Who are you?
My name is Chris Lysy (it rhymes with “messy”).
Cartooning is my professional hobby. Occasionally I get paid to do it, which I like. But I also work a day job as an independent consultant, building virtual communities of practice and developing online reports.
I started drawing comics at a program evaluation conference about 13 years ago. Since then I’ve drawn thousands. My early work was mostly on topics related to evaluation, research, data visualization, entrepreneurship, and design.
What is freshspectrum, and why is it the signature on many of your comics?
FreshSpectrum is my data design blog. Many of my cartoons were designed to illustrate blog posts. So I signed the cartoons as a reference to my blog. In early 2025 I decided to try something new and changed the comic to nerdycomics.
Why Nerdy Comics?
When someone asks me about myself, I tell them I draw nerdy comics. My original website name, freshspectrum, has very little meaning to anyone who doesn’t know my work already.
Can I use your cartoons in a presentation, blog post, social media post, etc.?
So I creative commons license all of my cartoons. So yes, you can use them.
Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
View License Deed | View Legal Code
How do I attribute?
Technically I only require that you keep the signature on the cartoon. But I do appreciate links back to my website. So my preferred attribution would be something like this…
“Comic by Chris Lysy of nerdycomics.com“
But what if it’s commercial?
If it’s for social media, or a blog post, and you link back to my site, go for it. Even if it’s your business account.
If it’s for something you get paid to offer (like trainings) then I ask that you join me on Patreon at the appropriate level. I also made it possible to purchase one-off licenses if you don’t want a recurring charge.
If it’s for a text book or some other published item that will be marketed to a large audience (likely one that will make me sign stuff), you’ll find an option for that too over at Patreon.
Where do I read your cartoons?
I will try to post most of them here. But your best option to follow all my cartooning would be to follow me on Patreon. I let people follow for free (you don’t extra goodies but you do get all my comics).
Do you have a book?
I have one cartoon book (Evaluation Illustrated), it’s filled with over a hundred audience favorites. You’ll find it on Amazon and some other booksellers. I have another book, but it’s about report design.
Click here to learn where you can buy Evaluation Illustrated!
