Wednesday Spill: Partnering; School Days; Tom Toro Revisits The Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast

An upcoming issue of The Comics Journal featuring an interview with Pia Guerra coupled with her recent appearance on The Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast (along with her writing partner, Ian Boothby) has caused me to think a little this morning about the relatively modern jump in “dedicated” and public partnerships in The New Yorker‘s cartoonist stable. In the podcast, Ms. Guerra tells us that just one of her many New Yorker cartoons was her idea alone. Listen to the podcast to hear her explain why Mr. Boothby’s role went uncredited for a period of time. 

When I use “dedicated” to describe partnerings I’m talking about continued appearances by a team, not one-offs, or two-offs, or even three-offs. The dedicated partnerings in recent years are shown above in Rea Irvin typeface. By “public” I mean that the team, not just the artist, is credited in The New Yorker.

The first time in its history that the magazine indicated a cartoonist partnering under “Drawings”  in its Table Of Contents was this pairing back in its issue of April 4th, 1997…

 

 The occasion was a strip, “A Beatlefest Afternoon.”  Ms. Donnelly and I had gone way out of our comfort zones and traveled to the New Jersey meadowlands for some in-person cartoon chronicling. But that was truly a one-off — we’ve never appeared again in The New Yorker Table of Contents connected by an “and.” 

We know, from various sources (his papers at The New York Public Library for instance] that the “King of Gagwriters,” Richard McCallister, a cartoonist himself (he contributed 89 cartoons under his own name to the magazine between 1957 and 1993) had a list of cartoonist clients with one cartoonist as the dedicated first recipient of the pick of McCallister’s litter; for awhile that person was George Price, and after Price, Peter Arno. But none of those partnerings were ever credited in The New Yorker. 

The most famous uncredited pairing of New Yorker cartoonist and writer was Helen Hokinson and James Reid Parker. Their working relationship was acknowledged by Ms. Hokinson in her dedication to her 1948 collection, When Were You Built? :

                           

Mr. Parker would later write about their partnering in The Ladies, God Bless ’em! published following the death of Ms. Hokinson in 1950. 

Speaking of famous, in very recent times we’ve seen the pairing of Harry Bliss with the celebrated actor and comedian, Steve Martin. They even published a book collecting their paired efforts (and there’s another on the way). Although Mr. Bliss has spoken of using other writers over time, his appearances in the magazine have been — with the obvious exception of the efforts with Mr. Martin — credited to him alone.  

The dedicated public partnerings are, as I’ve said, something new to consider in this small, but growing culture of New Yorker cartoonists. I’ve taken to acknowledging the public partnerings on Monday’s Tilley Watch. I always note that the Spill considers duos as one cartoonist. There is also always the added notation that these are the duos “we know of.” One of the traditions that has stuck over the years, even in this new period of disclosure, is not disclosing partnerships. That’s of course a matter left up to the artist and silent partner. 

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From Attempted Bloggery, February 8, 2022, “School Days: Cartoons From The New Yorker” 

— this fun look at an odd sized 2010 collection of themed cartoons from the magazine from a Spill favorite blog.  

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Tom Toro Revisits The Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast

Mr. Toro, a New Yorker contributor since 2010, is back with the CCCP gang.

Listen here!