Credit: Harry Bliss & Alison Bechdel | Rev. Diane Sullivan

Seven Days has produced its Cartoon Issue annually since 2013. The brainchild of cofounder Pamela Polston, the original idea was to do the entire paper as one giant comic anthology. And we came pretty close. Aside from syndicated pieces (“Free Will Astrology,” the late, great “News Quirks”) and a weekly column or two, everything from news stories to features to album reviews was cartoonified.

It was awesome. And really, really hard.

So each year, the Cartoon Issue has evolved. Given the immediate nature of news and the lead time most cartoonists need to produce comics, we’ve shifted to stories that are less urgent — but no less compelling. While we still scatter cartoons throughout the issue, we’re less fanatical about doing the whole paper that way. And we’ve given the comics we do run more space to stretch out, from a single page to as many as three or four. The issue, and the cartoons, are better for it.

This year’s Cartoon Issue continues to draw outside the lines in new and different ways. The cover story isn’t a cartoon at all. It is about cartoonists, however — two of Vermont’s very best, in fact.

Earlier this year, Alison Bechdel and Harry Bliss released new books within a month of each other. Bliss’ You Can Never Die: A Graphic Memoir is both a memoir and an ode to his late dog, Penny. Bechdel’s Spent: A Comic Novel is fiction but rooted in her life and the lives of the characters from her celebrated strip “Dykes to Watch Out For.” So we asked the cartoonists to interview each other. The results were as hilarious and insightful as you’d expect. The artists also collaborated on our cover image.

That’s not the only non-cartoon story about a famous local cartoonist. Vermont’s first cartoonist laureate, James Kochalka, released a new Dr. Seuss book in January, Green Eggs and Ham Take a Hike. It’s part of a series of books by acclaimed artists based on classic Seuss characters. Kochalka is already working on a second. And Winooski cartoonist and illustrator Julianna Brazill steps into the video spotlight for this week’s “Stuck in Vermont.”

Another change: Rather than pairing Seven Days writers with artists for every story, we gave a couple of cartoonists free rein to write and draw their own. Center for Cartoon Studies instructor Glynnis Fawkes followed her neighbor Debra to a political protest in Burlington. Cartoon school alum Clover Ajamie trekked to Calais to interview woodcut printmaker Mary Azarian.

But we couldn’t let the cartoonists have all the fun. Writer Jordan Barry teamed up with Burlington cartoonist Kristen Shull on an illustrated food diary revealing what a food critic (and her toddler) really eat — and check out Shull’s own biweekly comic on page 82.

Meanwhile, visual art editor Alice Dodge interviewed North Hero artist Sarah Rosedahl — or rather, the cartoon chickens from Rosedahl’s forthcoming book, The Chickens’ Guide to Self Care.

Finally, music editor Chris Farnsworth and Vermont artist Ethan Slayton woke up the ragtag gang from their “Doomsbury” strip to explain why Phish weren’t elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Spoiler: It gets weird.

The original print version of this article was headlined “Comic Timing | Crossing lines in the Cartoon Issue”

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This article appears in The Cartoon Issue 2025.

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Dan Bolles is a culture coeditor at Seven Days. He joined the paper in 2007 as its music editor, covering Vermont's robust music, comedy and nightlife scenes for a decade before deciding he was too old to be going to the Monkey House on weeknights to...