Although I’m 99.9% focused on New Yorker “stuff” the Spill library does include a number of non-New Yorker books — most all of them — but not all! — having to do with my budding, pre-New Yorker cartoonist years. I like to keep some of these books near where I work (the others are in another room in the company of more non-New Yorker humor collections).
Looking at these two piles of books it’s easy (for me) to see a clear path from little kid beginning to read (Dr. Seuss,* comic books, MAD) to teenager (underground comics) to the world of the single panel (i.e., New Yorker) cartoon. The big National Cartoonists Society Album was given to me back in the late 1990s. I was never a member of that organization, but the book itself is loaded with thumbnail bios of cartoonists — it’s an excellent resource.
My interest in underground comics was relatively short, but such a great bridge — it helped me realize it was a form I wasn’t cut out for. All of these various books reflect my K-12 drawn art education and beyond. I couldn’t get here (at The New Yorker) without having been there.
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*The Cohen book with bleached out text on the spine is;
