Sunday Spill: The Comic-Con Souvenir Book…And An Editing Glitch Addressed; A Mini-Profile Of Roz Chast; Liza Donnelly Chats With Historian Heather Cox Richardson

Note: Hoping yesterday’s tech issue has been fixed! Some material (the Comic-Con book news) from the semi-posted-Saturday Spill is repeated here. 

The San Diego 2025 Comic-Con Souvenir Book…And an Editing Glitch Addressed

 

 

The 2025 Comic-Con online-only Souvenir Book can be read here.

I was honored to be asked to write a New Yorker cartoon-centric piece (“A Century of Ink & Insight: The New Yorker’s 100 Year Cartoon Legacy”) celebrating the magazine’s centennial. Unfortunately, an editing error left out several paragraphs of my piece.

The editing error began within this paragraph (appearing on page 29 of the book). I’ve bolded the sentence where things went awry:

Lorenz honed the cartoon department to a small but highly productive stable; aspiring cartoonists found it tough, if not impossible, to find acceptance into The New Yorker’s ranks during the Lorenz years. One cartoonist, David with previous editors, Ms. Allen brought in many new voices, such as Pia Guerra, Zoe Si, Ivan Ehlers, and Lonnie Millsap.

This is how the piece should’ve read:

Lorenz honed the cartoon department to a small but highly productive stable; aspiring cartoonists found it tough, if not almost impossible to find acceptance into The New Yorker’s ranks during the Lorenz years. One cartoonist, David Sipress, submitted work, without acceptance, for nearly the duration of Lorenz’s tenure.

In 1997, with Lorenz’s retirement as cartoon editor and Bob Mankoff appointed to lead the department, a new wave of artists arrived, including Amy Hwang, David Sipress, Liana Finck, Ed Steed, Joe Dator, and Emily Flake. Mankoff loosened the Lorenz practice of rigorous rejection before possible acceptance, more than quadrupling the cartoon stable, bringing in nearly a hundred-and-fifty new cartoonists. With these new voices came a new sensibility. A New York Times article about this new crowd carried the headline. “Sex with Einstein? Yes, In The New Yorker” and summarized their contributions this way:

“their work typically contains more references to drugs, sex, e-mail and contemporary social mores.”

In 2017, the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, decided the cartoon department needed a change and appointed Emma Allen as cartoon editor. Ms. Allen had previously edited the magazine’s online humor column, Shouts and Murmurs. Under Ms. Allen the cartoonist stable rapidly became more diverse, leading to the historic issue of December 4, 2017 when for the very first time in the magazine’s history an issue included more women cartoonists than men. As with previous editors, Lorenz and Mankoff, Ms. Allen brought in a number of new voices, such as Pia Guerra, Zoe Si, Ivan Ehlers, and Lonnie Millsap.

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Liza Donnelly Mini-Profiles Roz Chast

Link here to read the Chast mini-profile

Also…if you wish to help fund Women Laughing, there’s a Kickstarter in progress. Go here to read more and see a short promotional film

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More Donnelly: This past Friday Liza Donnelly was in conversation with historian, Heather Cox Richardson. You can see it here.