At UW, math and CS are getting the comic treatment through the MathSoc Cartoons comic. The comic is published biweekly on Instagram and in MathNEWS. It covers a range of UW courses in statistics, computer science, combinatorics and optimization, pure mathematics, and calculus, to make complex concepts easier to understand through humour and visual storytelling.
“I found the cartoons really cute. I really like drawing and topics related to math, and I think they are very informative,” said Tamar Gendler, a second-year mathematical physics student who particularly enjoyed a STAT 230 comic released last term.
Originally, the Mathsoc cartoon was started in winter 2020 by Gavin Orok. He was interested in educational technology and visual arts and wanted to combine the two by using cartoons to teach math concepts. He believed cartoons could make lessons more engaging while simplifying difficult technical concepts. So Orok reached out to the Visual Arts
Club and recruited five artists to form the original art team, while he personally wrote all the sketches. The project was also inspired of Sequential Math by Amanda Garcia and Giuseppe Sellaroli. Orok met them at the Canadian Mathematical Society at a meeting in Toronto in the fall of 2019. When he later began developing MathSoc Cartoons in winter 2020, Garcia and Sellaroli provided guidance in designing comics and correcting content errors with the original supervisor of the project, Professor Dan Wolczuk.
Although the comic’s activity gradually declined after spring 2023 due to difficulties finding students willing to continue leading the initiative, remnants of the organization continued intermittently through spring 2024 before a larger revival effort began in fall 2025.
As the current MathSoc VPA, E-Therng Lee shared, the role of MathSoc VPA oversees academic concerns within MathSoc, including student advocacy related to courses, clubs, and academic initiatives. He said that the MathSoc Cartoons have historically been passed down through successive VPAs since their creation around 2021, remaining connected to the office primarily through budgeting and administrative support. Furthermore, Lee added that despite this connection, the initiative has largely operated independently. “They’re quite independent, so I don’t really have to oversee them or supervise them that much. But their budget passes through to me.” Lee commented.
Former MathSoc Vice President Academic (VPA) of fall 2025 and current Councillor CS Representative, Valerie, shared that by fall 2025, much of the project’s “institutional memory” had disappeared. Despite this, students continued to independently express interest in the initiative, even while it was inactive. She said several students approached MathSoc asking how they could get involved, including Li-Ahn Tang, the current producer of the comic. Valerie explained that reviving the initiative required rebuilding it almost entirely from scratch. This included reconnecting with former contributors, recovering old documentation, and reconstructing the organizational structure. She also worked to secure funding through MathSoc Council, the Math Endowment Fund, and the Student Life Endowment Fund. “I pulled in as many of the old guard as I could,” Valerie mentioned.
Li-Ahn Tang, a first-year mathematics and financial analysis and risk management student, has served as the producer of MathSoc Cartoons since fall 2025. Tang described the large amount of work currently handled by the small executive team as the workload currently includes scheduling and project management responsibilities that would ideally be shared among more executive members. “We completely got rid of the design, the sketch artist, or the design role, as our artists are capable of designing their own characters themselves. The other producer roles or executive roles just weren’t fulfilled,” she mentioned.
Moreover, Tang explained that the comic currently operates through a collaborative structure involving writers, artists and reviewers. Tang shared that the producer position is unpaid, while writers and artists receive compensation through the group’s budget, funded through MathSoc and the Math Endowment Fund. Reviewers participate on a volunteer basis. At the end of each term, the team hosts a giveaway in which reviewers can receive a $50 e-gift card of their choice.
One of the reviewers, Mica Morante, described the review process as involving emails and Google Forms containing prototype sketches of comics alongside information about the course each comic is based on. Morante said that while particularly reviewing a STAT 230 comic, they approached the material from the perspective of someone with limited background knowledge in math in order to evaluate whether the explanations were understandable to readers unfamiliar with the topic. “I actually downloaded the pictures on my iPad and drew directly on them to point out parts I didn’t understand, or places where maybe the wording could be changed, or variables could be noted. I also added some suggestions.” Further, Morante added that reviewers are generally expected to review comics for courses they have already completed so they can better assess whether the material is being explained clearly and accurately. With that, Morante also expressed interest in seeing future comics focused on graph theory.
As Tang shared, the comic team is continuing to recruit new members, particularly reviewers. At last, she encouraged any current UW math students interested in participating to apply.
