Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker

Long before I ever picked up a copy of "The New Yorker," I knew about the fact that it was a treasure trove of cartoons. My father had a hardcover collection of choice cartoons culled from the first four decades of the magazine's history and that was where I met the original Addams family drawn by "Chas. Addams," the twisted looks at the world of by William Steig, Peter Arno, Robert J. Day, Mischa Richter, and others whose names I would not learn until years later even though I could instantly recognize their artistic styles. Weaned on such wonders it is not surprisingly that when I pick up a copy of "The New Yorker" I instantly flip through the magazine to look at each and every cartoon before going to look at what is happening in New York City in terms of shows and other entertainment that we can only dream about up here in the Zenith City. "The Complete Cartoons of 'The New Yorker'" is edited by the magazine's cartoon editor Robert Mankoff, so blame him for any and all errors regarding the selection of the 2,004 (ha ha) cartoons selected, and with a Foreword by editor-in-chief David Remnick. There are also essays on the life and times (and humor) of each decade from the 1920's of James Thurber to the 2000's of Matthew Differ, written by the sort of eminent scribes you except to find in "The New Yorker," to wit: Roger Angell, Nancy Franklin, Lillian Ross, John Updike, Ian Frazier, Calvin Trillin, Mark Singer, and Rebecca Mead. But save those for after you have looked over the cartoons for each chapter, because then what they are talkinga bout will make more sense; then you can go back and look at the cartoons again to appreciate additional nuances. There is a lot of overlap between decades with these cartoonists because most of them stick around for decades, and why not? Is there a better gig for witty cartoons that "The New Yorker"? I suppose if there is such a thing as cultured (nee elitist) cartoons, this would be the place to find them, but this has certainly been a rich vein of humor for these talented artists to mine all these years. As you flip through this book you will find new favorites for each nine decades represents: Carl Rose and Gluyas Williams in the 1920s; Goerge Price and Alair in the 1930s; Garrett Price, Helen E. Hokinson, and Chon Day in the 1940s; Sydney Hoff and Robert J. Day in the 1950s; Saul Steinberg and William O'Brian in the 1960s; Joseph Mirachi, Henry Martin, Donald Reilly, and George Booth in the 1970s; Tom Cheney, Arnie Lewis, Edward Franscino in the 1980s; Robert Manhoff, Peter Steiner and Roz Chaast in the 1990s; and David Sipress, Alex Gregory, and Mick Stevens in what has passed for the 2000's to date. The book includes two CDs have all 68,647 cartoons ever published in "The New Yorker" (okay, published in "The New Yorker" up to that moment in the history of the universe, because already this thing is outdated). The CDs are browsable by date, subject, and cartoonist and while the resolution is not the greatest in the world, I was not that unhappy with it (but I am too lazy to change my out of date perscription for my eye glasses, so take that with a grain of salt). Anyhow, if you are in the Halloween spirit you can check out those cartoons this week or just go straight to the Addams collection like most people will do. The hard part is not to just sit in front of your computer and spend a hour or two short of 12 days to look at all of these cartoons (averaging one every 15 seconds), but you have to learn to ration these little treasures out. Besides, I am still trying to find my favorite one: a group of professors stand in front of a blackboard totally filled with the most complex formula in the history of the world and one of them finds where they went wrong: making a simple error in multiplication. Back to the hunt!

a fun page-turner

A book with 6 decades worth of wry New Yorker cartoons needs a strong coffee table and a big lap. Flipping through the book gives you a wonderful look at the flow of current affairs, both social and political. Along the way the editors give us a narrative that's a good course in the history of American humor in the 20th century. The real bonus, though, is not the book, which despite its being massive is not "Complete." It has maybe 20% of the 60,000-plus cartoon promised on the cover. The complete set you want is on 2 CDs included in the book, and the CDs are searchable by topic, etc. So if you want a cartoon on consultants (and I'm a consultant), here's one: Two detectives stand over the prone lower half of a murder victim. "By the number an violence of the stab wounds," says one, "I'd guess he was a consultant." Buy the book so you can open it at any point and smile or laugh out loud; use the CDs to browse the whiole New Yorker cartoon universe and/or find the smiles and laughs you want.

This is a thick folio size volume which is heavy enough to damage a toddler who pulled it off a coffee table and had it fall on him. You could easily get nerve damage trying to hold it or might crush your fun parts having propped it in your lap to leaf your way through. Once placed with health and reason in mind, the pleasure of having at this gigantic brick sets off a voracious desire to not stop reading it--even at the cost of soiling yourself. Reading a half year's worth of cartoons per day worked for me, in terms ranging from hygiene to doing anything else that day. Obviously, it is delightful reading because New Yorker cartoons managed to be eternal, universal, and topical from the beginning. This is a book that would make the ten best list for desert island reading--a work read on that island with one palm tree and where you wear tattered white clothing as an incoming tide carries in its flotsam your ship's name plate "Irony."

The hardbound edition comes with 2 CD's, each containing all the cartoons published in 40-year periods (1925-1964 and 1965-2004). It would have been a good idea to separate the book into two corresponding volumes since the (almost) 10-pound book is cumbersome, to say the least. The New Yorker magazine itself has become an insufferable repository of Upper East Side collectivist smugness. Fortunately, the cartoons are still great and in fact, are virtually the only thing that make the magazine worth perusing (but not buying).

This book is incredibly well done. The quality of the cartoons is stellar. And the quality of the hard cover book, the thickness of the paper, and the heft are all first-rate. The two CDs are wonderful. They span from 1925 to 2004 and can open as PDFs with Adobe Reader, which provides a terrific viewing experience. It's really interesting from an historical and sociological perspective to view the cartoons from 1925 and see how humanity and humor have changed and stayed the same. But the best part of this book is knowing that a good laugh is not far from reach. And after watching the HBO documentary, Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists, it's great to come back to this book and appreciate The New Yorker all over again.

What a fabulous book!! It came in excellent condition and we directly dived into it. We love it!

Our 12 year granddaughter LOVED it!

No tiene desperdicio, es una gran edición, muy bien editada e impresa. Vale mucho la pena. Y por el precio, da mucho. Gran pieza para coleccionistas, caricaturistas, estudiosos del humor y gente que quiere divertirse

Libro in buono stato. Arrivato in anticipo

Un recueil indispensable et intégral des dessins d'un des meilleurs magazines au monde. Grand moment d'humour plein d'esprit et d'originalité.

Rund 80 Jahre Zeitgeschichte spiegeln sich in diesem Koloss von einem Buch. Der „New Yorker“ sollte, so sein Gründer Harold Ross, in Wort und Bild das Leben in der Großstadt reflektieren. Maßgeblichen Anteil am Ruf des Magazins trugen auch die Cartoons bei. Und die Liste der dabei vertretenen Künstlerinnen und Künstler liest sich wie ein „Who is Who“ der satirischen Kunst. 68.647 Cartoons versammelt dieser Band, aufgeteilt in acht Kapitel. Jedes der Kapitel präsentiert eine Zeitspanne von zehn Jahren, in denen die Cartoonisten die aktuellen Themen aus Alltag und Gesellschaft in ihrem jeweils ganz individuellen Stil aufgriffen – heiter, satirisch, kritisch, bissig. Dazu gibt es noch zwei CDs. Sie ermöglichen einen schnellen Zugriff nach bestimmten Suchkategorien, beispielsweise Cartoons zu bestimmten Themen. Ein insgesamt tolles Werk!

This is a massive pile of dead tree, not something you'll get through in just a few sittings (or weeks). Funny stuff, and great to see the sense of humor from the distant past. The included DVD does, indeed, contain every single cartoon they've ever published, and is great to have. Also, buying through Amazon, you get this huge, heavy thing sent to you by express mail from halfway around the world for less than you'd expect to pay for regular domestic shipping.