Tag: cartoonists

Packed House For Cartoonists Who Are Women in NYC!

Photo by Michael Maslin
Who knew that an exhibition about women cartoonists from The New Yorker would draw a huge, standing-room only, out-the-door-and-around-the-block crowd ?  When the room downstairs was full, they sent people to the second and third floors (where the bar was) and to the lower level (where the food was).  The evening was the opening event, and included a lively–at times hysterical– panel discussion with cartoonists Roz Chast, Liana Finck, Carolita Johnson, and New Yorker cartoon editor Emma Allen.  It was so much fun!  I selected and moderated the panel, and each participant was so funny and told stories and shared what the life of a cartoonist was like. Then we showed cartoons that are particularly feminist in tone, and talked about those. 
I curated the Funny Ladies At The New Yorker, Then and Now exhibition to include original art from 1925 through 2018. It is based in part on my book, Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons,a history of the women who drew for The New Yorker from the very first issue of the magazine in 1925. But the motivation for the show was also to celebrate that on Dec 4, 2017,  for the first time in its history,  the magazine published the first issue ever that included more women drawing cartoons than men. 
The show runs until Oct 13. There will be another panel event on Oct 11th!  It’s at the Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd, NYC. It’s a wonderful three story townhouse museum dedicated to art and illustration!  They have a restaurant bar on the third floor, check it out.
The Society of Illustrators, photo credit Steffen Kaplin, @Spinitsocial
Outside the Society of Illustrators. Photo credit Steffen Kaplin, @Spinitsocial

 

The panelists. Standing: Carolita Johnson, Emma Allen, Roz Chast; seated, Liana Finck, Liza Donnelly. Photo by Stephen Nadler.
Some of the cartoonists whose work is in the exhbition. Sharon Levy, Roz Chast, Liza Donnelly, Carolita Johnson, Liana Finck, Emily Sanders Hopkins (nee Richards), Sophia Warren, Mary Lawton, and Maggie Larson. Photo by Michael Maslin

 

    (Above photos credit Steffen Kaplan,  @SpinItSocial)

And here are photos of the exhibition:

 

 

Photo credits: @SpinItSocial, @lizadonnelly

 

 

 

Global Cartooning: A forum in Caen

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A gathering of 35 cartoonists from 16 countries took place from September 11-13th in Caen, France at the Caen Memorial Museum, and I was honored to be among the invited to participate in the events and public debates. It was a wonderful event and many conversations were had about the role of political cartooning in a world run by the internet.
Here is a video from France 3, who asked the Spanish cartoonist Kap and myself to draw and discuss the immigration crisis.
Over the course of the three days, we debated the limits of free speech and the importance of understanding one another globally. Many were in agreement that just because we have free speech does not mean we have to use it to its limits in every case.

James Thurber and The Thurber Prize

When I was around six or seven, I was home sick from school and in an effort to make me happy, my mother gave me a pencil, a stack of paper and a book of cartoons. She knew I loved to draw, and knew this would help me get through the sick days.  The book of cartoons she gave me was called Thurber Carnival, a collection of work by the renowned New Yorker writer and cartoonist James Thurber.  His drawings are very simple, almost childlike, and I took to them immediately. I started tracing them.  Soon, I realized this made my mother smile.  I was hooked.  From there, I started to draw my own cartoon characters.  This is how I became a cartoonist.thurber-genderthurber-seal-bark

So it is especially wonderful for me to be a finalist for the Thurber Prize this year for my book Women On Men (Narrative Library).  It is the sole award in America for written humor, and is annually given out by Thurber House (the birthplace of James Thurber and an active literary center in Ohio). Thurber was a master humorist in both the written word and the cartoon, working primarily for The New Yorker in mid-century 1900’s. Past winners have included Jon Stewart, Calvin Trillin, Christopher Buckley and David Sedaris. The other finalists that were nominated along with me are David Letterman and Bruce McCall for their book “This Land is Made For You And Me” and John Kenney for “Truth in Advertising.”    We will gather in New York City at Caroline’s Comedy Club on September 30th, where we will all do a reading and then they will announce the prize.Women On Men COVER FINAL_sized edited-1

James Thurber

Ironically for me, one of the things that made some of Thurber’s cartoons so notable with the public were their misogynistic tone.  Thurber was married twice to strong women, and had a daughter, but his cartoons sometimes betray befuddlement and often hostility towards women, as did his wonderful humorous essays. Who knows if he personally was a misogynist (some say he was), or that he just used it as a comedic tool, not uncommon in the humor of his time.

 

As a child, I remember that his cartoon women perplexed me and scared the heck out of me. I thought, is this what I have to be when I grow up? A hag, an angel, a delusional waif, a love object…and nothing in between?

Maybe deep down, this is why I wrote Women On Men, a book about women relentlessly making fun of men. Pleatsbetter without youLovingly. My tribute to James Thurber.

Look Day for Cartoonists at The New Yorker

Tuesday is “look day” at The New Yorker. That means cartoonists go in to the magazine on 42nd street, ride the elevator to the 20th floor and show their cartoons to the cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff. Mankoff may hold a few cartoons from each cartoonist to  take to a meeting with David Remnick later in the week. The two editors then decide our cartoon fate for the week.  Then, most of us go out to lunch at a great little restaurant in Times Square called Pergola.  This week was much the same except more cartoonists than usual showed up– I didn’t photograph as many as I wish I had. A documentary film is being made about our profession, and we just had to be there. They filmed us eating too. Doesn’t it sound like a fantastic film?

“Young” New Yorker cartoonists at lunch

I found this photo (link below) yesterday while researching for my upcoming talk at the Norman Rockwell Museum.  Love this. I can identify Steig, Addams, Saxon, Hamilton (the only guy with brown hair). The others are hard to see or I don’t recognize their faces. Michael Maslin also posted it on his site, Ink Spill

http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/U1727254-4.html

I used to do the cartoonist lunch every Wednesday. Now I join the group on Tuesays every so often. The regulars when I was going early in my career (in the early 80’s)  were Roz Chast, Jack Zielger, Mick Stevens, Sam Gross, Bob Mankoff.

New Yorker Cartoonists Night at Joe’s Pub, May 5, 2010

Amanda Stern’s Happy Endings Music and Reading Series is an institution in New York. She has received numerous positive reviews and awards for her funny, entertaining monthly event. She brings together three authors and a musical group each month to Joe’s Pub, and it is a wonderful evening. I met Amanda last year, and we talked about doing a New Yorker cartoonist evening, and it’s finally coming to fruition this month. I helped her find three cartoonists, and she found a musical guest.  It should be a wild evening. The unexpected thing is that each author has to do a “risk” of some sort. Stay tuned: I will hopefully post a video of what happens.

Cartoonists: Drew Dernavich, Carolita Johnson, myself

Musical guest: Jeffrey Lewis

link:  http://www.joespub.com/component/option,com_shows/task,view/Itemid,40/id,5165