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Funniest Cartoon This Week
Filed under: Pick of the Issue Tagged: cartoons, Drew Dernavich, Ed Koren, Jason Patterson, newyorkette, Peter Mueller, Sam Means
"New Cocktails" by Sam Means, p. 84. The Jason Patterson drawing (p. 80), which is strange and spooky, is also good. (Here are all the current cartoons.)
This post to be expanded as I see fit, with my favorite pieces, etc., from last week and what I'm looking forward to reading first this time around. But I can tell you now that my favorite cartoon from last week was Drew Dernavich's “How were you supposed to know he was the sex critic for the ‘Times’?” I also liked "Mind if I change melons?” (Peter Mueller), “You can’t spend your political life hiding behind being Canadian" (William Haefeli), and “Am I having an affair? Why? Am I allowed?" (Carolita Johnson). Ed Koren, I always like.
By the way, I just opened my email to find that "New Cocktails" is also the magazine's own Cartoon of the Week, which is a coincidence, but also suggests that everyone can see how funny it is.
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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Comments
The deadpan descriptions ("Doorman talking to call girl as he prepares to announce her arrival") are at least as funny as the cartoons themselves.
My favorite piece in The Media Issue is Ben McGrath's "It Should Happen To You." McGrath's writing has quickness, freshness, fizz! It's the only piece in that issue that grabbed me. I was surprised when I turned to the "Contributors" page to find he'd been omitted. What, is McGrath not considered a contributor? Is he being taken for granted? I hope not because right now he's one of the magazine's hottest writers.