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.”

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:

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