Alan Dunn’s New Yorker War Cartoons Cover
Alan Dunn might be best remembered for his signature densely styled charcoal and grease pencil drawings that appeared for nearly a half-century in the New Yorker, from 1926 through 1974. Or he might be remembered as the most prolific New Yorker artist with the most published cartoons until William Steig overtook him (Steig’s New Yorker career outlasted Dunn’s by twenty-four years). [James Stevenson can likely claim the title of most published cartoon contributor because of his additional non-cartoon contributions]. Some might remember Dunn was married to one of the magazine’s early star contributors, the great Mary Petty; they were the first married New Yorker cartoonist couple. But for me, when I think of Alan Dunn, I think of his New Yorker cover that originally appeared on the issue of August 11, 1945. In that same year it appeared on the cover of the above special collection, The New Yorker War Cartoons (not to be confused with The New Yorker War Album). I can think of no better cover to post on Memorial Day weekend.
Alan Dunn’s entry on the A-Z:
Alan Dunn (self portrait above from Meet the Artist) Born in Belmar, New Jersey, August 11, 1900, died in New York City, 1975. New Yorker work: 1926 – 1974. Key collections: Rejections (Knopf, 1931), Who’s Paying For This Cab? (Simon & Schuster, 1945), A Portfolio of Social Cartoons ( Simon & Schuster, 1968). One of the most published New Yorker cartoonists (1,906 cartoons) , Mr. Dunn was married to Mary Petty — together they lived and worked at 12 East 88th Street, where, according to the NYTs, Alan worked “seated in a small chair at a card table, drawing in charcoal and grease pencil.”
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Latest ToonStack
Posted this rainy Sunday morning: themed cartoons by (mostly) New Yorker cartoonists. This week’s topic: “The Wrong Trousers”
Contributors include Sofia Warren, Ellis Rosen, Hilary Campbell, Navied Mahdavian, and E.S. Glenn.
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A Mini-Fisher Fest On Attempted Bloggery
Attempted Bloggery has recently focused on two original Ed Fisher drawings: a classic New Yorker cartoon from the issue of April 4, 1959, and one from the issue of December 4, 1971. I’ve always enjoyed the way Attempted Bloggery goes deep with original drawings, showing close-ups, and even the reverse of a piece.
Here’s Mr. Fisher’s entry on the A-Z:
Ed Fisher Born, Bronx, New York, October 24,1926. Died, 2013. New Yorker work: 1951 – 2000. Key collections: Ed Fisher’s First Folio (Macmillan, 1959), Ed Fisher’s Domesday Book ( St. Martin’s, 1961).
And here’s Ink Spill‘s appreciation of Mr. Fisher from 2013.
Photo: Ed Fisher in Rhinebeck, New York, 1988. Photographer: Anne Hall Elser.
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Most Recent Addition To The Spill’s Cartoon Library
There’s cartoon gold within this humble bound volume of New Yorkers recently added to the Spill‘s library. These early issues have become pricey; I count the library lucky that this one came my way at a “reasonable” cost (less per issue than the newsstand price of today’s New Yorker).
Bound volumes usually carry some identification — a library stamp or stamps, or the now-defunct library card envelope glued within the hard cover. Occasionally a volume will have belonged to an individual, and will bear the lucky one’s name. This volume has no ID; its identity will remain a mystery.
The issues within, from April 1, 1933, through June 24, 1933 are highly representative of the magazine’s golden age of cartoons, with an incredible display of work by some of the biggest names of that time. As an example, I’ll show you just a few pages from one issue, April 22, 1933.
The emphasis in this post is on the artist, and how their work looked on the page. I’m not showing all the captions so as to (hopefully) avoid anyone getting worked up about copyright issues. Within twelve pages, from Otto Soglow’s spot drawings on The Talk Of The Town through page twelve’s full page by Gluyas Williams, there are eleven cartoonists represented, with two full pages (Carl Rose has the other one). The cover is by one of the magazine’s best early artists: Helen Hokinson. Ms. Hokinson was rated in-house in a special category above all the other contributors, save one: Peter Arno.
Beginning with the page after The Talk Of The Town, we come to the beauty directly below by William Steig. As you can see, it’s allowed most of the page. Opposite Steig’s piece is a lovely spot drawing by D. Spiegel.
Turn the page: cartoon gods, James Thurber and Peter Arno. Polar opposites graphically — and doesn’t that work well. Again, each given ample room on the page (and for an Arno drawing, a rare moment in a smaller space).
Turn the page and you come to the small drawing on the left by Alain, and the first full page in the issue — a beauty from Carl Rose.
Turn the page, and there are two fab drawings by two terrific artists: Whitney Darrow, Jr. and E. Simms Campbell.
Next two pages: Robert Day and Perry Barlow, two more mainstay New Yorker artists.They have a combined life-time total of 3,200 New Yorker cartoons (1,800 for Day; 1,400 for Barlow).
Turn the page. We arrive at the end of our sample dozen pages with the second full page cartoon, by another New Yorker cartoon god, Gluyas Williams; Williams, along with Arno, a master of the full page.
If I continued on showing you more pages throughout the issue you would’ve seen cartoons by Otto Soglow, George Price, Leonard Dove, Richard Decker, and spot drawings by Peggy Bacon.
More info on all the artists mentioned above can be found by clicking on the Spill‘s A-Z icon, upper left.