Interview of Interest: Sophie Lucido Johnson
From Inside Hook, January 10, 2023, “Sophie Lucido Johnson Writes (and Draws) About Parenting and Polyamory) Better Than Anyone” — a short interview with the writer/artist who began contributing (most often as part of a duo) to The New Yorker in 2020.
–drawing (from the article): Sophie Lucido Johnson
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A Photo From The Spill Archive
I was breezing through a box of the Spill‘s New Yorker cartoonist photographs this morning and came upon the one above, taken by my colleague, Liza Donnelly. A nice moment capturing a trio of cartoonists chatting following a long morning of posing for photographer Arnold Newman. His group photo of many of the magazine’s artists appeared in the very first cartoon issue in 1997 (you can see an alternate version of Mr. Newman’s published photo here).
In the photo above we see, left to right: an unidentified woman standing next to Bernie Schoenbaum, Edward Frascino (standing), and Robert Weber (seated). Mr. Newman had all of the cartoonists throw confetti in the air for his final shot. Some held champagne bottles. On the wall are six of the magazine’s cartoon gods: Peter Arno, George Price, Helen Hokinson, Charles Addams, Gluyas Williams, and James Thurber.
(Back in 2008 I wrote about an earlier cartoonist group photo (with a mention of the 1997 photo) for newyorker.com)
And…the packrat I am, I grabbed a few momentos that morning being photographed with my fellow cartoonists (this entry is on the Spill‘s “From The Attic” section):
Mischa Richter’s Montera Hat
This cardboard bullfighter’s hat pictured above was worn by the late great cartoonist Mischa Richter during the Arnold Newman photo shoot at Pier 59 Studios, New York, New York, September 16th, 1997.
Most of the forty-one New Yorker cartoonists who gathered and posed that morning were asked to don whacky hats. The fold-out photograph that appeared in the magazine’s first Cartoon Issue ( Dec. 15th, 1997) was the final one taken. The Cartoonists were instructed to whoop it up, and toss their silly hats and confetti ( some of which is pictured above) into the air.
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Bob Eckstein’s Newsletter “Cartoon Shop Talk”
Bob Eckstein, who wears many many hats (cartoonist, writer, editor, illustrator, snowman expert) has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2007. He has a brand new Substack entry, “Cartoon Shop Talk.”
The Spill will look forward to every installment.
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