Author: michael

Rewind Wednesday: Thurber On The Cover Of Newsweek

News

           Newsweek’s Thurber Cover Story

In July of 1951, TIME  put Thurber on its cover — it’s the cover most Thurber biographies mention.  Newsweek’s Thurber cover, out six years later, is rarely mentioned. Thinking about it this morning,  I dug out the sole bound volume of Newsweek in the Spill‘s library (acquired, obviously, because it contains the Thurber issue) and took another look at this lost feature.

The piece was an old-fashioned tie-in with his new book The Wonderful ‘O’ . Like all profiles it’s a mini-biography. If you’re familiar with the broad strokes of Thurber’s story, there isn’t much new here —  it’s simply a fun refresher course. There is however this Thurber gem tossed in: 

“I have never understood how Americans got the reputation for having a sense of humor. Actually we are a nation of slapstick people. We invented  the gag, the belly-laugh, and the hotfoot. We are not a nation who chuckles…”

Along with the now familiar late-in-life photo of Thurber drawing while wearing a Zeiss loupe (he was close to completely blind — the magnifying device allowed him to continue drawing) and a photo of him with his second wife, Helen, and their dog, there are plenty of Thurber drawings, many of them playfully bordering the text.  It’s a lovely intro to a New Yorker  giant.  

If this puts you in the mood for more Thurber, be sure to check out Michael Rosen’s A Mile and a Half of Lines: The Art of James Thurber (Trillium/Ohio State University Press, 2019), a wonderful addition to your library. It’s out August 23rd.  [Full disclosure: my wife, Liza Donnelly, and I contributed to the book]

 

 

Exhibit, Talk Of Interest: Peter Steiner; Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon; Spiegelman At The Rockwell Museum

News

Exhibit,Talk Of Interest: Peter Steiner

You’re a lucky duck if you’re in Austria between October 3, 2019 and February 9, 2020 as you’ll be able to see an exhibit of work at the Karikaturmuseum in Krems by Peter Steiner, who drew the cartoon to the right — the  most reprinted New Yorker drawing in modern times. His work will be shown with Manfred Deix‘s under the heading “American v. Austrian Humor.”  Luckier still if you’re in Austria on October 5th. Mr. Steiner tells the Spill he’ll be in discussion on that date with the museum’s director “about the differences between here [the United States] and there [Austria], comparing my work with that of Manfred Deix.”

Info on the exhibit and discussion here (sorry, it’s not in English).

Peter Steiner’s entry on the Spill’s A-Z:

Born, Cincinnati, 1940. New Yorker work: 1979 – . Collection: “I Didn’t Bite the Man, I Bit the Office” ( 1994).  Mr. Steiner is responsible for one of the most famous (and most republished) New Yorker cartoons in modern times, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” (published July 5, 1993).  An indication of its enduring popularity in our culture:  a wikipedia page is devoted to it.   He has also had novels published, as well as the limited edition “An Atheist in Heaven.” Website: www.plsteiner.com/.

Here’s the Publishers Weekly review for Mr. Steiner’s latest book: The Good Cop 

__________________________________

Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon

T-shirts and attention spans by Emily Flake who has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2008. Visit her website here.

 

_____________________________________

Spiegelman At The Rockwell Museum

From the Norman Rockwell Museum website, August 6, 2019, “Rockwell Museum Hosts An Evening With Maus’s Art Spiegelman”

— all the info here for the September 10th event. Mr. Spiegelman began contributing to The New Yorker in 1992.

 

 

Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon; Early George Price Via Mike Lynch; Warp’s Daily Shouts

News

Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon

A comment on the President, from Tim Hamilton, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 2015.

Note: As last week’s New Yorker was a double issue, there’s no Monday Tilley Watch today. The Watch will return next Monday for the August 19th issue.

_______________________________________________________________________

Early George Price Via Mike Lynch

The cartoonist Mike Lynch gives us a nice selection of George Price’s work from the 1940 Price collection, Good Humor Man.  Here’s Price’s entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:

George Price  Born in Coytesville, New Jersey, June 9, 1901. Died January 12, 1995, Engelwood, New Jersey. New Yorker work: 1929 – 1991. Lee Lorenz, the New Yorker’s former Art/Cartoon editor, called Price one of the magazine’s great stylists (along with Peter Arno, Helen Hokinson, James Thurber, and William Steig. Of the many Price collections here are two favorites:  Browse At Your Own Risk (1977), and The World of George Price: A 55-Year Retrospective (1988)

_________________________________________________________________

Warp’s Daily Shouts

Today’s Daily Shouts, courtesy of Kim Warp: “Possible Explanations For Exhuming John Dillinger”

Ms. Warp has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1999. Visit her website here.

 

The Weekend Spill; A Smaller Daily Shouts; A Playboy Cartoon; The Tilley Watch Online, The Week Of July 29 – August 3, 2019

News

 

A Smaller Daily Shouts: “Course Of Empire: Part 5” — Ms. Smaller has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1996. Further reading from The New Yorker‘s Cartoon Bank blog and from Jane Mattimoe’s A Case For Pencils.

_________________________________________________

A Playboy Cartoon

Not too very long ago — fifteen years? — if you asked a cartoonist to name the top two places to take one’s work, the answer would be The New Yorker, and then Playboy. In recent times, what with the roller-coastering of cartoon-usage at Playboy, the idea of a second best place is anyone’s call. “Will the Millenials Save Playboy?”  from today’s New York Times mentions there is a cartoon in the Summer issue of Playboy. Is there more than one?

____________________________________________________

An end of week gathering of New Yorker cartoonist contributors to the Daily Cartoon and/or Daily Shouts

The Daily Cartoon: Barry Blitt (two Bonus Daily cartoons), Mike Twohy, Ali Solomon, Ward Sutton, Lila Ash, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, and Brendan Loper.

Daily Shouts: Evan Lian, and Ali Fitzgerald.

Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon & A Bonus Cartoon; The Art Contrarian On Garrett Price; Yet Another Bonus Daily Cartoon; Addamsfest Is Back; Eckstein At Lake Placid; A Case For Pencils Spotlights Ivan Ehlers

News

Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon & A Bonus Daily

Summer vacation ruined, by Mike Twohy, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 1980.

…And yet another Bonus Daily from Barry Blitt (see below), Dem debate-related.

________________________________________________________

The Art Contrarian On Garrett Price

I’m all for any blog that recalls New Yorker colleagues.  Link here for The Art Contrarian‘s piece  about  the wonderful artist, Garrett Price.

Right: A Price New Yorker cover, September 15, 1945.

Garrett Price’s entry on the Spill’s A-Z:


Garrett Price ( Photo Source: Esquire Cartoon Album, 1957) Born, 1897, Bucyrus, Kansas. Died, April, 1979, Norwalk, Conn. Collection: Drawing Room Only / A Book of Cartoons (Coward -McCann, 1946). New Yorker work: 1925 -1974.

 

_____________________________________

Another Bonus Daily Cartoon

Nipping at the heels of Ward Sutton’s Bonus Daily about the recent Democratic debate is Barry Blitt’s. See it here.

Mr. Blitt began contributing to The New Yorker in 1992. Visit his website here.

______________________________________

Addamsfest Is Back

 Charles Addams’s hometown of Westfield, New Jersey is preparing for its next Addamsfest, a celebration of the famed cartoonist.   Here’s the website with all the info.

Charles Addams entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:

Charles Addams (Born in Westfield, New Jersey, January  7, 1912. Died September 29, 1988, New York City. New Yorker work: 1932 – 1988 * the New Yorker has published his work posthumously. One of the giants of The New Yorker’s  stable of artists.  Key cartoon collections: While all of Addams’ collections are worthwhile, here are three that are particular favorites; Homebodies (Simon & Schuster, 1954), The Groaning Board (Simon & Schuster, 1964), Creature Comforts (Simon & Schuster, 1981). In 1991 Knopf published The World of Chas Addams, a retrospective collection. Visit the Addams Foundation website for far more information : http://www.charlesaddams.com/

___________________________________________________

Eckstein At Lake Placid

Mr. Snowman himself, Bob Eckstein will make an appearance at the Lake Placid Library on August 6th. Article and info here.

 Mr. Eckstein’s entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:

Bob Eckstein Born, New York, NY, Feb. 27,  1963. Author of The History of the Snowman (Simon & Schuster, 2007) and Footnotes From the World’s Greatest Bookstores: True Tales and Lost Moments From Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Book Lovers (Penguin Random House, 2016). Editor and contributor: The Ultimate Cartoon Book Of Book Cartoons (Architectural Press, 2019).  New Yorker work: 2007 -. Website: www.bobeckstein.com/

Note: Mr. Eckstein’s next book, Everyone’s A Critic: The Ultimate Cartoon Book (Architectural Press) is now available for pre-order.

Full disclosure: My work appears in both The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons and Everyone’s A Critic

______________________________________________________

A Case for Pencils Spotlights Ivan Ehlers

Jane Mattimoe’s wonderful blog, A Case For Pencils, takes a close look at Ivan Ehlers tools of the trade. See it here.

Above: Mr. Ehler’s drawing table.  Photo courtesy of Ms. Mattimoe’s site.