The Portable February

Running the gamut in topic and style from faux-political to faux–New Yorker, David Berman’s lo-fi cartoons incorporate strains of high and low comedy, wistful Americana, contemporary art, dream visions, and a visual analog to the semipenetrable personal allusions found in his music and poetry. His drawings invite the same deeper thought as his writings, making use of wordplay, cultural references, and offbeat observations. The sparse illustrations are complemented by poignant one-liners, and reveal moments of lightness within the author’s dark humor, providing a wry, erudite commentary on American culture.

David Berman is a singer-songwriter and former frontman for the band Silver Jews. He is the author of the poetry collection Actual Air and his cartoons have appeared in periodicals such as the Baffler, the Believer, the Minus Times, and Moonlit. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.