Tuesday Spill: The Funnest Steinberg Collection Ever

One of the most recent additions to the Spill library is Steinberg’s The Discovery Of America. Although the book was published in 1992, it took this long to get around to adding it to the cartoon library. Why it took 30 years, I don’t know. I’ve added a number of Steinberg books within that time — perhaps I thought (for no reason I can remember) that this volume was a Steinberg’s greatest hits — that it was product.

When the used copy (from the Lopez High School in Brownsville, Texas) arrived I spent a good deal of time removing its old library stickers affixed to the dust jacket (how I managed before the invention of “Goo-B-Gone” I’ll never know). While I could remove stickers, the library stamps will be forever remain part of the book. I wonder what Steinberg would’ve thought of the addition to the title page, this “Discard” in red.

So final, so cold. I noticed that the library envelope in the back of the book was empty. Apparently no student ever checked-out the book (granted, it is a large book — a student would’ve possibly imagined how much heavier his or her backpack would be with The Discovery Of America tossed in with their textbooks). 

Once I’d flipped through each and every page, I surprised myself by realizing that this book just might be my favorite Steinberg collection of all-time. I was completely wrong about it being a greatest hits. To be sure, there are greatest hits in the book. Steinberg’s most famous work,“View Of The World From 9th Avenue” (recently discussed on the Spill) is here as are many other pieces originally published as New Yorker covers. My all-time favorite Steinberg cover is among them. 

The collection’s theme works beautifully. Instead of a survey of Steinberg’s career we have a graphic road trip; looking through, I could not wait to see how Steinberg’s brain bounced off of different parts of this country.

Another big plus: the book is fun. In the lengthy introduction, famed (and now deceased) art historian Arthur Danto wrote: “it is not an album of amusing drawings…”  I beg to differ, Mr. D! The work in this “album” is the definition of amusing: