Inside The Narwhal

Dive deep with 5 silly narwhal cartoons

How many narwhals does it take to make a pun about journalism? We asked cartoonist Gabrielle Drolet to investigate

By Karan Saxena

Cartoons by Gabrielle Drolet

Dec. 20, 2024 2 min. read

Whether it’s her viral “Garlic Essay,” daily October rat cartoons, or witty queer ramblings (sorry, not sorry), the algorithm gods have always found a way to bring cartoonist and writer Gabrielle Drolet onto my social media feed. Ever since I was gifted her beautiful illustration of the Palestine sunbird, I also get to see her work offline. Gabrielle’s debut book, Look Ma, No Hands: A Chronic Pain Memoir, will be published in 2025 — and I can’t wait to get my hands on that too.

So when The Narwhal’s creative director Shawn Parkinson happened to mention that he’d commissioned some cartoons from her for our end-of-year fundraising drive, I was beyond thrilled to see them.

I asked Gabrielle what it was like working with Shawn, and she said they ran into only one problem: the pair dreamt up more ideas than they knew what to do with.

“Narwhals are such inherently silly and cartoonable creatures, and there are so many jokes to be made about investigative reporting that lend themselves well to narwhal characters,” she told me. “They dive deep! They expose dark underbellies! They spearhead stories! They’re swimming through a sea of sources! They look at more than just the tip of the iceberg! You get it.”

Investigating problems. Exploring solutions

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for a weekly dose of independent journalism.

Investigating problems. Exploring solutions

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for a weekly dose of independent journalism.

It seemed like a waste to only use these cute cartoons in our fundraising efforts — which you can chip in to support here! — so we put them all in one place for you to enjoy:

Cartoon title: Risks of reading The Narwhal. Illustration of a woman sitting with a computer that has a Narwhal sticker on a park bench. A narwhal sitting next to her reads her computer screen over the shoulder. Text reads: "Wait — the government did WHAT?"

Illustration of two narwhals hanging, one busy reading, as a whale swims over them. Text reads: "I think you're taking the whole 'investigating dark underbellies' thing too literally."

Illustration of two narwhals in the ocean, watching a seal and two penguins on ice enamoured by a unicorn and its horn. Text reads: "I'll be more impressed when he has a scoop."

Illustration of two narwhals talking, one wearing a second tusk like a party hat. Text reads: "What? I thought double up was in right now."

Illustration of an anglerfish (with a light hanging off its head) and a narwhal wearing a headlamp with a dark background to emulate the bottom of the ocean. Text reads: "Oh, I thought the 'our investigations dive deep' motto was figurative."

Another year of keeping a close watch

Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.

And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.

In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”

As the year draws to a close, we’d like to thank you for paying attention. And if you’re able to donate anything at all to help us keep doing this work in 2025 — which will bring a whole lot we can’t predict — thank you so very much.

Will you help us hold the powerful accountable in the year to come by giving what you can today?

Yes, I’ll support independent journalism

Another year of keeping a close watch

I’ll support independent journalism

Published By

Karan Saxena

Karan Saxena is an immigrant settler living on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ territories. Karan is The Narwhal’s audi...

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Inside The Narwhal