Ali Solomon on being home for Christmas.
Ms. Solomon began contributing to The New Yorker in 2018.
See some of her New Yorker work here and some here.
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2019’s Fave New Yorker Instagram Cartoons
From newyorker.com, December 18, 2019, “Instagram’s Favorite New Yorker Cartoons Of 2019”
— Colin Stokes, the magazine’s assistant cartoon editor, runs down the top faves, including this wonderful Charles Barsotti drawing published in 1987.
The Cover: Lotsa ice cream on Olimpia Zagnoli’s second New Yorker cover. I’m immediately reminded of any number of early Vogue covers. Read the Cover Story here.
The Cartoonists:
…a newbie: Lisa Rothstein is the 22nd new cartoonist added to the magazine’s stable this year, and the 48th new cartoonist added since cartoon editor Emma Allen’s tenure began in May 2017.
The Cartoons: quite the surprise seeing a cartoon (on p.61) by the late great Jack Ziegler. It got me to wondering if perhaps The New Yorker might set up a special online section for the contributors who left us with a lot of work still in the bank (or, as originally designated, “on the bank” — that is, work bought, but not yet published). When William Steig passed away there was a rumor that hundreds of his drawings (and some covers) were still on the bank. One wonders about the on the bank work of Charles Barsotti, as well as Mr. Ziegler, Leo Cullum, and Michael Crawford, to name but a few dear departed colleagues. Wouldn’t it be great to see this work gathered online.
Also of interest in this double issue: a cartoon by the one-and-only Sam Gross, who celebrates his 50th year at The New Yorker in August. His first New Yorker drawing appeared in the issue of August 23, 1969 (the Spill will further note the occasion on August 23, 2019).
Speaking of Jack Ziegler, Ed Steed’s squid drawing (p. 37) calls to mind Mr. Ziegler’s classic squid drawing from the issue of September 16, 1996 (it was also used as the cover drawing, and title of Ziegler’s 2004 food cartoon anthology). A quick search for squid cartoons in the Cartoon Bank’s database brought up just two other squid drawings: this one by Danny Shanahan, and this one by Farley Katz).
Also of note:
… J.A.K.’s drawing (p.21) — my fave Jason Adam Katzenstein drawing of all time (so far)
…Chris Ware’s 8 page “Mr. Ware” (he talks about it here).
… Sizing of drawings this issue: most seem right on the money (examples: Sam Gross’s, Zach Kanin’s, Roz Chast’s, Lars Kenseth’s).
…:A goodly number of non-human centric drawings this issue: cockroaches (McNair), the aforementioned squid by Mr. Steed, a bull (McNamee), a parrot (Gross), a blender (Chast), hugging dogs (Rothstein), rocks (Hwang), shishto peppers (Kenseth).
Rea Irvin: Mr. Irvin’s iconic Talk masthead (it appeared for 92 years) disappeared in the Spring of 2017 (read about it here) — replaced by — gasp! — a redraw (not redrawn by Mr. Irvin, who passed away in 1972). Will the original ever return? Here it is until then:
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Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon
Brendan Loper, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 2016, on opinions/films.
Let us raise our cartoon glasses and toast to the great New Yorker artist, George Booth. His very first New Yorker drawing appeared in the issue dated this day in 1969. His most recent drawing appeared in the magazine’s issue of June 10, 2019. My math tells me that he has now been contributing to The New Yorker for half a century.
I’ve always felt that Mr. Booth’s arrival at The New Yorker was part of a transitional moment for the magazine’s art, helping it move from its mid-1950s Eisenhower-ish slumber to the excitement right around the bend in the late 1960s and 1970s. In the decade Mr. Booth’s work appeared, The New Yorker had lost two of its giants: James Thurber in 1961, and Peter Arno in 1968. Tremendous losses, but also a decade of tremendous gain for the magazine when the art editor, James Geraghty brought in a number of artists who would also become giants in their field: Edward Koren in 1962, Charles Barsotti, Sam Gross, and George Booth in 1969. How fortunate we are that three of these artists continue showering us with their work right up to today (Charles Barsotti passed away five years ago this week).
By the time I was making a serious effort to get into The New Yorker in the mid 1970s (my work rejected a mountain of times by Mr. Geraghty), Booth, Koren, Barsotti and Gross had already been added to the New Yorker’s Mt. Rushmore of cartoonists; their work impossibly inspiring. I felt (and still feel) about Booth’s drawings as I felt about work by Thurber and Hokinson and Steig and Saxon, and Peter Arno and Steinberg (and many more): it cannot get any better than this.
(above: A Booth New Yorker cartoon from the issue of March 25, 1991)
As with so many, if not all of the New Yorker great artists, there is an education for aspiring cartoonists, and published cartoonists as well, in every single one of their drawings. Even this morning looking through Booth’s work, I find my electrical cartoon current even buzzier than usual. There’s beauty and excitement in Booth’s art, and of course, there’s that signature Boothian barrel of fun.
For those wanting more of his work, Omnibooth is a great place to dive in. Find Lee Lorenz’s The Essential George Booth (Workman Publishing Company, 1998) and you’ll be treated to a mini-bio of Booth as well as samples of pre-New Yorker work. There is also his classic 1975 collection, Think Good Thoughts About A Pussycat (Dodd, Mead & Co.).
And very luckily for us all, Nathan Fitch’s documentary film on Booth, Drawing Life is well on its way.
I leave you with a small sample of Mr. Booth’s cover work, and with hearty applause for George Booth — a fine person, and an exceptional artist.
Note: Here’s what Fred Taraba of Taraba Illustration Art had to say about the Skittish Dog drawing shown at the head of this post: Not published, rather a version of one of Booth’s most recognized cartoons. The published version appeared in The New Yorker on August 15th, 1977. A third version appears in the book, Omnibooth: The Best of George Booth.
Published a couple of weeks ago, I Think, Therefore I Draw: Understanding Philosophy Through Cartoons (Penguin) includes enough New Yorker cartoons (among a number of non-New Yorker cartoons) to mention here. The New Yorker cartoonists represented (in order of their appearance): Paul Noth, John McNamee, Tom Cheney, Danny Shanahan, P.C. Vey, David Sipress, George Booth, Avi Steinberg, Amy Hwang, Leo Cullum, Mort Gerberg, P.S. Mueller, John Klossner, Aaron Bacall, Sam Gross, “Bud” Handelsman, Lee Lorenz, Michael Maslin, Jack Ziegler, Edward Koren, Matt Diffee, Eric Lewis, Edward Frascino, and Charles Barsotti.
The authors have this (in part) to say in their introduction: “Here, then, is a collection of our favorite philosophical cartoons and our annotations about what they teach us about the Big Questions in philosophy.”
You can sample the text by going to the Amazon listing and clicking on the “Look inside” feature.
Thanks to Stephen Nadler of Attempted Bloggery for alerting the Spill to the new Swann catalog, which contains an abundance of New Yorker art. A highlight, shown above, is Peter Arno’s New Yorker cover of April 4, 1964. Here’s what it looked like as the published cover:
Other New Yorker work offered by Charles Addams, William Steig, Charles Barsotti, Arnie Levin, Richard Decker, Frank Modell, James Daugherty (aka “Jimmie-the-Ink”), Heidi Goennel, Garrett Price, Mischa Richter, Charles Saxon, George Price, Theodore Haupt, Arthur Getz, R.O. Blechman and the King of the Gagwriters, Richard McCallister. Empty the piggy bank!
