DMA#53: Drinking Your Own Bath Water: A Morning with Rich Sparks

Draw Me Anything with Jason Chatfield · Jun 18, 2026 · 52m

There’s a cartoon early in Rich Sparks’s new book of a man my age, alone in a bath, lifting a spoon to his lips. No setup, no crowd, no scene. Just the act, and a title underneath:

“Youp.”

Where I’m from, that’s a diagnosis. My uncle Greg taught it to me as a child: “Mate, get a load of this bloke. He drinks his own fucken bath water.” (Australian for arrogant.) First cousin to tall poppy syndrome, that great national project of never letting anyone tout their own success.

I opened the book to that page first, and decided the next hour of my morning was spoken for. Which is roughly how the…