The New Yorker's "Fist Bump" Issue Signed by Barack Obama

For anyone who has ever wondered whether 2008 Presidential candidate Barack Obama would personally sign a copy of The New Yorker of July 21, 2008, the issue featuring Barry Blitt's notorious "Fist Bump" cover, the answer is yes. The cover depicts Obama wearing Muslim attire while his wife Michelle appears as a radical extremist. The American flag burns in the fireplace. Probably you already know the whole story. If you're coming upon this image with fresh eyes, see if you can divine the liberal magazine's political intentions. I'd happily explain it, but who really needs to have a magazine cover illustration explained?

The signed cover, presumably quite a rarity, was sold on eBay in 2017.

The New Yorker's "Fist Bump" Issue Signed by Barack Obama
eBay listing ended April 21, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Barack-Obama-Signed-with-PSA-match-PROOF-The-New-Yorker-Magazine-Autographed-/332187503645?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

The New Yorker's "Fist Bump" Issue Signed by Barack Obama
eBay Bid History
Just one bid

Note:  Again, I don't feel any personal obligation to defend or explain this cover art. That's New Yorker editor David Remnick's job and before the issue hit the newsstands he offered some preemptive damage control in an interview with the Washington Post. His words were subsequently quoted in the Guardian here. Suffice it to say both the Obama and the McCain campaigns condemned this cover, a rare point of bipartisan agreement.

Here's the cover as most of us have seen it, without Obama's signature:

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/2008-07-21/flipbook/C1/

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Drew Friedman: All the Presidents

A new volume of portraits by illustrator and caricaturist Drew Friedman has just been released. As the book cover indicates, All the Presidents contains thoughtful, telling portraits of each of America's forty-four presidents. (NB: There are forty-five presidencies because Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd and 24th president.)

Drew Friedman
All the Presidents (2019)

http://www.fantagraphics.com/all-the-presidents/

The book's publication is being celebrated tonight in Strand Bookstore's Rare Book Room.  (The entrance is on Broadway at 12th Street.) Mr. Friedman will be there in conversation with comedian Robert Klein. The ticket price includes a copy of the book, and there will be a signing immediately following the conversation.

The book goes by the numbers, beginning with George Washington. It's strange to see a president with no party affiliation. How long do you suppose that would last? The two-party system, remember, is not a part of our written Constitution.

Drew Friedman
1:  George Washington

http://www.fantagraphics.com/all-the-presidents/

It has been extraordinarily rewarding to watch Drew Friedman develop his technique and extend his expressive range in recent years. This new book contains some of his most perceptive character studies, certainly among the best he has ever done. They reveal new insights with repeated viewings.

Drew Friedman
26:  Theodore Roosevelt

http://www.fantagraphics.com/all-the-presidents/

Just to quibble, a word or two might be in order here regarding party designation. Republicans, of course, are members of the Republican Party—no confusion there. Democrats, on the other hand, are members of the Democratic Party, not the "Democrat Party." "Democrat Party," in fact, is meant as a slur and it has been spoken so frequently by Republicans in recent decades that we hardly notice it anymore. So, while Barack Obama is indeed a proud Democrat, his party's proper name is still the Democratic Party.

Drew Friedman
44:  Barack Obama

http://www.fantagraphics.com/all-the-presidents/

The following extraordinary presidential portraits are new to the internet. These higher-resolution images have been graciously provided to Attempted Bloggery by the artist:

Drew Friedman
6:  John Quincy Adams

Image courtesy of the artist

Drew Friedman
16:  Abraham Lincoln

Image courtesy of the artist

Drew Friedman
34:  Dwight Eisenhower

Image courtesy of the artist

Drew Friedman
44:  Barack Obama

Image courtesy of the artist

Drew Friedman's artistic process begins with a detailed preliminary pencil study:

Drew Friedman
Preliminary art
45:  Donald Trump

Image courtesy of the artist

After this he develops the finished portrait: 

Drew Friedman
45:  Donald Trump

Image courtesy of the artist

While Drew Friedman's New Yorker cover makes no secret of his interest in presidential portraiture, it uses a more fanciful approach than we see in the contents of this book.

Drew Friedman
The New Yorker, January 26, 2009

But wait, there's more! All the original artwork from All the Presidents will be exhibited at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at OSU along with over one-hundred of the artist's various presidential images from over the years, including the original Barack Obama inauguration New Yorker cover, above, and presidential ephemera from the artist's personal collection. The show opens on November 2 and will run through February 9, 2020. The official opening reception will be on Saturday the 16th of November when the artist will be giving a talk moderated by caricaturist and illustrator C. F. Payne.

Note:  The October 3rd event at Strand is preserved on YouTube here:

Video added October 18, 2019

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Bob Staake: Stay Up With a Good Book!

Posters supporting books and literacy help to ensure a new generation of readers.Bob Staake's delightful poster for the 2014 National Book Festival urges us to "Stay up with a good book!" The festival was held under the auspices of the Library of Congress. The President and First Lady were honorary chairs. Reasonably-priced copies of the poster are available on eBay.

Bob Staake, Library of Congress, National Book Festival, August 30, 2014

Bob Staake
eBay Listing ended May 25, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/33-1-2-X-19-inches-Library-of-Congress-National-Book-Festival-2014-Bob-Staake-/282447612099?hash=item41c33088c3%3Ag%3Ax4QAAOSwyQtVuuqd&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Bob Staake
eBay Item Description

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The New Yorker and the New President

On Wednesday November 9, the day after Election Day, The New Yorker's editor David Remnick wrote online of Donald Trump's election:

The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-american-tragedy-2

That should give some idea of the challenges that the magazine will face in covering the Trump Presidency. The New Yorker's first post-election cover is by Bob Staake and it will be on newsstands Monday. With disarming simplicity, it seems to suggest something even more ominous than Trump's promise to build a wall on the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants. Presumably it also encapsulates the bleak and claustrophobic mood experienced by much of the magazine's readership as a solid field of red-state bricks obliterate the open blue-state sky:

Bob Staake, The New Yorker, November 21, 2016

Compare this with the shimmering, light-filled, open-air vision of hope depicted by Mr. Staake eight years ago when Barack Obama was elected to the Presidency.

Bob Staake, The New Yorker, November 17, 2008

The cartoons from the November 21 issue have yet to be released and they may not yet reflect the mood swing that accompanied the election outcome among a large part of the electorate. One can't envy the cartoonists their new task. This election has saddened and embittered many of the magazine's readers as they contemplate the many profound and unwanted changes coming to our nation, some of which may persist for decades. The New Yorker's writers will continue as always to chronicle the events that reshape this country for good or ill, but the cartoonists will have to find humor in them. It is impossible to predict what approaches the New Yorker's cartoonists will adopt in the Trump years and beyond, but it is perhaps helpful to ponder a darkly delightful 1982 Reagan-era cartoon by Charles Barsotti. Such subtlety isn't likely to register in the Trump era.

Charles Barsotti, Uninformed
The New Yorker, September 13, 1982, page 38

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1982-09-13#folio=038

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Bob Staake's High School Yearbook

It is not unusual for the artwork of budding illustrators to appear in their high school yearbooks. Bob Staake, to give an example, illustrated the cover of his class yearbook. It is, on the other hand, probably very unusual to find an illustrator voted by his class most likely to succeed, as Mr. Staake was. That he was in the Cartoonists Club is not a surprise; that he was in the Apathy Club—well, that must have been a joke.

A copy of his high school yearbook has been listed on eBay for the past two years. The volume is marketed to take advantage of Mr. Staake's fame as a New Yorker cover illustrator. The title of the listing specifically mentions his "Obama cover." This was the cover published on November 17, 2008 when Barack Obama had won the Presidential election, making history as the first black man to be elected to America's highest office. Mr. Staake chose to illuminate the Lincoln Memorial and, significantly, the O from the magazine's logo.

Bob Staake, "Reflection"
The New Yorker, November 17, 2008

Most likely to succeed indeed!  Here's the eBay listing:

EBay Listing ended June 26, 2013

EBay Item Description

[End of eBay Listing]
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BOB-STAAKE-HIGH-SCHOOL-YEARBOOK-NEW-YORKER-MAGAZINE-OBAMA-COVER-ARTIST-AUTHOR-/400497963358?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d3f89f15e

A YouTube video demonstrates Bob Staake illustrating in PhotoShop:

Bob Staake Illustrates in PhotoShop

Note:  You're in luck! This hard-to-find yearbook is still available on eBay.

I have more blog posts about Bob Staake here, and they are not so hard-to-find.

Paul Giambarba's blog has an excellent post about Bob Staake's New Yorker covers, among other things. Check it out.

Meanwhile Mike Lynch shows us Bob Staake's TV commercial for Intel.

Whatever else you need to know about Bob Staake should be available at bobstaake.com,

Cue up the Elgar, don your cap and gown, and check out my other yearbook posts.

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