It Is Right to Draw Their Fur

In time to coincide with a gallery show in San Francisco, this is Dave Eggers's first collection of drawings. Most of these works are of unusual mammals, most often accompanied by slogans with ancient, heroic, or just plain odd overtones. This full-color package will be a combination of 26 large-sized prints and an accompanying booklet.

This book echoes questions posed by Eggers in McSweeney's Issue 27: What is the line between a doodle, a cartoon, a gag, and a work of fine art? Does it seem, sometimes, that the artist is defacing his or her own work by adding text? Is loose draftsmanship appealing, in that it’s intimate and disarming? Is absurdity more appealing when it comes across as humble?

For most of his youth, author/editor Dave Eggers was an aspiring painter. After college, he was a cartoonist and illustrator for dozens of magazines and newspapers. In 2008, he curated a show for apexart (a nonprofit art gallery in New York) featuring the works of René Magritte, Francisco Goya, Andy Warhol, David Shrigley, Kurt Vonnegut, Shel Silverstein, Raymond Pettibon, and many others.