Rusty Epstein has a knack for turning the most ordinary moments into wonderfully unexpected jokes. The Boston-area cartoonist, also known for his webcomic Bummer Party, creates Rusty Cartoons as a series of single-panel, New Yorker-style comics that find humor in everyday life, modern society, current events, awkward conversations, and the strange thoughts that tend to pop into our heads.
The formula is deceptively simple: expressive black-and-white drawings, just enough context to set the scene, and a punchline that often takes the joke somewhere you didn’t see coming. Relationships, technology, social habits, politics, pets, and our own contradictions all become fair game, with Rusty finding the absurdity in situations that feel surprisingly familiar. The cartoons have appeared in publications including The Times Luxury, Weekly Humorist, and Seven Days VT, while new batches continue to explore the weird, funny, and occasionally uncomfortable side of everyday life.
Bored Panda has featured Rusty’s work several times before, and the latest collection proves he still has plenty of clever observations up the sleeve. Scroll down to see the newest one-panel comics, and don’t forget to upvote the ones that caught you off guard or made you laugh.
