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In Absentia? Gay-Themed Cartoons in The New Yorker
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Bob Mankoff, cartoons, gay, Mad, Playboy, Punch, William Haefeli
Pollux writes:
At his blog Streetlaughter, British writer Matthew Davis takes an interesting look at the absence of gay-themed subject matter in The New Yorker’s cartoon section until the early 1990s.
As Davis points out (with visual examples),Bear in mind that “Private Eye” and “Playboy” had been publishing gay cartoons since the beginning of the ’60s, and even “Punch” and “Mad”, with their particular audiences, had followed suit by the end of the ’60s, while “National Lampoon” had started in 1970 and never blanched at any gay gag…. The gay cartoonist William Haefeli, who has since produced a significant percentage of “The New Yorker“‘s gay gags, with a career of twenty years in almost every major magazine, didn’t begin appearing in “The New Yorker” until 1998 with the appointment of a new cartoons editor, Bob Mankoff.He asks an important and relevant question: Why were gay themes seemingly “comedically unprintable” in The New Yorker’s cartoon section until just over fifteen years ago? Unless you know of other examples; if you do, let us know.
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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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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
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- 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)
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