A Riot Of Cartoonists
Hard to know how many New Yorker cartoonists packed into a Tribeca establishment last night, at a gathering organized by Zoe Si to celebrate the magazine’s 100th birthday.
Some of the cartoonists attending that I spotted in the crowd (possibly a third of all the cartoonists there): Ellie Black, David Borchart, Roland High, Paul Noth, Lynn Hsu, John O’Brien, Liana Finck, Liza Donnelly, Ed Steed, Lonnie Millsap, Erika Sjule, David Sipress, Kyle Bravo, Ken Levine, Asher Perlman, Sam Hurt, Felipe Galindo, Anne Fizzard, Ben Schwartz, Trevor Hoey, Drew Dernavich, Matt Diffee, J.A.K., Juan Astasio, Rich Feldman, Lia Strasser, Bizzy Coy, Avi Steinberg, and Sofia Warren. And from the magazine’s cartoon department: Emma Allen and Rachel Perlman.
Above: a number of the cartoonists drew on this piece that was placed on an unsteady table. This photo on social media via Kyle Bravo via Ngozi Ukazu.
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50 Years Ago In The New Yorker
The latest addition to the Spill library arrived yesterday: a bound volume of New Yorkers from February 24, 1975 – May 26, 1975. It’s a massive tome (issues back then were top heavy with advertising, not to mention editorial material and cartoons). There was an all-out effort made to parade the weighty names in anniversary issues. Here’s the Table of Contents for the 50th anniversary issue:
This era of the magazine fascinates me, especially now. In the early 1970s when I was beginning my drive to get into the magazine, these issues were my textbooks. I’d sit with each week’s new issue of The New Yorker and study the cartoons. Looking at the list of artists above listed after “Drawings” and the two artists above that list: Edward Koren and Steinberg, it still truly amazes me that once I began being published, I ended up meeting the majority of them — or intersected with them in some way (the only ones I never met, saw, spoke with, or communicated with: Stan Hunt, Chon Day, and William O’Brian).
All of those drawings, and all of those artists helped me find my way, both in writing and drawing. Looking at their work now, half a century later, I can’t pinpoint exactly what I absorbed from the work of each and every artist, but I can feel it, if that makes any sense.