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An illustration of a chaotic construction site where anthropomorphic animals operate heavy machinery. A green reptile lounges on a yellow excavator while other animal figures in high-vis gear look on.

Delightful, dirty, anthropomorphic fun from the very skilled hand of Lisa Hanawalt

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Date
14 February 2013

A lot happens in cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt’s mouths. Sporting sexy high fashion, lizards drape themselves over fast cars with suggestive, slithering tongues. On construction sites, busty canine workers let their floppy tongues hang out as they fumble with hoses and cavort on excavators. In the forest, pink hounds happily leap out of a huge Darth Vader/puppy’s verdant, gaping jaws. Meanwhile, Obama swallows love-struck, tongue-entwined Romney and Ryan whole.

Brooklyn-based Hanawalt’s comics and illustrations have been gracing McSweeney’s, The Believer, The New York Times and other quality magazines for ages now. They’re bright, bizarre and often crammed with textile-clad animals partaking in suggestive anthropomorphic activities. They’re also, of course, very well drawn and designed. If you haven’t feasted upon them yet, get stuck in; if you have, feast again.

An illustration of two figures in suits facing each other. Their tongues extend from their mouths to meet in the middle.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Politics

An illustration of two figures in suits and ties, rendered in a distorted, grotesque style. One figure is coloured in shades of pink and red, while the other is in blue and green.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Politics

An illustration of a wide open mouth with pink lips. Inside the mouth, two people in suits look on with concerned expressions.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Politics

An illustration of a person’s face drawn in simple red and blue lines. Inside their open mouth, two smaller figures are visible, appearing to stand behind the teeth.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Politics

An illustration of four anthropomorphic lizards posing around a blue sports car. They wear colourful, high-fashion outfits, including a yellow feathered coat and patterned leggings.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Lizards Back From the Future

An illustration of a crowd of colourful, stylised dogs in a lush green landscape. Many of the dogs are emerging from a large, green, organic-shaped building with circular windows.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Jungle Dogs

A four-panel comic strip parodying romance movies. The panels show a couple moving from holding hands to kissing and a proposal, with increasingly intense and absurd dialogue.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Romance Movie

An illustration titled “HOW TO DRAW AN EAR:” shows a seven-step sequence. The steps evolve from a simple blue sketch into a series of surreal shapes, including a golden pillar, a pink melting mass, a nude figure, a green spotted creature and a purple flower. The final image is a realistic drawing of a human ear.
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Lisa Hanawalt: How to Draw an Ear

An illustration shows four stages of a person watching a film. A caption at the top reads “WHAT I LOOKED LIKE WHILE WATCHING “TRANSFORMERS 3””. The person evolves from a shocked expression to a distorted, melting face, and finally into a yellow robotic figure.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Transformers

A black and white illustration of a person with a dog's head wearing a patterned jumper and trousers. They stand beside a chaotic pile of crashed and dismantled cars with various parts floating around them.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Dog Spewing Cars

An illustration of a green lizard person standing among lush, blue and green foliage. They wear a colourful patterned cardigan over a pink top, blue trousers and purple platform heels.
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Lisa Hanawalt: Basilisk Lizard

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About the Author

Anna Trench

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