Like so many of us, Nathan W. Pyle is relatively new to New York. And like so many of us, he has a few ideas about how to make New York a little more bearable. What sets Pyle apart? His ideas are clever enough to warrant a book deal, while the rest of us are left to mutter passive aggressive comments under our breaths.
Pyle is a freelance illustrator who originally hails from Ohio — he moved to the city around four years ago. His Midwestern common sense shines through in his drawings, which often take the form of a list of rules for how to, say, attend a movie without annoying the crap out of your fellow humans or ride a Citibike without annoying the crap out of pedestrians.
His first book, NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette, will offer up hundreds of tips for denizens of New York — widely believed to be America’s most unbearable big city — when it comes out in 2014. Some of Pyle’s rules are aimed at tourists (don’t expect people to stop when you take a photo!) and others are relevant for lifers (get out of the way when the damn subway doors open, ya jagoffs!). Others are universal — for example, “empty subway cars are empty for a reason”.
Pyle, being internet-savvy enough to know that GIFs are always the most appropriate way to share information, has animated a handful of his illustrations for the web. Yesterday, he sent us a few that haven’t hit the web yet — and they’re delightful. Check them out below, or see more on Facebook.
Plus a few stills:
