From atlasobscura.com, June 12, 2017, “Decoding the Success of a Picture Book about Monsters and Trolls: There’s a Reason John O’Briens 1977 Illustrations Still Have Obsessed Fans” — a piece by Jackson Kuhl about the early work of a wonderful New Yorker cover artist and cartoonist. Mr. O’Brien began contributing to The New Yorker in August 1987. Read the story here!
Link here to visit John O’Brien’s website. Below: examples of his New Yorker work.
The New Yorker‘s editor, David Remnick threw a Hello Goodbye party last night (Hello, Emma Allen, the magazine’s new cartoon editor; Goodbye, Bob Mankoff, the former cartoon editor). It was, by far, the largest gathering of New Yorker cartoonists since 1997, when forty-one gathered for an Arnold Newman group photo (it appeared in the magazine’s first cartoon issue, December 15, 1997). Here are a bunch of photos from the evening, courtesy of Liza Donnelly, the Spill‘s official photographer for the evening; additional photos by Sarah Booth, Marshall Hopkins, and Paul Karasik.
Photo above, l-r: Drew Dernavich, Sarah Booth, John Klossner, George Booth, Chad Darbyshire (back to camera), Matt Diffee, (New Yorker writer) Sarah Larson, Ken Krimstein, Bob Mankoff, Eric Lewis, Bob Eckstein
Edward Koren and Francoise Mouly (The New Yorker‘s Art Editor)
Emma Allen, The New Yorker‘s Cartoon Editor, and Stanley Ledbetter, the magazine’s jack-of-all trades.
George Booth and Roz Chast. That’s Lars Kenseth in the background (photo courtesy of Sarah Booth)
Paul Karasik, Liana Finck and Gabrielle Bell (photo courtesy of Paul Karasik)
Jason Adam Katzenstein, unidentified, Roz Chast speaking with Sara Lautman (back to camera), and Chris Weyant far right.
Chris Weyant (partially obscured), Farley Katz, unidentified, David Sipress, New Yorker writer Matt Dellinger (in checked shirt), Andy Friedman, Danny Shanahan. The group in the back: Drew Panckeri, Mitra Farmand, Sara Lautman, Kendra Allenby
Sam Gross and Robert Leighton
Bob Mankoff and David Remnick
Chris Cater, with the New Yorker‘s assistant cartoon editor, Colin Stokes, and Avi Steinberg
George Booth and David Borchart
Joe Dator and Peter Kuper
Felipe Galindo and Carolita Johnson
John O’Brien and Bob Eckstein
Three former cartoon department assistants: Marshall Hopkins, Emily Votruba, and Andy Friedman (photo courtesy of Marshall Hopkins)
Chris Weyant and Paul Noth
Matt Dellinger with Stanley Ledbetter, and Matt Diffee (and way back by the window: Chad Darbyshire to the left, and Amy Hwang to the right)
P.C. Vey and Trevor Hoey
Kim Warp, Pat Byrnes, and George Booth
Sam Gross and Roz Chast
l-r: P.C. Vey, Liza Donnelly, Danny Shanahan, George Booth, and Michael Maslin (photo courtesy of Sarah Booth)
Chris Weyant and Liana Finck.
Sam Gross and Lars Kenseth
Eric Lewis, Andy Friedman, and Barbara Smaller
Pat Byrnes, Paul Karasik, and Peter Kuper
Marc Philippe Eskenazi and Ben Schwartz
Charlie Hankin, Amy Hwang, Kendra Allenby, and Avi Steinberg
Marshall Hopkins with Bob Mankoff’s first assistant, Emily Votruba (Mr. Hopkins was also at one time Mr. Mankoff’s assistant)
Far left: David Sipress speaks with Andy Friedman. Foreground: Barbara Smaller, Emily Flake and P.C. Vey.
l-r: Felipe Galindo, Marshall Hopkins, Sam Gross, Mort Gerberg, and Ed Koren
Edward Koren, Michael Maslin, Liza Donnelly and a photobombing David Remnick. That’s Charlie Hankin in the back, far right.
Here’s an incomplete list of all the cartoonists who were there (if you were there and don’t appear on this list, please let me know)
Kendra Allenby, George Booth, David Borchart, Pat Byrnes, Chris Cater, Roz Chast, Joe Dator, Chad Darbyshire, Drew Dernavich, Matt Diffee, Liza Donnelly, Bob Eckstein, Mitra Farmand, Liana Finck, Emily Flake, Andy Friedman (aka Larry Hat), Felipe Galindo(aka feggo), Mort Gerberg, Sam Gross, Charlie Hankin, Marshall Hopkins, Amy Hwang, Edward Koren, Trevor Hoey, Carolita Johnson, Paul Karasik, Farley Katz, Jason Adam Katzenstein, Lars Kenseth, John Klossner, Ken Krimstein, Peter Kuper, Amy Kurzweil, Sara Lautman, Robert Leighton, Eric Lewis, Bob Mankoff, Sam Marlow, Michael Maslin, Paul Noth, Jeremy Nguyen, John O’Brien, Drew Panckeri, Corey Pandolph, Ellis Rosen, Jennifer Saura, Ben Schwartz, Danny Shanahan, David Sipress, Avi Steinberg, P.C. Vey, Kim Warp, Chris Weyant.
Jane Mattimoe’s Fine Case For Pencils subject this week is the great John O’Brien. Read the post here.
Once or twice a year New Yorker cartoonists gather to do something other than show their work. Yesterday was one of those days — the annual holiday party (which includes all of the editorial staff, not just the artists). In years past the party has been mostly out-of house; this year it was in-house. Too-many-to-count boxes of pizza were spread out on long tables. Bottles of wine and large bottles (jugs?) of beer were here and there on other tables in a hallway and adjoining conference room. The place was packed. The magazine’s editor, David Remnick was spotted wending his way through the throng, slice of pizza in hand.
A small framed copy of the cover of the magazine’s first issue hung in one of the hallways as well as a number of blow-ups of New Yorker covers. A good number of cartoons lined the walls (some framed, some greatly enlarged). Was happy to see that Peter Arno’s “Well, back to the old drawing board!” continues to reside among the framed pieces. I paused to spend some time with the wonderful Thurber drawings, lovingly installed in these new digs.
Among the cartoonists present were Sam Gross, Joe Dator, Christopher Weyant, Robert Leighton, Liza Donnelly, Emily Flake, Edward Steed, Corey Pandolf, Bob Eckstein, Amy Hwang, Harry Bliss, Jason Adam Katzenstein, John O’Brien, Felipe Galindo (aka feggo), Drew Dernavich, Ben Schwartz, David Borchart, Mort Gerberg, and David Sipress.
A splendid time was had by all!
As promised a few days ago, below is a list of New Yorker artists whose work appears in an upcoming exhibit at The Society of Illustrators. The artists included span the entire history of The New Yorker, beginning with early masters, Helen Hokinson, Peter Arno and Gluyas Williams right up through many of today’s most exciting and incredibly funny contributors.
Ed Arno, Peter Arno, Charles Barsotti, David Borchart, John Caldwell, Roz Chast, Richard Cline, Joe Dator, Drew Dernavich, Matthew Diffee, Liza Donnelly, Bob Eckstein, Dana Fradon, Felipe Galindo, Sam Gross, Larry Hat, Helen Hokinson, Zachary Kanin, Nurit Karlin, Farley Katz, Robert Leighton, Bob Mankoff, Marisa Marchetto, Michael Maslin, Richard McCallister, Warren Miller, Roxie Munro, Paul Noth, John O’Brien, Danny Shanahan, Michael Shaw, Barbara Shermund, Barbara Smaller, Edward Sorel, Peter Steiner, Mick Stevens, Julia Suits, P.C.Vey, Liam Walsh, Kim Warp, Robert Weber, Christopher Weyant, Gluyas Williams, Bill Woodman, Jack Ziegler
