Over the years Danny Shanahan has generously donated New Yorker cartoon “stuff” to Ink Spill‘s archives (a Thurber eraser, New Yorker stamps, an Al Ross wristwatch, books, artwork, etc.,etc.), but I believe this is the first time he’s handed over something edible. What you see above is a one-and-a-half ounce chocolate bar distributed by the magazine’s Cartoon Bank back in 2001. The cartoon on the label is Danny’s classic “Lassie! Get Help!! which was published in The New Yorker (sans chocolate) in May 8, 1989. A good ten years before the drawing adorned a chocolate bar it was used on the cover of and title for his first cartoon collection, published in 1990 by Pantheon.
The bar, now fifteen years old, is still sealed in foil, and for at least a couple of reasons, will remain so. Along with the chocolate, Danny also added a stack of books to Ink Spill’s Cartoon Library. Here are just a couple of the books, shown because I’d never seen them before: Pocket Books’ 1965 paperback version of Charles Addams’ Monster Rally — the hardcover originally published by Simon & Schuster in 1950. And Pocket Books 1953 paperback edition of Cornelia Otis Skinner’s Excuse It, Please!; the hardcover originally published by Dodd, Mead in 1936. Cover & llustrations by the great Otto Soglow. My thanks to Danny for all!
