For writer Bizzy Coy and artist Lia Strasser collaborating felt like a natural extension of their friendship, albeit maybe not at first. Introduced through a mutual friend, Strasser was immediately impressed with Coy’s intelligence and sense of humor. 

Strasser had been working for years on creating and submitting cartoons to The New Yorker magazine—a weekly news and culture publication storied for its hand-drawn cartoons and accompanying captions. 

After many rejections, Strasser thought a different approach might bear more fruit, and asked Coy to lend her writing talents to her visual creations. 

“She said, ‘No thanks,’” Strasser recalled. “It was disappointing… [but] she was busy doing a lot of other things at the time.”

Not wanting to give up, she asked again six months later, and this time, she said yes.

They worked together on a batch of cartoons—Strasser drawing the illustrations and Coy lending the captions—and submitted 10 to The New Yorker Cartoons Editor. One of them was selected for the print publication. 

Since then, which was about two years ago, the pair have been meeting weekly to create and submit more cartoons (which are reviewed by The New Yorker every week) with multiple cartoons being published in both the print and online editions.

They say their creative process includes a lot of hashing out ideas, debating, and sometimes abandoning those ideas (making about 100 cartoons and only going forward with ten).

“[It] takes a lot of persistence,” stated Coy. 

Now they will be sharing their talents and insights with an audience at an upcoming event “Lia and Bizzy Talk Toons” at The 108 (108 Main Street) in Narrowsburg, on Sunday, February 22 at noon. 

They will show some of their cartoons, talk about the process and play an interactive cartoon caption contest game. 

When asked what they hope people will get out of the event, Strasser offered words of encouragement: “Confidence in themselves,” she said. “I didn’t submit to The New Yorker for so long because I felt I wasn’t ready or good enough, and you just need to start.”

For her, it was a lifelong dream to be published in the magazine, which in many ways had already touched her life: her mother worked there as VP of Business and Technology and during college she had an internship with famed arts editor Françoise Mouly. 

Growing up in New York City, and later Westchester, her father was an author, so she always felt a connection to the literary world. 

As an accomplished illustrator and graphic designer, she moved to Narrowsburg in 2023 and now enjoys its inspiring calm presence and natural beauty. 

Coy is no stranger to the written word, the Yulan resident works as a freelance copywriter while also pursuing her own endeavors, from publishing a book of essays (with illustrations by Strasser) and writing fictional short stories. 

One thing that’s missing from this story that would be remiss not to include, is that Strasser and Coy are funny. Like, very funny. Both separately and as a duo, when they play off of each other’s comedic timing.

The New Yorker is famed for its humorous injections throughout the magazine, both through the cartoons and the Shouts and Murmurs section, often taking on satire and social or political commentary.

Coy and Strasser’s cartoons tend to be more evergreen and timeless—like the NYC Subway math quiz, and sometimes more topical like “White Lotus” theories (a popular HBO show that had many twists and turns). 

When asked how it felt that their very first cartoon was accepted (especially considering The New Yorker’s notoriously difficult selection process), Coy said, “Terrible!” (Reader, we can assume this was an ironic joke.)

Strasser added, “I felt so validated and justified in pursuing Bizzy and pushing her to work with me.”

“And I’ve regretted it every day”—Coy, presumably another ironic joke. 

The pair continues to meet once or even twice a week to hone their craft and cultivate their collaboration. 

“Even though getting published is a kind of superficial affirmation, the point is just to create and feel good about what you’re making,” Strasser said. “I believe that creativity and the expression of ideas in any form—dancing, singing, drawing—is an essentially human need.”