I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime in the past twenty years, Friday became the new Thursday for New Yorker cartoonists. Fridays are the days when cartoonists who have submitted work to the magazine the previous Tuesday, hear whether they’ve sold a drawing (you don’t hear if you haven’t). Nearly a half century ago, when I finally broke into The New Yorker, cartoonists heard via the mail, on Thursday, if they had sold a drawing that week. Until the mail arrived on Thursday, it was a morning of mixed emotions, including anticipation and apprehension. Would the 10″ x 13″ New Yorker manilla envelope show up in the mail, or not. “Not” meant you hadn’t sold a drawing.
What’s become clear to me over time is that the day of the week one learns good or bad news hardly matters. What matters is that cartoonists hear within the week they’ve submitted work. It moves us along. The New Yorker has maintained this schedule for decades, providing a great service to its artists. I look at this way: that upcoming day of decision at week’s end is loaded with the incentive of possibility.