Comic Panels

Privacy discussions can get deep into laws, frameworks, and implementation. I started ending those meetings with a comic: a lighter note after a detailed conversation. I first used comics I found online, then began developing my own.

I love newspaper cartoons and comics like Bizarro, xkcd, Calvin and Hobbes, and Garfield. I had plenty of ideas but little time to draw finished panels, so I sketched some concepts, wrote outlines, and worked with ChatGPT to generate the images.

I judged each one by the strength of the idea and how well it came through in the panel. I also shared comics with friends and family outside privacy. If they didn’t get the joke, I usually dropped it, with a few deliberate exceptions for privacy professionals.

I’ve since used my own panels in meetings, including as a lighthearted ending to cross-functional privacy discussions. People have enjoyed how relatable and easy to understand they are, and the empathy, self-deprecation, and self-awareness in the humor.