By Zack Quaintance — Despite the tumult and chaos, there is an absolutely stunning feat of cartooning happening in 2020, and it’s happening on Instagram.  But we’ll get to that in a second.

First, about this tumult and chaos. A global pandemic has spurred a recession...and now mass protests have swept the U.S. (and other countries) over systemic police abuse of Black citizens. Meanwhile, the deliberately divisive U.S. President Donald Trump continues blustering through a tacky brand of conflict politics that has appalled so many that even members of his own party are endorsing (directly or indirectly) his political rivals.

Enter Australian cartoonist Simon Hanselmann. 

For the unfamiliar, Hanselmann is best-known for his books about Megg, Mogg, and Owl, characters who are literally a witch, a talking cat, and an anthropomorphic owl man. In a more realistic sense, they are a social circle of stoned and troubled individuals, and Hanselmann’s stories about them (which also include werewolves, warlocks, draculas, etc.) see all manner of awful things happen, especially to Owl. These stories feature madcap and outrageous stoner humor, wherein nothing is off limits. There is sex (and it’s not often sexy), there is blood, there are fluids...so many fluids. If any of that sounds the least bit off-putting, well, you’re going to be off-put by Hanselmann’s comics.

At the same time, Hanslemann’s work is laced with an uncannily-relatable beating heart of confused anxieties that speaks directly to the generation experiencing these times, even before 2020 brought so many undercurrents to a head. Hanslemann’s characters are boxed in by dueling insurmountable forces wrought upon them in almost equal parts by societal obstacles and their own failings, be these on account of familial histories, substance abuse, or insecurity pushing them to associate with people who actively limit and abuse them.

And it’s the beating heart of anxieties that makes the feat of cartooning Hanslemann has pulled off on Instagram this year so impressive. Yes, we’re finally getting to that.

Amid everything in 2020, Hanslemann has been publishing 10 panels most days, dating back to March 13...the day Tom Hanks got COVID, the NBA shutdown, and the country writ large acknowledged that yes, there was a pandemic. He’s been doing it for free on his Instgram. In this story, Hanselmann’s familiar characters experience the impact of the news in real-time along with the rest of us. They are sick, they are quarantined, they are out of work, and they are now in the streets amid the police protesting. 

When Hanselmann started posting this reactive ongoing story to his Instagram, he couldn’t have known how it would evolve, nor could he have known what was coming in the news. He just started drawing his familiar characters doing what they typically always do — drugs, sex, misery, destruction, coping, repeat. It was perhaps a stress reaction, a means of coping himself with the uncertainty of the world, and that is also perhaps what Hanselmann’s work has always been, making it uniquely suited to take up the mantle of the real-time comic of record for this time.

And that’s why I’m spotlighting it today. If you’re not put-off by body fluids and explicit illustrations of all manner of insertions into orifices, etc., this daily Instagram comic with its 10-page blasts of storytelling and coping is a must-read, an entertaining story that lets you know you’re not alone. I know it’s certainly been a highlight for me amid these headlines, and with Hanselmann’s posts regularly accruing upwards of 11,000 likes on the platform (as well as comments from other major cartoonists, like Ed Piskor), I clearly have plenty of company.

Check out some panels from the story below, to get a better idea of what I’m talking about:

There’s also a lesson here about the resilience of comics. The comics industry might be in upheaval (at least the corporate superhero books and their distribution channels, of which sooooo much has been said and written), but the practice of telling stories with words and pictures is unstoppable, as demonstrated by this project. So, if you’re still using Instagram, if you’re stressed or troubled, if you’re fighting every day, if you love comics and you don’t mind depictions of webcam sex, dildos, vomit, and so forth — this is a must-read comic for 2020, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Check out Simon Hanselmann’s Instagram.

Click here to get Hanselmann’s books through publisher Fantagraphics.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.