20 Questions with Brad Neely: ‘I’m always trying to figure out, is a horse just like a dog?’

Brad Neely's Creased Comics (NYRC, 2026) is just as funny as the Sistine Chapel, but so much easier to see up close. The cartoonist, writer, composer, voice actor and producer makes work with a playfully grotesque outlook on humanity, with an unmistakably distinctive voice (literally and figuratively) that is somehow for everyone. The glimmer of humanity's pain, vanity, grace, and irrationality peeks through gags strung together from the universal comedy that's existed since the dawn of time, the kind where you're watching someone slam into every possible obstacle while on a long, long fall. His purposeful drawings depict the figure’s whole body: no skimping on hands and feet, legs that go all the way down, against writing more reminiscent of poetry than prose. Neely’s powers combine with an absurd humor, which has the unfortunate aspect of making people enjoy themselves, an activity which was labeled inconsequential during a vote that must have taken place on a day when both you and I were out sick. It’s not my fault that as a society we’ve decided the height of human emotion is a single tear rolling down a tight grimace. The next time your heater is on the fritz, pile on the work...