuse my dumb jokes are - although honestly I doubt I could ever learn to lie with such singular efficiency as is evidently required with tweeting such complete and utter bullshit. Thankfully I'll never have to deal with cultivating such a following - but then again, I still possess some degree of shame... and responsibility.
Physician, heal thyself indeed.