Friday, December 25, 2020

Mick Stevens: Caveman Redux

Go through the online archive of any New Yorker cartoonist and you'll very likely be impressed by the myriad inventive scenarios and compositions. The variety is simply stunning. It's a surprisingly rare thing when a cartoon closely resembles an earlier one by the same artist, but it does happen. This week, while reading the Cartoon Issue, I felt a spark of recognition. A caveman gag by Mick Stevens put a nice contemporary spin on an old phrase. But at the same time, it made me wonder somewhat incongruously: had I seen it before?

All dressed up and nowhere to go
Mick Stevens
The New Yorker, December 28, 2020, page 25



Well, of course I had not. But what I had seen five years ago was another caveman cartoon by Mick Stevens, one that was just as at home in pre-pandemic times as this week's cartoon is today. Still, it was close enough that I had to check. Sometimes you just have to see them side by side.

Mick Stevens
The New Yorker, December 21, 2015, page 38






03483

No comments:

Post a Comment