The Cover: There’s nothing quite like dogs romping in snow, as they are on Gayle Kabaker’s cover. Visit her website here.
The Cartoonists:
The Cartoons:
1. Liz Montague makes her debut in the issue. Ms. Montague is the fourth cartoonist to debut this year, and the twenty-eighth new cartoonist brought in since Emma Allen became the magazine’s cartoon editor in May of 2017.
2. There are two — count ’em, two — desert island drawings in this issue. One by Tom Chitty, and the other by Pia Guerra (it appears on the Caption Contest page).
3. Applause Applause: Lars Kenseth’s couple in previews (p.53) and Farley Katz’s undersized load (p.67).
The Talk Of The Town Masthead:
Rea Irvin’s iconic Talk masthead is still a-missin’ — read about it here.
Until it returns, if it ever does (perish the thought!), here’s what it looks like:
______________________________
Today’s Daily Cartoon
Today’s Daily cartoon, weather-related, is by JAK. Mr. Katzenstein began contributing to The New Yorker in 2014.
Liza Donnelly Talks About Live-Drawing From the 2019 Oscars Red Carpet
From Medium, February 25, 2019, “Live Drawing The 201 Academy Awards” — Liza Donnelly talks about her 4th time on the Red Carpet and shows us all of her drawings from Oscar week. Ms. Donnelly’s first cartoon appeared in the June 21, 1982 issue of The New Yorker.
The Cover: This week’s New Yorker cover is by Pascal Campion, his second cover for the magazine — his second moody metropolis scene. Read about it here. I wonder if we’ll see a moody mid-western, western, northeastern or southern scenario anytime soon.
The Cartoonists:
The Cartoons: Several nice surprises this week. The first was running into Sam Gross’s lead-in cartoon (his work has been appearing in the magazine for forty-nine years). There are certain cartoonists whose style alone gets the laugh meter buzzing. Mr. Gross is one of those cartoonists. The other surprise: R.O. Blechman’s “spot” drawings. Mr. Blechman’s wonderful drawings and covers have appeared in the magazine for forty-five years.
A third nice thing to see in this issue: the number of cartoons. Bumped up from the usual dozen or so to a healthy eighteen. They just keep on a-comin as you flip through the magazine (as do the illustrations).
If I have one little dark cloud to drag over this sunny moment it’s another plea for some of the work to be run larger (true, some cartoons run large, should be smaller). A number in this issue are, to my eyes, sized just right (a few for instances: Tom Cheney’s on page 54, and Jon Adams on page 52). Perfectly sized is Seth Fleishman’s terrific drawing on page 39. But others seem wedged into their corners; Roz Chast’s intricate Candy Land For Adults (page 32) and David Sipress’s off the beaten track restaurant (page 25) would benefit from more space. Really all I’m campaigning for is a graphic invitation for readers to fully appreciate the work. The work of the late George Price is a good example of how a cartoonist’s world can take us in for some detached momentary fun-time. Mr. Price’s drawings were usually allowed a lot of breathing room on the page. One paused to inspect the work, to enjoy all the “stuff” Price gave us. Imagine one of his drawings run in a little box on the corner of a page.
A few favorite drawings, or elements of drawings in this issue: Joe Dator’s monkey (page 40); Paul Noth’s drawing (page 60) — a great addition to the New Yorker‘s doctor canon; P.C. Vey’s theater drawing; Maddie Dai’s drawing of a sculptor and friend, as well as the caption; Frank Cotham’s perfect caption for his drawing (page 36). All fine, inspiring moments.
Next-to-Lastly, a mention of the newest cartoonist on the block:Ellie Black, the third newbie this year and the twenty-seventh new cartoonist brought in since Emma Allen became the magazine’s cartoon editor in May of 2017. A good debut, with a welcome unexpected play on the well-worn hands touching moment we’ve seen in movies and books.
And lastly, let us not forget the great work of Rea Irvin, especially his mothballed masthead design. Here it is:
Speaking of Mr. Irvin, I spoke too soon last week about the New Yorker‘s anniversary issue appearing this week. Had I bothered to consult the fine print publishing info found near the end of each issue I would’ve seen that next week’s magazine (a double issue: February 18 & 25) is the 94th anniversary issue.
Above: John Cuneo, left foreground, at The Society of Illustrators. Next to him is Anelle Miller, the Director of the Society. Left to right, rear, cartoonist Felipe Galindo, Stephen Nadler of Attempted Bloggery, and cartoonist Marc Bilgrey
— this article on New Yorker cover artist, John Cuneo. .
Today’s New Yorker Daily cartoon, featuring a political Frankenstein, is by David Sipress. See it here. Mr. Sipress began contributing to The New Yorker in July of 1998
________________________________________
Fave Photo Of The Day: Emma Allen and Mort Gerberg
Above: The New Yorker‘s cartoon editor, Emma Allen, and long-time cartoonist, Mort Gerberg, at last night’s Book Culture book event in NYC celebrating the release of Mort Gerberg On the Scene: A 50 Year Cartoon Chronicle.
— My thanks to Marcie Jacobs-Cole for the photo.
Mr. Gerberg began contributing to The New Yorker in April of 1965.
Ms. Allen has been The New Yorker‘s cartoon editor since May of 2017.
On January 29, the great illustrator Robert Andrew Parker (shown below), whose work has appeared numerous times in The New Yorker, will be featured at The New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium. Details here.
________________________________________
On January 30th, Long-time cartoonist Mort Gerberg will be in conversation with The New Yorker‘s cartoon editor, Emma Allen. The event is a celebration of Mr. Gerberg’s new book, On The Scene. Details here.
…there’s a new installment in the New Yorker‘s celebrity cartoon caption video series, Caption That Cartoon. This time it’s Adam Conover putting the caption marker to paper (I urge the magazine to ID the cartoonists whose work appears on these videos. Until they do I’ll provide IDs). In this episode the cartoonists are (in order of appearance):
Mick Stevens, Victoria Roberts, Jack Ziegler, Michael Crawford, Drew Dernavich, yours truly, Will McPhail, Frank Cotham, and Tom Cheney.
Above: Adam Conover looks over a Mick Stevens drawing in this screen grab from the video
