Spam Cartoons

Like anyone else with an email account, every day I am greeted with a fresh dose of spam. Because spam filters are designed to scan emails for certain words and phrases, spammers have created programs that automatically generate a text that looks “normal” enough to get into our inboxes. The resulting messages are a strange blend of meaning and nonsense.

Every day for two and a half weeks this past spring, I decided to create a comic strip based on a spam text I received that day. My anonymous and presumably automated collaborators supplied the words. I figured out how those words might translate into a daily strip. The email subject line provided the title of the comic, and the author’s name was that given by the spammer. The result is a modern kind of surrealism that is hard to imagine without the strange magic of today’s technology. Enjoy.