When Roz Chast had her first comics published in The New Yorker, she received mixed reactions from some people at the magazine — they thought her work was too weird and it didn’t quite align with its style.

“They were really, really upset,” she said jokingly. “Not only are the barbarians at the gates, they’re in the gates and publishing in the magazine.”

Her first cartoon that was purchased and printed in The New Yorker was titled “Little Things” and is a wheel of small, alien shapes with nonsense names. Although her work now mainly focuses on the ironies of life and relatable problems, “Little Things” and her early cartoons show Chast’s wacky art and humor style.

Introduced as the “first subversive New Yorker cartoonist,” Chast discussed “Little Things” and other cartoons during the University Lecture Wednesday night in Hendricks Chapel.

Chast’s cartoons have also been printed in publications such as Scientific American and Harvard Business Review. She has also illustrated children’s books and is a recent inductee to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Chast began her lecture by showing her more lighthearted New Yorker cartoons, like “Pigeon Little” and “The Fountain of Puberty”, which spawned laughter from the audience.

She then moved onto her more serious works.

Chast showed the audience selections from “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant,” her autobiographical work in progress inspired by and chronicling the decline, institutionalization and death of her elderly parents.

Audience members chuckled at the first pages, but then the tone shifted. The cartoons portrayed things Chast’s aging parents said. When Chast showed life sketches of her mother sleeping in a hospice, viewers remained silent.

“Anyway, back to cartoons,” Chast interjected before moving back to her more lighthearted work.

At the end of the lecture, Chast briefly showed some personal projects, such as dyed eggs and hooked rugs. She rendered both projects similarly to her cartoons.

Chieh-Yuan Chen, a freshman communications and rhetorical studies major, said he was impressed by Chast’s work, comparing her cartoons to the Snoopy cartoons he’d read as a kid.

Chen said he doesn’t usually see cartoonists like Chast “come around” and added that he thought it was remarkable for her to render her life experiences in a cartoon medium.

Lexi Crovatto, a senior magazine journalism major, said Chast seemed like a “very whole person” to her.

Said Crovatto: “I could sit down with her and have a funny conversation over a cup of coffee.”

Published on March 6, 2014 at 2:13 am