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"Junk Drawer" is a single-panel comic that celebrates failed endeavors. There are no consistent characters or settings. Instead, there is an ongoing theme of finding humor in situations gone wrong. Much like a junk drawer you might find in someone’s home, this comic is a collection of charms that may not have a use but are valuable anyway. Looking at each one of these comics, it’s clear that there is not going to be a good outcome. But at least it’s funny.
As creator Ellis Rosen explains, "When my wife Meghan and I moved into our new apartment together, an argument arose regarding junk drawers. I am very pro-junk drawer. The idea that we reserve space for little useless knickknacks is very amusing to me. Also, you never know when one of those items suddenly becomes handy. Meghan doesn’t share this sentiment. With her, everything has a place and little useless knickknacks have their place in the garbage. This argument came to a head when I received a cheeky birthday gift from my brother: A detached drawer filled with rubber bands, pens without ink, plastic doodads, and all the other wondrous forms of house junk you could imagine."
This gift turned out to be the perfect compromise. The drawer itself is the object, like a painting or vase. In this sense it has its place, at once both a collection of objects and a single object in one. "Junk Drawer" the comic acts the same way.
Ellis Rosen is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Brooklyn, New York. His cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, MAD, and Wired. He is the illustrator of a children's chapter book, "Woundabout," and a contributor to the Eisner-nominated graphic anthology "Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular and the New Land." He and his wife, Meghan, live in Brooklyn with their mutt, Crusher.