Tag: Bob Eckstein

New Yorker Caption Contest Friday

News

 

         This being the end of the traditionally news-less week (for New Yorker cartoons and cartoonists) leading up to the new year, I thought why not dedicate today’s post to the New Yorker‘s Caption Contest. Last time I checked, the contest had reached its 644th offering (with a windmill drawing by Bob Eckstein).  

Background: every time I’ve been involved in a New Yorker event (usually a panel discussion) the contest comes up in the Q&A. The most frequently asked multi-part question is: How does it work? Did the cartoon originally have a caption?  Do you (the cartoonists) get to judge?

Here’s how it works (from the cartoonists perspective).  The cartoons used in the contest are taken out of the weekly batches submitted by the magazine’s cartoonists.  Sometimes the selected cartoon has a caption that is (obviously) stripped from the cartoon.  Sometimes the submitted cartoon has no caption (I sometimes submit captionless cartoons just for the hell of it to see what  caption entrants might come up with. Here’s one example.). The cartoonists have no say in the process of selecting the winning captions. 

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News:

There’s a new celebrity video posted by The New Yorker featuring the actors John C. Reilly  and Will Ferrell trying their hands/minds at captioning a bunch of cartoons:

For the record, the cartoons are (in order of appearance) by P.C. Vey, Kaamran Hafeez, Tom Toro, Tom Cheney, a second by P.C. Vey, and the final two are by Liam Walsh.  I again encourage the folks in charge of these videos to have the celebs identify the cartoonists, or at least identify the cartoonists names in full somewhere on the screen. 

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Here’s a story about a fellow who won a recent contest (the drawing at issue is by yours truly…and ouch, the drawing takes a few hits). From the Wickedlocal.com, “‘It is I, Manbunzal’: Melrose Resident Alan Leo Wins The New Yorker Caption Contest”

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Here’s a Facebook group dedicated to the contest: New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Rejects (and Enthusiasts). Enter all those bolded words in the search box and presto: you have an instant caption contest community.

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Very Old News: everyone interested in the contest probably already has or decided not to have this book that came out in 2008.

 

Bob Eckstein’s Book Tour Diary; More Rare Rea Irvin!

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Something fun: Bob Eckstein’s “Tragical Mystery Book Tour” (Pt.1).  In this Writer’s Digest piece the world’s greatest snowman expert (and New Yorker cartoonist) shares his experiences on the book tour circuit.  

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More Rea Irvin

Here, courtesy of Steve Stoliar, is another Rea Irvin illustration from the rare 1929 Robert Benchley pamphlet, Busy In Conference :

And speaking of rare, here’s a site I visited for the very first time just this morning. The Neglected Books Page features not one but two obscure books illustrated by New Yorker artists: Ralph Barton, and the aforementioned Rea Irvin. Link to the Neglected Books site to read all about each title and see examples of the art. Just below is the cover for the Ralph Barton illustrated Heart In A Hurricane.  How great is that!

 

And here’s The Ritz Carletons cover, illustrated by Rea Irvin.

The Spill’s Ralph Barton A-Z entry:

Ralph Barton (photo above) Born August 14, 1891, Kansas City, Mo. Committed suicide on May 2oth, 1931 in NYC. New Yorker work: 3rd issue of The New Yorker, March 7, 1925 — May 23, 1931. Key book: Ralph Barton: The Last Dandy (University of Missouri Press, 1991) by
Bruce Kellner

The Spill’s Rea Irvin A-Z entry:

Rea Irvin (pictured above. Self portrait above from Meet the Artist). Born, San Francisco, 1881; died in the Virgin Islands,1972. Irvin was the cover artist for the New Yorker’s first issue, February 21, 1925. He was the magazine’s first art editor (referred to as “art supervisor”) holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title. Irvin became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn succeeded Harold Ross. Irvin’s last original work for the magazine was the magazine’s cover of July 12, 1958. The February 21, 1925 Eustace Tilley cover had been reproduced every year on the magazine’s anniversary until 1994, when R. Crumb’s Tilley-inspired cover appeared. Tilley has since reappeared, with other artists substituting from time-to-time.

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Ink Spill’s 2018 Book Round-Up

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Gathered below, in no particular order, are some of the books published this year by New Yorker artists, or including New Yorker artists.

In The Wild  by Edward Koren. Ampress.  Mr. Koren began contributing to The New Yorker in 1962.

 

I Love You: Stories and Cartoons by Sara Lautman. Retrofit Comics. Ms. Lautman began contributing to The New Yorker in 2016.

 

The Illustrated History of the Snowman  by Bob Eckstein. Globe Pequot Press. Mr. Eckstein began contributing to The New Yorker in 2007.

 

Be the Person Your Dog Thinks You Are. By C.J. Frick. Illustrations by Liza Donnelly. Flatiron Books. Ms. Donnelly began contributing to The New Yorker in 1982.

 

The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth  by Ken Krimstein. Bloomsbury Publishing. Mr. Krimstein began contributing to The New Yorker in 2000.

 

Passing For Human: A Graphic Memoir  by Liana Finck. Random House.  Ms. Finck began contributing to The New Yorker  in  2013.

 

I Think, Therefore I Draw: Understanding Philosophy Through Cartoons by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. Penguin Books. Assorted New Yorker cartoons throughout by a number of the magazine’s contributors.

 

How To Sell Your Parents To The Aliens by Paul Noth. Bloomsbury USA. Mr. Noth began contributing to The New Yorker in 2004.

 

 

A Sidecar Named Desire: Great Writers and the Booze That Stirred Them by New Yorker illustrator Greg Clarke, and art director/graphic designer, Monte Beauchamp.  Dey St.  Lovely illustrations, with a small wealth of famed New Yorker “names” tossed around  (E.B. White, Dorothy Parker, John Held, Jr., Peter De Vries, etc.).

 

Assume The Worst: The Graduation Speech You’ll Never Hear.  By Carl Hiaasen.  Illustrated by Roz Chast. Knopf.  Ms. Chast began contributing to The New Yorker in 1978.

 

Memoirs Of A Very Stable Genius by Shannon Wheeler. Image Comics.  Mr. Wheeler began contributing to The New Yorker in 2009.

 

Someone Farted by Bruce Eric Kaplan. Simon & Schuster.  Mr. Kaplan began contributing to The New Yorker in 1991.

 

Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories by Peter Kuper.  W.W. Norton & Co. Mr. Kuper began contributing to The New Yorker in 2011.

 

Eraser by Anna Kang. Illustrated by Christopher Weyant. Two Lions. Mr. Weyant began contributing to The New Yorker in  1998.

 

The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons. Blackdog & Leventhal.  An anthology, non-traditionally arranged. 

 

 

Fave Photo Of The Day: Eckstein & Finck

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From the Liana Finck and Bob Eckstein joint appearance last night at the Barnes & Noble at 86th & Lexington.  Their respective (new) books can be seen on the big screen behind them.

Ms. Finck began contributing to The New Yorker in 2013.

Mr. Eckstein began contributing to The New Yorker in 2007.

— photo courtesy of Bob Eckstein

The Tilley Watch Online, The Week Of December 2-7, 2018; Even More Murals By Steinberg; Event Of Interest: Liana Finck & Bob Eckstein

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 New Yorker cartoonists who contributed to the Daily Cartoon this week: Brendan Loper, Farley Katz, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, and Trevor Spaulding.

And those contributing to Daily Shouts: Mimi Pond, Roz Chast, and Amy Kurzweil.

To see all the work above, and more, link here.

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Even More Steinberg Murals

In a Facebook discussion the other day involving murals by Charles Addams and Steinberg,  Joel Smith, who authored Steinberg At The New Yorker (Harry N. Abrams, 2005) commented on Paul Karasik‘s Facebook stream that Steinberg created two incredibly long murals: one 260 ft., and another even longer. I asked Mr. Smith where best we might go online to see the murals.  Here are his suggested links:

“The Americans” for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels

The Milan Triennial, 1954 (on the timeline, scroll down to 1954, the Milan Triennial)

— photo above: Steinberg on the far right, wearing hat, stands before his mural in Brussels.

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Event of Interest: Liana Finck & Bob Eckstein

The info appears on the posters, but here it is again: Liana Finck & Bob Eckstein appearing together at Barnes & Noble 86th & Lexington, NYC,  Monday December 10, at 7pm.

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