With every national “entertainment” event on television—be it the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys, the Olympics, a last or first episode of a very popular TV show like Mad Men, the State Of The Union Address, or the Emmys, I am compelled to live-tweet draw my impressions of what I see. Recently, I have been hired to do so for various sites: NewYorker.com, Medium.com’s The Nib, BET.com, TheaterMania.com. It’s a lot of fun, and its a way to communicate with my audience– a way to share in the event that is not just words (although I do use words sometimes in the drawing, and in the tweets). I love this, and hope to continue to do them. The Vine recently wrote and called my Emmy sketches “beautiful,” and Jezebel wrote about my Olympic drawings for The New Yorker.
If you would like to see all of my drawings that I did last night for the Emmys, go to The NIb, link here. Enjoy!
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.
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.
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. Lovingly. My tribute to James Thurber.
I am excited to announce that my new book of cartoons and writing, Women On Men is available as a ebook (buy here). The book is a collections of over 200 of my cartoons. The theme is primarily about women being funny, women who have snark and who love to tease the men in their lives. I have published many such cartoons in the New Yorker, starting with this one in 1993. The editor at the magazine then was Tina Brown, and while I had been publishing with them since 1982 (when William Shawn was editor), this sort of idea/cartoon/caption was kind of new for me. Ms. Brown eventually bought a lot of my work like this, and subsequent editors have as well. While I do cartoons on a variety of subjects, I think I found a voice that is very true to me. Along with the 200+ cartoons, you can read more of my musings (in my handwriting) on women and humor in the book.
If you want to purchase the book for whatever kind of reader you have, even a computer, here is the link. Write me if you have questions, or if you want a discounted special edition hard copy, signed. It is beautifully published by Narrative Magazine.
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?
Last week was quite a week for the issue of women in the race for the President. It inspired me to draw the cartoon above.
Whether you want to call it a War on Women or not, the GOP is doing a lot to try to take away rights for women. When I drew this cartoon, I actually had in mind that the little girl was asking her mother about whether or not she acted to fight against this war on women. But I see now it could be interpreted either way. No matter. Children hear the word war and interpret it any way they can. It’s just sad we have to have such a word.
I just was listening to Rachel Maddow commentary on the fact that last night the Newt Campaign released files on his work with Freddy-Mac. But: they couldn’t find some of them. And apparently, there are no notes, records, written or otherwise, about what he actually did for them. Did the dog eat them? What do we do with Newt, then? Do we give him another chance? Do we mark his grade down, do we call Callista and see what the truth is? None of this will work, sadly.
Simulataneously, I was looking through my files for a cartoon to post today. I did this one last week with no obvious thought in mind of politics. But maybe subconsciously I was thinking about politics. I feel like we are in grade school with the GOP field. Doesn’t each of those guys remind you of some guy you hated in High School?
Newt, the know-it-all tubby creep who always seems to wear the same clothes and talks back to teachers;
Mitt, the awkward rich kid who thinks everyone loves him and who you catch looking in the mirror frequently,
Ron Paul, the nerd who won’t stop telling you all about stuff he thinks is important because he knows of no other way to talk to a girl,
Santorum, the religious nut who is looking for people to tattle on.
It would be fun, if it weren’t so scary. No, actually it is fun, I take that back.
With every national “entertainment” event on television—be it the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys, the Olympics, a last or first episode of a very popular TV show like Mad Men, the State Of The Union Address, or the Emmys, I am compelled to live-tweet draw my impressions of what I see. Recently, I have been hired to do so for various sites: NewYorker.com, Medium.com’s The Nib, BET.com, TheaterMania.com. It’s a lot of fun, and its a way to communicate with my audience– a way to share in the event that is not just words (although I do use words sometimes in the drawing, and in the tweets). I love this, and hope to continue to do them. The Vine recently wrote and called my Emmy sketches “beautiful,” and Jezebel wrote about my Olympic drawings for The New Yorker. 
