Mark Anderson

When it comes to the economy and the stock market, I’m clueless.

I’m relatively well educated, and I understand some general concepts, but often the market seems, at best, counterintuitive, and, at worst, completely random.

So, trying to make sense of it one day, this cartoon popped out. And, especially recently, I don’t think it’s far off.

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About the Author: Mark Anderson’s cartoons appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Anderson is the creator of the popular cartoon website, Andertoons.com, where he licenses his cartoons for presentations, newsletters and other projects. He blogs at Andertoons Cartoon blog.

Mark is part of the Small Business Trends Expert Network.

As much as I love Thanksgiving, it’s a rough holiday for cartooning.

Christmas gives you all sorts of stuff to play with: Santa, elves, reindeer, trees… Halloween is almost as good: pumpkins, monsters, candy, costumes . . .

But Thanksgiving is pretty much just turkey, so I do what I always do when I’m at a loss - I make a list of everything I can think of related to my topic.

One of the things that’s different about Thanksgiving is the lack of a consistent date. Sure, it’s the fourth Thursday of November, but it’s not, say, October 31, or July 4. And that sort of vague scheduling got me thinking about my own schedule, and the cartoon above came into focus.

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About the Author: Mark Anderson’s cartoons appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Anderson is the creator of the popular cartoon website, Andertoons.com, where he licenses his cartoons for presentations, newsletters and other projects. He blogs at Andertoons Cartoon blog.

Mark is part of the Small Business Trends Expert Network.

Sometimes cartoons just fall into your lap.

I was in this very meeting with our manager trying to motivate us with all manner of sports related inspiration.”It’s the ninth inning, people, and the bases are loaded with sales! It’s fourth and inches! They’re on the ropes! Time for a slam dunk!”

Not being a sports guy, I didn’t find it particularly moving, but it did make for a good cartoon. read more

Here’s the story behind this cartoon I created:

No one likes to give bad news. I remember perusing the business section, reading the phrase “drowning in red ink,” and thinking about how you’d spin really awful financial news: think “bailout” vs. “rescue.”

After a few different tries . . . Burgundy? Not quite right. Merlot? Wine connotations might confuse the gag.

Eventually, I landed on maroon and that seemed funniest to me.

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About the Author: Mark Anderson’s cartoons appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Anderson is the creator of the popular cartoon website, Andertoons.com, where he licenses his cartoons for presentations, newsletters and other projects. He blogs at Andertoons Cartoon blog.