Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
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Happy February 21st! And What's Your Favorite Cartoonist Quirk?
Filed under: Seal Barks Tagged: Barbara Smaller, Carolita Johnson, cartoons, Charles Barsotti, debut issue, Gahan Wilson, Matt Diffee, Michael Maslin, newyorker.com, pigeons, William Hamilton
I shouldn’t have to tell you what day this is, but in case you’re still in the dark, let this lovely reminiscence enlighten you.
Meanwhile, over at the New Yorker cartoon blog, Michael Maslin has been doing a bang-up job as Cartoonist of the Month. All of his posts so far are worth reading (and seeing!); here’s his partial list of favorite things—visual, conceptual, ocular, sartorial, mechanical, typographical, architectural, nasal, and feline—about his comrades’ cartooning. Off the top of my head, I’d add Carolita Johnson’s befuddled boyfriends, Gahan Wilson’s noses (human and otherwise), Charles Barsotti’s beards, Barbara Smaller’s lamps, William Hamilton’s gravity-defying bosoms, and Matt Diffee’s pigeons, among others. How about you?
About us
Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
You'd like to know more about the writers and artists and what our column titles mean? We live to serve!
We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive new contributors. Click here to email us.
We host occasional book giveaways. Publishers, please email us for our postal address.
Tell me more
Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: 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)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
Blogroll highlights
- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
- Songs for blogroll lovers (more links)
- Follow us on Twitter
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- Get a t-shirt at the Emdashes store
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Comments
I’d definitely add Crawford’s bedroom scenes (most featuring men not getting lucky)! He’s putting together a whole book of them!
Jack Ziegler’s things falling, flying through, or appearing in thin air…Sam Gross’s frogs…Victoria Roberts’s couple…Frank Cotham’s living—rooms…and let’s not forget Michael Maslin’s own gentlefolk.
George Booth’s befuddled dogs. Roz Chast’s book titles. Lee Lorenz’s willowy babes, and his pudgy dogs impersonating people.
Carolita’s referring to Michael Crawford, in case you didn’t catch that!
A few more: Leo Cullum’s hairstyles, Mick Stevens’s mini-paintings, Victoria Roberts’s foliage…
The man in Victoria Roberts’ cartoons who is always thinking, but never speaks….
… and I forgot to mention the googly eyes in Michael Maslin’s cartoons …
Got to admit to a hankerin’ for Kim Warp’s fern fingers. What is up with those? So I asked her, and it’s not really a conscious act on her part. I personally have to confess to not to finishing a neck now and then. (In fact, there’s a floating head in one of my early truly loopy efforts.)