“I’ve always wanted to meet Nate Neal! I mean, he just gets me.”
That’s what the woman seated next to me at a recent conference said when she found out I work for AdExchanger.
As the artist of AdExchanger’s weekly comic for more than 13 years, Nate’s playful style, creativity, humor – and hilariously on-point Easter eggs – were perfectly suited to our droll, sometimes mischievous (but always incisive) approach to covering the news.
Fun fact: Nate started freelancing for AdExchanger in 2010 after making a connection with our founder, John Ebbert, on Craigslist, back when John was running AdExchanger out of a small apartment on the Lower East Side.
Now Nate, the creator of AdExchanger Man and AdExchanger Woman, has hung up his cape to focus on his own projects and other work. He’ll be sorely missed, but worry not: Our weekly comic will continue.
We’ve been auditioning a small group of very talented artists to find The One. For the next five weeks, we’ll be publishing a comic created by one of our finalists every Friday. Here’s the first one. Let us know what you think!
In the meantime, I asked our editorial team and AdExchanger veterans to share their favorite Nate Neal creations from over the years. Please enjoy.
AdExchanger Man’s origin story (Jan. 29, 2010)
Data Leakage (Aug. 26, 2010)
Solve The Puzzle (Sept. 23, 2010)
The Great Online Privacy Battle (Dec. 9, 2010)
Under The RTB Tree (Dec. 16, 2010)
Adtechophobia (April 15, 2011)
Ad Technology PR (May 13, 2011)
A Publisher’s Nightmare (June 10, 2011)
The Engagement Revolution (Jan. 20, 2012)
What Happens Below The Fold, Stays… (Feb. 24, 2012)
Context Matters (May 25, 2012)
The Facebook Exchange (June 22, 2012)
Audience Man (July 6, 2012)
Planet Of The Ad Tech (Oct. 12, 2012)
John Ebbert, founder, AdExchanger: “This was a funny one. It was Doug Weaver’s phrase … we gave him credit (see the initials over the door).”
Big Data (Dec. 7, 2012)
Cross-Device Identification (Oct. 11, 2013)
Santa’s Cookies (Dec. 20, 2013)
Fraud Today (May 9, 2014)
Clickbait (Dec. 12, 2014)
Breakfast of Marketers (May 29, 2015)
Search Your Feelings… (Dec. 18, 2015)
Doom and Boom (Aug. 26, 2016)
“I eats me data!” (April 21, 2017)
Summer Fridays (July 21, 2017)
“Do you even lift test, bro?” (Feb. 16, 2018)
Restoring Balance (April 27, 2018)
Tech Regulation (Sept. 21, 2018)
Zach Rodgers, former executive editor, AdExchanger: “Feels as apropos today as it did when Nate drew it five years ago.”
The Cookie’s Fortune (Sept. 6, 2019)
“That’s the one that stole my ad spend.” (Nov. 30, 2018)
The Awkward Years (May 3, 2019)
Work From Home (March 13, 2020)
Updating The Platform (April 3, 2020)
This one features our own executive editor, Sarah Sluis, and her son Arthur.
Is it any good? (Jan. 15, 2021)
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave” (March 12, 2021)
Zach Rodgers: “Some of my favorite Nate Neal comics reinterpret iconic movie moments and other pop culture touchstones. This one is both funny and chilling!”
‘I Asked The App Not To Track’ (May 14, 2021)
Privacy Patrol (June 11, 2021)
What’s Your Email? (Oct. 29, 2021)
Alternative Currencies (Feb. 4, 2022)
Making A Privacy Play (Feb. 18, 2022)
Anthony Vargas, associate editor: “I always loved how happy the droid mascot looks in this one.”
Fragmentation+ (March 25, 2022)
Netflix Headquarters (April 29, 2022)
Programmatic’s Next Bet? (May 20, 2022)
The Fear Of Finding Out (Sept. 2, 2022)
Bark patterns (Oct. 7, 2022)
Bot Traffic (Nov. 11, 2022)
The Sponsored Feed (Nov. 24, 2022)
A.I. Ad Campaign (Dec. 16, 2022)
When Ad Tech Meets Legalese (Jan. 27, 2023)
H/t to our publisher, Bill Amstutz, for this hilarious idea. Nate nailed this one down to Dustin’s sideburns.
Back To The Drawing Board (March 10, 2023)
The Power of Self-Care (April 28, 2023)
🥂 Cheers, Nate! And thanks for all the chuckles. 🥂
