I Only Read It for the Cartoons
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I Only Read It for the Cartoons: The New Yorker's Most Brilliantly Twisted Artists Hardcover – October 7, 2014
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"If you think you are funny and could do what New Yorker cartoonists do, you are wrong. To get a glimpse into the lives and working habits of these artists is a great gift. They are a rarified breed living in places like Connecticut and Westchester. They blend into the background, but they are the great philosophers of our time. Don't try this at home." —Maira Kalman, New Yorker cover artist, author of My Favorite Things and The Principles of Uncertainty
“Everyone who's ever had their mind blown by a New Yorker cartoon has wondered about the twisted, perforated, skewed, and fizzy geniuses that create them. This book is our Rosetta Stone. It explains who these wonderful weirdos are, how they acquire their odd, delicious ideas, and how those ideas migrate fantastically to paper and then press. We are in enormous debt to Richard Gehr for tracking these artists down, for charming them, disarming them, and translating their lives and work into wise and elegant prose. Books like this should cost a fortune.” —David Shenk, author of The Genius in All of Us
"A great New Yorker cartoon goes deeper than it looks, and Richard Gehr's masterful profiles of the magazine's artists reveal the rich weirdness and intense craft behind their doodly bursts of wit." —Douglas Wolk, author of Reading Comics
About the Author
Richard Gehr has been writing about music, books, film, television, and other aspects of popular culture for more than two decades. He has contributed to several books and written for Rolling Stone, Vibe, O, the New York Times Book Review, and Spin.
More About the Author
RICHARD GEHR has been writing about music, books, film, television, and other aspects of popular culture for more than two decades. He has contributed to several books and written for Rolling Stone, Vibe, O, the New York Times Book Review, and Spin.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By
K. Swanson
TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on September 1, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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As a long time (if presently former) New Yorker subscriber, I like the idea of this book: who dreams up those intelligent, wry and often hilarious cartoons? I have certain favorites among their veteran cartoonists, and a couple of them are here (Gahan and Gross). I was really hoping for BEK (Bruce Kaplan), the sharpest of the last few decades' bunch to my mind, but oh well. Insert dejected caption here.
These are all world class single panel cartoonists/artists, yet the truth is that in every case the art is far more fascinating than the artist. I enjoyed learning about Chast and Koren and the others, and was most amused by the predictable yet welcome irascibility of Gross and Wilson, whose work has been the edgiest in the magazine for roughly a half century in both cases, a startlingly lengthy record (maybe laughter really does keep you young, or at least let you live longer). They are both grumpy old coots but still funny and committed to their weirdness in charmingly odd ways. If you don't know their work, I highly recommend their best-of collections, easily found on this site. They both have wonderfully warped senses of humor, and Gahan in particular has a macabre imagination unlike any other artist, which along with his weird whimsy has created thousands of classic panels.
Likewise Sam Gross. The best part of this book for me was the inclusion of a few previously unpublished cartoons by most of the artists. The Gross ones are by far the best, if laughter is a fair barometer of a cartoon's worth. The box office sketch, which the NY would never publish, is so classically Gross I literally had to put the book down while I LMAO (no doubt Sam has a cartoon somewhere of a guy texting that while having a completely flat backside).Read more ›
These are all world class single panel cartoonists/artists, yet the truth is that in every case the art is far more fascinating than the artist. I enjoyed learning about Chast and Koren and the others, and was most amused by the predictable yet welcome irascibility of Gross and Wilson, whose work has been the edgiest in the magazine for roughly a half century in both cases, a startlingly lengthy record (maybe laughter really does keep you young, or at least let you live longer). They are both grumpy old coots but still funny and committed to their weirdness in charmingly odd ways. If you don't know their work, I highly recommend their best-of collections, easily found on this site. They both have wonderfully warped senses of humor, and Gahan in particular has a macabre imagination unlike any other artist, which along with his weird whimsy has created thousands of classic panels.
Likewise Sam Gross. The best part of this book for me was the inclusion of a few previously unpublished cartoons by most of the artists. The Gross ones are by far the best, if laughter is a fair barometer of a cartoon's worth. The box office sketch, which the NY would never publish, is so classically Gross I literally had to put the book down while I LMAO (no doubt Sam has a cartoon somewhere of a guy texting that while having a completely flat backside).Read more ›
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By
Amazon Customer
VINE VOICE on September 1, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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My parents in Colorado and my grandparents in Ohio always subscribed to THE NEW YORKER and read it not just for the cartoons but for the brilliant fiction, the important articles, the insightful reviews and even the sophisticated advertisements. And also of course for the clever, often ironic and sometimes baffling cartoons. This new book I ONLY READ IT FOR THE CARTOONS is not at all a coffee table book of the best cartoons that have appeared in THE NEW YORKER. There are plenty of those volumes available on the New Yorker page of Amazon or from the publication itself. Instead this book is some biographies of twelve contemporary cartoonist whose work appears in the magazine. There are just a few small sketches and black and white photographs of the artists to illustrate the book.
The book starts with a brief foreward by Matt Groening of the animated series THE SIMPSONS fame who is apparently a childhood friend from Portland of author Richard Gerh. Then there is a little introduction which is somewhat informative called "How To Read a NEW YORKER Cartoon". Then on to the twelve chapters about the twelve cartoonists: "The Editor With a Horn: Lee Lorenz", "Sex, Death and Frogs' Legs: Sam Gross", "The Exurban Everyman: Roz Chast", "King of the Scrapyard: George Booth", "The Beastly Beatitudes of Edward Koren", "The Kansas City Curmudgeon: Charles Barsotti, "Hip-Cat Cartoonist: Arnie Levin", "The Coupled Cosmos of Victoria Roberts", "Auteur d'Horreur:Gahan Wilson", "The Belated Middle American: Jack Ziegler", "Neckless: The Short, Sharp World of Zachary Kanin" and "The Doctor of Dots: Robert Mankoff".
The book's rather narrow focus will probably limit its broad appeal but it is a decent rendering for its intended audience.
The book starts with a brief foreward by Matt Groening of the animated series THE SIMPSONS fame who is apparently a childhood friend from Portland of author Richard Gerh. Then there is a little introduction which is somewhat informative called "How To Read a NEW YORKER Cartoon". Then on to the twelve chapters about the twelve cartoonists: "The Editor With a Horn: Lee Lorenz", "Sex, Death and Frogs' Legs: Sam Gross", "The Exurban Everyman: Roz Chast", "King of the Scrapyard: George Booth", "The Beastly Beatitudes of Edward Koren", "The Kansas City Curmudgeon: Charles Barsotti, "Hip-Cat Cartoonist: Arnie Levin", "The Coupled Cosmos of Victoria Roberts", "Auteur d'Horreur:Gahan Wilson", "The Belated Middle American: Jack Ziegler", "Neckless: The Short, Sharp World of Zachary Kanin" and "The Doctor of Dots: Robert Mankoff".
The book's rather narrow focus will probably limit its broad appeal but it is a decent rendering for its intended audience.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By
Shannon On The Lakes
TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on October 1, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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If you are a New Yorker fan, prepare to shriek, squeal, and laugh out loud.
You'll be doing just that at regular intervals as you read Richard Gehr's invitation to peek at the lives and minds of a variety of New Yorker's cartoonists.
C'mon, we all do it...we open The New Yorker and scan the back pages first, where most of the gems are. Then, you put it down for a few seconds and say 'Who THINKS of this stuff?!'
Now, thanks to Mr. Gehr, we KNOW!
If you are a cartoonist or a cartoonist fan, most names will be familiar, as will the references to other iconic cartoonists from Lynda Barry to Robert Crumb.
And sprinkled throughout...side-splitting, offbeat cartoons. Some are published, some unpublished. Some are roughly sketched drafts. A few are naughty.
And we get to see some faces of those twisted minds, and a few will surprise you as they look like normal people.
I absolutely loved reading this book, learning about today's New Yorker cartoonists, and peeking into the creative process in some cases.
Get one for yourself, give another to a fellow New Yorker fan.
I say this because if you loan it out...you'll never get it back.
You'll be doing just that at regular intervals as you read Richard Gehr's invitation to peek at the lives and minds of a variety of New Yorker's cartoonists.
C'mon, we all do it...we open The New Yorker and scan the back pages first, where most of the gems are. Then, you put it down for a few seconds and say 'Who THINKS of this stuff?!'
Now, thanks to Mr. Gehr, we KNOW!
If you are a cartoonist or a cartoonist fan, most names will be familiar, as will the references to other iconic cartoonists from Lynda Barry to Robert Crumb.
And sprinkled throughout...side-splitting, offbeat cartoons. Some are published, some unpublished. Some are roughly sketched drafts. A few are naughty.
And we get to see some faces of those twisted minds, and a few will surprise you as they look like normal people.
I absolutely loved reading this book, learning about today's New Yorker cartoonists, and peeking into the creative process in some cases.
Get one for yourself, give another to a fellow New Yorker fan.
I say this because if you loan it out...you'll never get it back.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By
Michael Callaghan
VINE VOICE on September 24, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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I've previously purchased The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker and The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never Will See, in The New Yorker, as well as being a big gag cartoon fan (as well as a published cartoonist) - so I was very interested in this title.
While it is a collection of biographies, the overarching theme is that there really is no more forum for cartoons, not as it was up until the late nineties. Most artists discuss their beginnings and educations (more often than not in art school), then their start drawing for newspapers and magazines. As has been mentioned, Playboy is mentioned quite a bit, but no mention of Hustler, which seems oddly prurient (after all, these are biographies of cartoonists - I happen to know Gahan Wilson and Sam Gross drew some for that magazine). Regardless, it is sad to think that the art of gag cartooning - heck, cartooning in general - has 'evolved' to where it is virtually impossible to make a living at it, however meager, simply through lack of vehicle. In fact, the feel the book gives is that without The New Yorker, many of these artists would be out of work. Strange, and a bit disheartening.
As well, it is true that interesting art does not always make for an interesting artist, and the stories do tend to become somewhat uninteresting - childhood, school, magazine publishing, New Yorker. That said, it was a good read. I for one am relieved that BEK was not an artist in this book, as his cartoons are painfully unfunny, so a biography of him would be unnecessary.Read more ›
While it is a collection of biographies, the overarching theme is that there really is no more forum for cartoons, not as it was up until the late nineties. Most artists discuss their beginnings and educations (more often than not in art school), then their start drawing for newspapers and magazines. As has been mentioned, Playboy is mentioned quite a bit, but no mention of Hustler, which seems oddly prurient (after all, these are biographies of cartoonists - I happen to know Gahan Wilson and Sam Gross drew some for that magazine). Regardless, it is sad to think that the art of gag cartooning - heck, cartooning in general - has 'evolved' to where it is virtually impossible to make a living at it, however meager, simply through lack of vehicle. In fact, the feel the book gives is that without The New Yorker, many of these artists would be out of work. Strange, and a bit disheartening.
As well, it is true that interesting art does not always make for an interesting artist, and the stories do tend to become somewhat uninteresting - childhood, school, magazine publishing, New Yorker. That said, it was a good read. I for one am relieved that BEK was not an artist in this book, as his cartoons are painfully unfunny, so a biography of him would be unnecessary.Read more ›
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