Frank Cotham | Inkspill

Video Of Interest: Dem Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Captions New Yorker Cartoons; A Case For Pencils Spotlights Rich Sparks; Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon (And Yesterday’s)

January 10, 2020 michael News

Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Captions New Yorker Cartoons

Well this might be a first: a candidate for President captioning New Yorker cartoons. Mr. Yang takes a shot in this brand new video. Cartoons, in order of appearance, are by: yours truly, Frank Cotham, Ben Schwartz, Liam Walsh, Tom Cheney, and Kaamran Hafeez.

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A Case For Pencils Spotlights Rich Sparks

Jane Mattimoe’s fab A Case For Pencils takes a look at Rich Sparks’s tools of the trade. Read it here.

Mr. Sparks began contributing to The New Yorker in 2016. His latest book is Love and other weird things. Visit his website here.

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Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon…

Kim Warp on Trump & Golf & A Pipeline. Ms. Warp began contributing to The New Yorker in 1999. Visit her website here.

and Yesterday’s:

Drew Dernavich on politics & Star Wars. Mr. Dernavich began contributing to The New Yorker in 2002. Visit his website here.

The Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue Of November 25, 2019; Today’s Daily Cartoon & Daily Shouts Cartoonists

November 18, 2019 michael News

The Cover: It’s the Food Issue and it’s the Thanksgiving issue, so surprise: a turkey. You can read a Q&A with the cover artist here.

The Cartoonists:

The Cartoons… random comments on a few of the cartoons in this issue:

…Mick Stevens delivers a fab caveman drawing (it’s on page 69). Beautiful drawing with a great caption.

…another fine drawing/caption from Bruce Eric Kaplan (p.50).

…a full page color “Sketchbook” by Kendra Allenby, as well as drawings by Amy Kurzweil and Lonnie Millsap reflect the issue’s food theme (and, for good measure, a drink drawing by Ellie Black).

…a Thanksgiving drawing by one of The New Yorker‘s Cartoon Gods, Gahan Wilson.

… a fun evergreen caption by Frank Cotham.

…I wonder how many of you will turn T.S. McCoy’s drawing (p.72) upside down.

The Rea Irvin Missing Talk Masthead Watch:

Sadly still missing from The New Yorker (but you can see it directly below). Read about it here.

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Meet The Artist (1943): Richard Taylor

Another in a series of self portraits of New Yorker artists included in the Meet The Artist catalog published by the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in 1943.

Richard Taylor’s entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:

Richard Taylor Born in Fort William, Ontario, Sept. 18, 1902. Died in 1970. New Yorker work: 1935 -1967. Collections: The Better Taylors ( Random House, 1944, and a reprint edition by World Publishing, 1945), Richard Taylor’s Wrong Bag (Simon & Schuster, 1961). Taylor also authored Introduction to Cartooning (Watson -Guptill, 1947). From Taylor’s introduction: the “book is not intended to be a ‘course in cartooning’…instead, it attempts to outline a plan of study — something to be kept at the elbow to steer by.”

Below, the great photo of Richard Taylor from his book Introduction To Cartooning.

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Today’s Daily Cartoon & Daily Shouts Cartoonists

Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon: Robert Leighton on government officials. Mr. Leighton began contributing to The New Yorker in 2002. Visit his website here.

Today’s Daily Shouts: “Dating Material: Stalking Your Ex Throughout History” by Julia Edelman & Olivia de Recat. Ms. de Recat has been contributing to The New Yorker (print magazine) since 2018. Visit her website here. Ms. Edelman is a writer who has contributed Daily Shouts pieces illustrated by New Yorker artists.

The Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue Of October 28, 2019

October 21, 2019 michael News

The Cover: Trick or treaters in the woods courtesy of Liniers. To me, the creatures appearing in this cover seem to be above-sea-level up-in-the-trees relatives of Ed Steed’s August 26th cover’s creatures. I’m reminded of the fun fans had years ago by hunting for The Beatles faces on the cover of The Rolling Stones album, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Details from each below, with Mr. Steed’s fabulous creatures on the left and Mr. Linier’s on the right:

The Cartoonists And Cartoons

A number of cartoons to mention this time around beginning with David Sipress’s alien being at the eye doctor’s office (the drawing is on page 29). It’s a clean, clear drawing with an excellent caption. The second I saw it it became my all-time favorite Sipress cartoon (applause, applause)…

…The same applause goes to Ed Steed’s dog at a typewriter (p.56). It’s a captionless drawing that excels because of words, or more specifically one word repeated twenty-two times. As a bonus, the drawing has been placed beautifully on the page. It too has risen in status to at least my co-all-time favorite in the Steed canon. Great drawing…

…Roz Chast’s drawing (p. 61) immediately brought to mind this hilarious scene from Jerry Lewis’s 1985 movie “Cracking Up” — Zane Busby is the waitress…

…I wonder how many New Yorker readers will be Googling “Gowanus” after looking at Paul Karasik’s drawing (p.28). The same cartoon happily led me to thinking about this scene from Monty Python’s “Holy Grail”…

…Really enjoyed Lars Kenseth’s good humored and practical dad reassuring his son (p. 34)…

…Frank Cotham’s drawing (p.66) is another which has instantly become a favorite. It reminds me somehow of Charles Saxon’s best work (which is to say, a large percentage of Saxon’s seven hundred and twenty-five New Yorker drawings). Love the mood of the drawing plus its triumphal caption. Applause Applause…

…Also much fun is Barbara Smaller’s city dwellers politically flavored Halloween cartoon (p.17). Ms. Smaller sets a fab scene with details galore: the port-hole elevator door window, the number of locks on the apartment door, the taped-up paper pumpkin on the door…and let’s not forget the dandy caption.

The Rea Irvin Talk Of The Town Masthead Watch

The above heading by the great New Yorker artist Rea Irvin sat atop the New Yorker‘s Talk Of The Town for ninety-two years until being removed and replaced by a redrawn(!) version in the Spring of 2017. Here’s hoping the powers that be (or power that be) reverses the situation. Read more here.

The Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue Of August 26, 2019

August 19, 2019 michael News

The Cover: Way to go, Ed Steed! Mr. Steed’s debut New Yorker cover is a gem. See the cover and read this short interview about it with Mr. Steed.

It’s always a thrill, and always a reason to cheer when a New Yorker cartoonist’s work appears on the cover. Our presence there took a major hit once the singular title of art editor (last enjoyed by Lee Lorenz) was split in two back in the Tina Brown era. One job became two jobs: a cartoon editor for the cartoons, and an art editor for the covers. For the better part of the magazine’s history, the cartoonists were in the majority as cover contributors (over 60%). That dropped to a single digit percentage in the years since the cover editor’s position was created. Mr. Steed’s breakthrough is encouraging.

The Cartoonists & Cartoons:

A Spill round of applause for several cartoons in the issue that caught my eye: Tim Hamilton’s lion at a party (p.65) is a stand out. Perhaps I’m a sucker for drawings depicting a person held in clenched jaws. I’m also quite fond of P.C. Vey’s worked-his-way-up-the-ladder chef in a cubicle (p.63). Mr. Vey has given us a very good drawing. Lila Ash’s trapeze artists (p.79) are also a lot of fun; the drawing clicks perfectly with a caption that heavily depends — even more so than usual in this case — on timing.

The over-all cartoon picture for the issue: Just ten cartoons amid a multitude of illustrations (four of the illustrations are full page). I wonder if my colleagues ever submit cartoons as intended full page drawings. Something to ask next time we gather en masse.

Breathing room around the cartoons is good this issue. Frank Cotham’s drawing (p.52) could’ve used a bit more space so we can appreciate and dive into all that’s going on in his court room. Perhaps, as is sometimes the case, that’s not an issue in the print issue.

Rea Irvin’s Talk Masthead: It’s been twenty-seven months since it was abandoned in favor of a (gasp!) redraw. Read about it here.

Here’s the real thing:

The Monday Tilley Watch, The New Yorker Issue Of July 29, 2019; Today’s Daily Cartoonist And Cartoon; A Julia Wertz Daily Shouts; Fave Photo Of The Day

July 22, 2019 michael News

The Cover: I see destructive tourists at the core of this cover, yet destruction doesn’t come up in Joost Swarte’s interview with The New Yorker‘s art director, Francoise Mouly. Odd?

The Cartoonists:

The Cartoons:

Almost a theme issue, of sorts: Amy Hwang (cats), Roz Chast (dogs), Farley Katz (flamingos), Joe Duffy (pigs), Kendra Allenby (deer), Frank Cotham (a snake), Shannon Wheeler (snails), Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell (a rat).

Steering briefly away from the Spill‘s focus, I have to note that Salman Rushdie’s piece in the issue is titled “The Little King” and the accompanying illustration (by Nico Schweitzer) is a play on Otto Soglow‘s famous character. The illustration seems even closer to the toy Little King than the drawing of the King :

Applause for Bob Eckstein‘s shuttlecock drawing on page 48, and Ellis Rosen‘s heralded fellow drawing on page 42.

From the Department of fun coincidences. Liana Finck’s lifeguard drawing (p. 33) immediately reminded me of an obscure original Lee Lorenz drawing hanging here at Spill headquarters. The Lorenz drawing (its barely legible caption: “Help!”) was not in The New Yorker. I’ve yet to figure out where it was published, or how old it is. Mr. Lorenz, visiting here and seeing the drawing, could not recall where it had appeared or its vintage. It appears to be in an earlier Lorenz style (but not the earliest), so we can at least place in an early-to-mid 1960s time frame.

Ms. Finck’s drawing and Mr. Lorenz’s are in some ways opposites of each other. Mr. Lorenz’s beach is overcrowded, while Ms. Finck’s beach is empty. Ms. Finck’s life guard offers help (if helped); Mr. Lorenz’s life guard is crying out for help. What ties them together, at least for me, is the graphic core of each drawing: the exceptionally tall life guard stand. Fine fun work by both.

Rea Irvin: Mr. Irvin’s iconic Talk masthead (below) left us in the Spring of 2017 after 92 years of service — it was replaced by a redraw. Let’s hope the real thing returns before long. Read about it here.

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Today’s Daily Cartoonist And Cartoon