ToonStack, A Cartoon Newsletter
ToonStack, a weekly newsletter with numerous cartoonist contributors, all of them, save one, New Yorker cartoonists, has posted its first installment. Each week there’ll be a new “gaggle of [cartoons] on a different theme.”This first post’s theme: Murder.
Contributing are Kendra Allenby, Hilary Campbell, Ellis Rosen, Amy Kurzweil, Sofia Warren, Johnny DiNapoli, J.A.K., Navied Mahdavian, and the non-New Yorker contributor, Shelby Lorman.
Above cartoon: Kendra Allenby
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Latest Addition To The Spill’s Cartoon Library: Sam Gross’s First Cartoon Collection
Having seen only one copy over the years of Sam Gross’s first cartoon collection, Cartoons For The GI (and seen it too late to purchase), I was thrilled last week to find the above copy. The little book (4 1/2″ x 6 3/4″) includes a Foreward by Mr. Gross (signed PFc Samuel H. Gross), that begins:
“Others may publish books for high sounding purposes but I’ll be frank about it. This book is out simply because I need cash — your cash.”
You’ll notice the drop shadow on the cover cartoon. Every single cartoon in the book carries a drop shadow — something we don’t see much, if ever, in modern Gross cartoons.
Richard Gehr, in an interview with Mr. Gross, had this to say about Cartoons For The GI:
“After graduating from City College in 1954, Gross was drafted and sent to Germany. A few months after his arrival, he was contacted by International Media Company (IMC), which published the Overseas Weekly….Having noticed Gross’s weekly cartoon in the headquarters area command post newsletter, IMC offered to publish a book of his military cartoons…[It] sold very well, and Gross began receiving monthly checks from IMC on top of his military pay. Although he was only a private first class, Gross was soon earning more than a major, ‘which pissed off my company commander.'”*
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Here’s Sam Gross’s entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:
Sam Gross Born 1933, Bronx, NY. New Yorker work: August 23, 1969 -. Other than his work in The New Yorker Gross is probably best known for his work in National Lampoon. He’s edited a large number of collections, including Dogs Dogs Dogs, Cats Cats Cats, Food Food Food: A Feast of Great Cartoons (originally published as All You Can Eat: A Feast of Great Cartoons); Golf Golf Golf, Ho! Ho! Ho!, Movies Movies Movies. Key collections: I Am Blind and My Dog is Dead (Avon, 1978), An Elephant is Soft and Mushy (Avon, 1982)
*from I Only Read It For The Cartoons by Richard Gehr. Published by New Harvest, 2014. p.24-25
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Daily Cartoon & Cartoonist
Yesterday’s: Maddie Dai, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 2017, on video calls. Visit her website here.