Tag: New yorker Cartoonist

More Gahan Wilson; A Peter Arno Rarity From The Bloom Vault; Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon; Humor Mag Of Interest: American Bystander #12; Today’s Daily Shouts…By Amy Kurzweil; Preview Of Interest on Salon: Shannon Wheeler’s “Mueller Report”

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More Gahan Wilson

From 27East.com, October 24, 2019, “Cartoonist Gahan Wilson Is Looking To Find His Way”  — this piece by Annette Hinkle on one of the modern masters of the form.

…and this Chicago Sun-Times column from Neil Steinberg, October 24, 2019, “‘Lucky to be alive’ — morbid cartoonist faces dementia”

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A Peter Arno Rarity From The Bloom Vault

The illustrator Tom Bloom is surely one of our cartoon world’s great collectors.  Some years back  I naively thought I’d found most everything New Yorker cartoon-related that could be found. Then Mr. Bloom began sending me scans of items in his collection. It was as if someone had just opened the door to a New Yorker materials filled annex the size of Macy’s.

He’s been kind enough over the years to share some of the more obscure pieces from his collection with the Spill.  Here’s another: a four page promotional brochure for Peter Arno’s first book,Whoops Dearie!, published in 1927 by Simon & Schuster.* If you read my bio of Arno you might remember how important the Whoops Sisters were to the resuscitation of The  New Yorker in its infancy. I’d never seen this brochure until yesterday (and this after nearly 20 years of making it my business to find Arno material).

*While Arno provided the drawings for the book it was actually written by Philip Wylie. Much more on him and his place in The New Yorker‘s early years can be found in the Arno biography.

Here’s Arno’s entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:

Peter Arno (Photo source: Look, 1938) Born Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr., January 8, 1904, New York City. Died February 22, 1968, Port Chester, NY. New Yorker work: 1925 -1968. Key collection: Ladies & Gentlemen (Simon & Schuster, 1951) The Foreword is by Arno.

 

 

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Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon

Barging Republicans, by Ellis Rosen, who has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2016.  Visit his website here.

 

 

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Humor Mag Of Interest: American Bystander #12

American Bystander #12 just arrived at the Spill. Not sure how often I’ve said this, but here goes again: if you love cartoons, especially those we associate with New Yorker artists, you’ll find  bushels-full in the Bystander. Three cheers for Michael Gerber, the Bystander‘s editor and publisher.

Here are the New Yorker contributors found in this latest issue:  Joe Ciardiello (the issue’s cover artist), Edward Sorel, Tom Chitty, P.S. Mueller, Rich Sparks, Lars Kenseth, Lila Ash, Roz Chast, John Cuneo, Mort Gerberg, Barry Blitt, George Booth, Joe Dator, Nick Downes, Bob Eckstein, Emily Flake, David Ostow, Jeremy Nguyen, Sara Lautman, Farley Katz, John Jonik, and Sam Gross.

Link here to subscribe.

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Today’s Daily Shouts…By Amy Kurzweil

“A Subway Tableau” by Amy Kurzweil, who has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2016. Visit her website here.

 

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Preview Of Interest From Salon: Wheeler’s “Mueller Report”

From Salon, “Exclusive: ‘Mueller Report’ Graphic Novel Sneak Preview From New Yorker Cartoonist Shannon Wheeler”

— and…there’s a Q&A with Mr. Wheeler within the piece.

 

The Wednesday Tilley Watch: Trailer Of Interest: Stevenson Lost And Found; Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell & Peanuts; More Dana Fradon; Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon

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Trailer Of Interest…Stevenson: Lost And Found

Here’s the official trailer for the highly anticipated documentary film on the late great New Yorker artist & writer, James Stevenson: Sally Williams‘ Stevenson: Lost and Found.  Link here to the official trailer.

From the film’s Facebook page:

Writer and artist, James Stevenson was one of The New Yorker Magazine’s most prolific cartoonists. Revered for its weighty commentary on world affairs, The New Yorker found its sweet side in the wit, whimsy and sheer joie de vivre of Jim’s illustrations and articles. Opening as the artist celebrates his 85th birthday, STEVENSON LOST & FOUND is a bitter-sweet romp through the stellar, 67-year career of a remarkable artist. An odyssey of discovery and loss the film unearths a truly dazzling volume of work, while facing, head-on, the dark and tragic struggles of the artist and those who loved him.
And here’s The Spill‘s A-Z entry for Mr. Stevenson:

James Stevenson Born, NYC, 1929. Died, February 17, 2017, Cos Cob, Connecticut. New Yorker work: March 10, 1956 –. Stevenson interned as an office boy at The New Yorker in the mid 1940s when he began supplying ideas for other New Yorker artists. Nine years later he was hired a full-time ideaman, given an office at the magazine and instructed not to tell anyone what he did. He eventually began publishing his own cartoons and covers as well as a ground-breaking Talk of the Town pieces (ground breaking in that the pieces were illustrated). His contributions to the magazine number over 2000. Key collections: Sorry Lady — This Beach is Private! ( MacMillan, 1963), Let’s Boogie ( Dodd, Mead, 1978). Stevenson has long been a children’s book author, with roughly one hundred titles to his credit. He is a frequent contributor to the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, under the heading Lost and Found New York. Stevenson’s recent book, published in 2013, The Life, Loves and Laughs of Frank Modell, is essential.

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Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell & Peanuts

Here’s an excerpt on Longreads  from The Peanuts Papers (out October 22nd from Viking) featuring Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell’s contribution. Ms. Campbell has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2017. Link here to her website.

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More Dana Fradon

From David Pomerantz’s Facebook post, October 14th (re-posted here with Mr. Pomerantz’s permission):

R.I.P. Arthur Dana Fradon.
This one especially hurts as I got to know Arthur a bit, spoke at length with him on the phone (he was sharp, funny and had some terrific stories), had many online exchanges with him (it was a big day if I could make him laugh with one of my little jests), and I hoped that I could make the trip to visit him in Woodstock or Connecticut with a few cartoonist friends. He was the very last contract artist that Harold Ross signed to The New Yorker, a few years after Arthur sold his first cartoon to the magazine in 1948. He was one of the most prolific of artists, selling about 1400 drawings over six decades until he finally retired to work on a novel. (He had some, uh, opinions about new Editor Tina Brown.) He was also a terrific satirical writer, the caption perfectly complementing his drawing. This was in a time (late 40s-mid-60s) when many of the contract cartoonists like Arno, Addams and Darrow, Jr. still worked with other writers’ captions, which eventually faded out when Lee Lorenz succeeded Jim Geraghty as Art Editor in 1973.

Arthur played baseball into his eighties and told Peter Arno biographer Michael Maslin, “I’m not really a cartoonist. I’m a misplaced baseball player or something like that.” I loved his work from when I first saw it in one of The New Yorker collections (he was quite proud of the fact that he had the most cartoons in one of the magazine’s retrospective books); when I mentioned to him how much I liked his “Good morning, beheaded” cartoon, he said that seemed to be the most popular of his cartoon prints sold by the magazine. Condolences to Ramona Fradon and their daughter Amy.

— Cartoon above by Dana Fradon, from The New Yorker issue of June 3, 1991

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Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon

Here a subpoena, there a subpoena, everywhere a subpoena —  by Teresa Burns Parkhurst, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 2017.

Article Of Interest: Liza Donnelly’s “How I Became A New Yorker Cartoonist”

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From newyorker.com‘s Culture Desk, October 10, 2019, “How I Became A New Yorker Cartoonist” — Liza Donnelly talks about the path that led to her forty years (and counting) at The New Yorker.

Here’s Ms. Donnelly’s entry on The Spill‘s A-Z:

Liza Donnelly  Born, Washington, D.C. New Yorker work: June 21, 1982 –. Key book: Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons (Prometheus, 2005). Edited:  Sex & Sensibility: Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love…in 200 Cartoons ( Twelve, 2008). Co-authored with Michael Maslin: Husbands & Wives ( Ballantine 1995), Call Me When You Reach Nirvana ( Andrew & McMeel, 1995), Cartoon Marriage ( with Michael Maslin) (Random House, 2009), When Do They Serve the Wine?( Chronicle, 2010). Women On Men (Narrative Library, 2013). Donnelly also wrote and illustrated a popular series of dinosaur books for children ( Dinosaur Day, Dinosaur Beach, Dinosaur Halloween, etc.) all published by Scholastic.  She is the CBS News Resident Cartoonist. Website: http://www.lizadonnelly.com

Dana Fradon, Harold Ross’s Last Cartoonist, Has Died

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Above: The New Yorker artist,Charles Saxon; James Geraghty,The New Yorker’s art editor from 1939-1973; The New Yorker artist, Dana Fradon, and New Yorker artist, Whitney Darrow, Jr.. Photo: Sara Geraghty Herndon.

Dana Fradon, the last surviving New Yorker cartoonist of Harold Ross’s era (he was the last cartoonist contracted under Mr. Ross’s editorship), and one of The New Yorker‘s most prolific cartoonists (he is in the top twenty of the magazine’s artists who have contributed over a thousand drawings), passed away October 3 in Woodstock, New York.  He was 97.  Mr. Fradon’s first cartoon appeared in the issue of May 1, 1948 (it appears below).  His last New Yorker drawing appeared April 21, 2003. Mr. Fradon was born April 14, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois.

Fradon:1stIn the Spill‘s interview with Mr. Fradon in the Fall of 2013, I asked him how he worked:

I had a big pad of paper, 14” x 17” bond paper; I’d make little notes and sketches and see where they’d lead me. Once, when I was giving a talk I said the important thing of thinking of ideas is knowing when to pounce. You kick ideas around in your subconscious and then this one is a straggler and you pounce on it because it seems funny. And that’s the one you draw up. I drew up a lot of rejections too of course [laughing].

When I think of Mr. Fradon’s work for the magazine, I think of the utility player in baseball, who plays many positions well. If you look through Mr. Fradon’s nearly fourteen hundred New Yorker cartoons you’ll see how well he played. His line was effortless, his subject matter both timely and  often timeless, as in his New Yorker drawing below from the issue of  September 23, 1991.

In a funny telling moment from my interview with him, he said, “I’m not really a cartoonist. I’m a misplaced baseball player or something like that.” 

I had occasion to call Mr. Fradon over the years when I had some New Yorker cartoonist history  that needed fleshing out. He was, after all, a direct link to the magazine’s golden age of cartooning.  His recall of New Yorker events and characters was impressive (about seeing Peter Arno at The New Yorker‘s 25th anniversary party: “Arno was the star…he danced all night.“). His sense of humor remained impressive as well.  In one of our last conversations, I called asking him for some insight on a recently departed cartoonist colleague. Mr. Fradon’s first question to me was, “Are you calling because you think I’m next?” 

Above, two Fradon cartoon collections. Insincerely Yours (Scribner, 1978) and Breaking The Laugh Barrier (Dell, 1961)

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To see some of Dana Fradon’s New Yorker work, go the the magazine’s website here.

An obituary appears in The Newtown Bee. Read it here.

 

 

 

Many Many Coffees Ago At The New Yorker; The Tilley Watch Online, Sept. 30 – October 4, 2019

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Many Many Coffees Ago At The New Yorker

Here’s a fun photo I came across in the Spill’s archives. Taken in 1987 at The New Yorker‘s long-time offices at 25 West 43rd Street.*

Left to right: Roz Chast, yours truly, Liza Donnelly, Sam Gross, and Mick Stevens. The occasion may have been the art department’s annual holiday party.

*Below:  a Spill map showing The New Yorker‘s various locations in its 94 years.

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The Tilley Watch Online, September 30 – October 4, 2019

An end of the week listing of New Yorker cartoonists who contributed to the Daily Cartoon and/or Daily Shouts

The Daily Cartoon: Brooke Bourgeois, Brendan Loper (two appearances), David Sipress, and Pat Byrnes.

Daily Shouts: Ellis Rosen (with Annelise Capossela), Jeremy Nguyen (with Thatcher Jensen), Julia Wertz, and Amy Hwang.