As we see more and more businesses and organizations bypassing artists to use AI for promotional artwork, NAAFA remains committed to paying fat artists for their time and talents. In 2024, we launched our popular sticker program, including thank you stickers for our fundraising campaigns and additional stickers to give out at community events. We’re so happy this May to welcome illustrator Barry Deutsch to our sticker family! Barry joins the ranks alongside Bats Langley, Reesa Bo Beesa, Devon Blow (aka Dev the Pineapple), and Toni Tails.

We first introduced NAAFA friends to Barry Deutsch (he/him) on the NAAFA Webinar Series in 2022. Barry lives in Portland, Oregon, in a bright blue house with pink trim and varying numbers of housepets, housemates, and nieces. Best known in fat liberation communities for his political cartoons exploring medical weight bias and other challenges faced by fat people, Barry is also widely known for his popular comics, Hereville (about yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish Girl) and SuperButch with Becky Hawkins (about a 1940s lesbian superhero protecting the bar scene from corrupt cops). You can follow Barry on Instagram @barry.deutsch and see more of his political comics about social justice at leftycartoons.com.

If you’ve been around fat community for a while, you may have already seen some of Barry’s more popular political cartoons covering fatness and anti-fatness. “As far as I know,” Barry says, “I’m the only political cartoonist who regularly covers fat acceptance.” We’re honored to share one of Barry’s most famous fat acceptance cartoons, “What We Tell Fat People,” which is reprinted here with the artist’s permission.

Barry tells us that he loved creating stickers for us because “drawing happy fat people was a dream project!” Barry created three custom art pieces for us. A one-time donation to NAAFA by June 1 gets you the first one. If you join the NAAFA POD, our group of Passionate Ongoing Donors who give monthly, you get the first two. To get all three, you’ll either have to catch us in person this summer at a local event OR join our summer virtual events for sticker giveaways.