It’s not that comics creators are vain so much as they suffer from their field’s own insidious form of writer’s block—cartoonists’ block—and they inevitably end up casting about for an idea, any idea, looking around the room or in the mirror for inspiration.

That’s how editor and anthologizer Craig Yoe theorizes that so many of history’s greatest cartoonists ended up producing so many comics about themselves. Yoe’s Comics About Cartoonists: Stories About the World’s Oddest Profession collects examples from the likes of E.C. Segar, Jack Cole, Wally Wood, George Herriman, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and 25 others. Some use fictional cartoonists as the stars of their horror, sci-fi and even romance comics, others feature themselves meeting their own creations. The bulk of these stories seem to revolve around drawings coming to life, generally to wreak havoc.

That probably says a lot about the anxieties of those in the field, but trying to figure out what’s going through these guys’ heads isn’t nearly as much fun as seeing what came out of their pens.