Edward Koren, One Of The New Yorker’s Greatest Artists, Has Died.

                        Edward Koren: 1935-2023

Word reached here today from The New Yorker‘s cartoon editor, Emma Allen, and the magazine’s senior editor, David Remnick, that Ed Koren had passed away this morning. In an email to the magazine’s staff, Mr. Remnick said this:

I just got the news that Ed Koren, whose magical drawings have been a signature of The New Yorker for decades, died at his home in Vermont this morning. Ed was a brilliant artist and one of the kindest, funniest, and most soulful people I’ve ever known. Ailing for many months, he somehow never stopped drawing, creating, making us laugh. 

I chose the photo above for this day because it reminds me of the very last time I saw Ed in Manhattan. The occasion was a grand gathering of cartoonists at Mr. Remnick’s home in 2017 to welcome Emma Allen as our new cartoon editor. Here we see Ed, out on the street on his way to an after party party. 

Last year, Ed reached his 60th anniversary as a New Yorker contributor, a feat equalled only by five other New Yorker artists. Ink Spill readers might recall that an interview appeared on this site celebrating that milestone. During the interview he told me that when he started out he tried to do “New Yorker cartoons” — something that didn’t quite work out at first. It wasn’t until he began drawing how and what he wanted to draw that he became, along with a select few in the 1960s, one of the magazine’s cartoon gods. Ed’s cartoon world encompassed both his life in the small town of Brookfield, Vermont as well as the isle of Manhattan, the place of his birth. 

His furry or fuzzy beasts  — he called them his “alter-egos” — are instantly recognizable; he’d found a style that no one had found before — a conjuring up of figures out of scritchy-scratchy lines. Magnify a Koren person (or beast) and it’s like looking into a cartoon kaleidoscope. What’s amazing to me is that he drew large — how difficult it seemed (to me) to keep all those lines in sync to form a cohesive balanced beautiful drawing. But this, as well as his sensibility as an ardent chronicler of his day, was his genius. 

When my wife and I visited Ed last Fall in Vermont, I brought along a wooden platter, semi- covered in signatures of his cartoonist colleagues (I’d inherited it from the old New Yorker offices on 25 West 43rd Street). When I asked Ed if he’d sign it, he took it in hand and said, “There are no drawings!” and then he began to draw. He started doing his trademark layering of lines, and then, pausing, said out loud, to himself: “Stop, Ed, stop — you never know when to stop.” But then he continued to draw. 

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More …(The Spill will continue to add to this list in the days ahead):

 The New Yorker‘s cartoon editor, Emma Allen:  “Edward Koren, The Cheery Philosopher Of Cartoons”

The New York Times, “Edward Koren, Whose Cartoon Creatures Poked Fun At People, Dies”

VTDigger, “Ed Koren, New Yorker Cartoonist And Beloved Vermonter, Dies At 87″

Seven Days, April 15, 2023,“Cartoonist Ed Koren Dies At 87” 

Vermont Public, April 15, 2023, “Ed Koren, Famed Cartoonist And Beloved Brookfield Community Member, Dies At 87” 

 Liza Donnelly’s Seeing Things, April 15, 2023: “New Yorker Artist, Ed Koren, 1935-2023″

The Washington Post, “Edward Koren, Who Drew His Shaggier Alter Egos, Dies At 87”

VTDigger, April 20, 2023, “‘Out With His Boots On’: Friends And Colleagues Remember The Vigorous Life Of Ed Koren”

From The National Cartoonists Society website, April 21, 2023,  “A Remembrance Of Ed Koren From Mort Gerberg” 

From Bob Eckstein’s Newsletter, The Bob, April 24, 2023,  “The Passing Of A Cartoon Great”