Single-Panel Lawyer

Christopher Vaccaro has had an interest in cartooning all his life; in high school and college, he’d sometimes publish his work in student newspapers. The hobby took a backseat while he built his law practice—he’s now a partner at Dalton & Finegold in Andover—and raised a family, although he’d still occasionally entertain his kids “with some of my doodling.”

That changed after his family gave him the Christmas gift of a six-week class at a local art school. Reinvigorated, he made himself a promise: He’d draw a cartoon each weekend and post it to Facebook on Monday morning at 6 a.m. He started in February 2020, and hasn’t missed a week since. 

“It brings me joy and gives me a creative outlet, which helps me deal with the stresses of life,” Vaccaro says. “And sometimes it gets people thinking.”

The mostly single-panel cartoons often feature an exaggerated version of Vaccaro, a gray-haired, bespectacled lawyer commenting on or embodying an absurdity of the practice of law—or sometimes exasperating those around him with verbose observations and peculiar behavior. In one panel, he’s using his legal knowledge to escape jury duty; in another, he’s pestering a family at a park over a kite-flying permit.

“If I’m joking around, I’m not poking fun at anybody but myself,” he says. “I’m the kind of guy who actually thinks about this weird stuff. I’m the kind of guy who would shout across a field at a family minding their own business.”

Stylistic influences include Li’l Abner and MAD magazine. When it comes to the topics, “Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David come in there as influences,” he adds. “That was situational, real-life stuff, and they’d always take it to the extreme.”

Cartoonists are known for longevity, and while Vaccaro has a ways to go before he’ll top, for example, Al Capp’s 43-year run on Li’l Abner, he’s in it for the long haul. “I’m never hard-pressed for ideas,” he says. “When I’m going about my business, if I have an idea, I’ll stop and stick it in my calendar. I [currently] have enough material in my calendar to do a weekly cartoon until 2029.”