Mike Dawson Kickstarts Rules for Dating My Daughter

Rules For Dating My Daughter

Last year, I linked to a comic strip Mike Dawson posted at The Nib titled “Rules For Dating My Daughter“. Now, he’s taken that same title for a book of similar comic essays, due out next March. He describes it as “a collection of thematically linked essays on parenting, politics, and philosophy”, reprinting work from The Comics Journal, Slate, and The Nib along with new comics.

Dawson is Kickstarting the book, and he’s already made his goal. You have eight more days if you want to pledge; it’s $8 for a PDF collection or $16 for the print book. It’ll be about 140 pages, with some in color.

I’ve had the pleasure of reading a draft version, and I like the way Dawson uses autobiographical elements to ground his bigger questions about existence and relationships. It makes the strips relatable, but it avoids navel-gazing by looking at the bigger picture. He tackles our gun-nut culture, climate change, animal farming, and feminism.

Some comics, though, are just about existence, as he struggles with seeking attention for his work and finding time to draw while taking care of his kids. I could sympathize with creative output taking a backseat to the details of daily life. Dawson doesn’t hit his points hard, and his restraint makes the reader pay all the more attention. When he philosophizes, it feels like an honest conversation.

You can see sample pages at the Kickstarter page, demonstrating the kinds of topics he’s tackling and his style.

Rules For Dating My Daughter



One comment

  • Jim Kosmicki

    Dawson is a good cartoonist – I’ve enjoyed his work ever since I first read his book about Freddie Mercury

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