My "Women Laughing" Postproduction Kickstarter Reward

On June 16, I was truly enthralled by a short preview of the documentary film "Women Laughing." This was shown at a Swann Salon, an event the night before the most recent Illustration Art auction at Swann Galleries. The film's subjects are the women cartoonists of The New Yorker. The short film was then a work in progress by a talented team led by cartoonist and author Liza Donnelly. 

The following month I made a pledge of $200 towards the film's postproduction Kickstarter campaign (plus $5 to ship the reward I readily accepted in exchange). My feelings toward crowdfunding have softened over the years. It has now become clear to me that many worthy projects could never see the light of day without it.

"Women Laughing" Postproduction
Kickstarter Campaign accessed July 19, 2025

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/womenlaughingfilm/women-laughing-post-production?ref=recommendation-ended-project-1&category_id=Q2F0ZWdvcnktMzA=

No one who reads this blog regularly will be surprised by the wonderful reward I chose for myself. Only fifteen of these signed books were available and they were grabbed up quickly.

Now the film has been completed. And here is my beautiful, new copy, decorated on the half-title with a drawing from each signer. They are (clockwise from the center) Liza Donnelly, Liana Finck, Roz Chast, Amy Hwang, Emily Flake, and The New Yorker's cartoon editor Emma Allen.

Finally, good mothers always say to send thank you notes.

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My Copy of Very Funny Ladies by Liza Donnelly

Freshly arrived his week from Oblong Books of Rhinebeck is a signed and personalized copy of Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Women Cartoonists. This book is Liza Donnelly's brand new update of Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons (2005). The half title page is embellished with a festive drawing. 

Note:  Copies of Very Funny Ladies signed by Liza Donnelly remain available from Oblong Books here.

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Liza Donnelly: Funny Ladies and Very Funny Ladies

A year ago I wondered to myself whether I could resist buying a signed copy of Liza Donnelly's Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons (2005)? Certainly not, and I already owned one.

But it is now time for that classic history to cede its authority to Ms. Donnelly's new and updated Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Women Cartoonists. The book is being launched tonight at 7 p.m. EST via Zoom. You can still register for the free event here and order a signed copy from Oblong Books here. I'm not hesitating, so why should you?

So, that taken care of, you may now get back to the original book and ask me, how does one come to buy a second signed copy of Funny Ladies? Well, just take a look at what arrives via email soon after one happens to glance innocently at a copy on eBay:

So then, one thinks, $27.95 is still a lot for a second copy of this book which is, after all, about to be updated. So one makes a shrewd if impractical counteroffer of $25 which the less shrewd but more practical seller accepts. So then one is all set for life with two signed copies until a year later when the updated edition, now called Very Funny Ladies, comes out, leading one to conclude that ordering a new signed copy wouldn't really count as a third one because now it's a different book. Got it?

Here then is the rest of the 2005 edition as listed on eBay in 2021:

Liza Donnelly
eBay listing accessed March 21, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284218009085?ul_noapp=true

Liza Donnelly
eBay item description

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Charles Barsotti: New Yorker Cartoon Pajamas from Sleepy Jones

For those still looking for just the right Father's Day gift, Sleepy Jones offers men's pajamas decorated with twelve classic New Yorker dog cartoons by Charles Barsotti (1933-2014). The pajamas are also available in women's style, so everyone can enjoy a good night's reading. It's called the Doggone Henry pajama set and retails for $198.

https://sleepyjones.com/collections/men/products/henry-pajama-set-barsotti-poplin-blue

Note:  Thanks to Tom Bloom for bringing these PJs to my attention. For bookkeeping purposes, we'll call this Tom's eighteenth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.

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New Yorker N-Grams

The Google Books Ngram Viewer allows for the quantitative display of specific names and phrases that have appeared in print and been scanned by Google Books in publications from prior to 2008. Now that Bob Mankoff has retired as cartoon editor at the New Yorker and Emma Allen has taken over, let's take a look at some n-grams reflecting the magazine's rich history, starting with those people like Mr. Mankoff and Ms. Allen who headed up the cartoon department.

The New Yorker's Art Editors and Cartoon Editors

Rea Irvin, who dominates this n-gram, came of age in the golden era of print. His overall book citations outweigh the later art editors. Note that James Geraghty and Françoise Mouly were never published artists and therefore may have fewer appearances in print than the others. Indeed, Mr. Geraghty published little if anything under his own name. (Emma Allen came on the scene too recently to appear in the n-gram, which only goes up to 2008.)

Next, let's look at the magazine's editors:

The New Yorker's Editors
Harold Ross, 1925-1951
William Shawn, 1952-1987
Robert Gottlieb, 1987-1992
Tina Brown, 1992-1998
David Remnick, 1998-

Founding editor Harold Ross's appearances in print were numerous and continued well after his death in 1951. Note that his successor William Shawn was the most publicity-averse of the magazine's editors.

 Up next are seven major cartoonists:

Seven Major Cartoonists:  Charles Addams, Peter Arno, Rea Irvin, Otto Soglow, William Steig, Saul Steinberg, and Gluyas Williams
Saul Steinberg's impressive numbers may reflect his acceptance by the fine arts community. (It seems doubtful that his results have been skewed by the financier Saul Steinberg.)

And what if we were to add one more major cartoonist?

Adding James Thurber as an eighth major cartoonist transforms the scale of the graph, apparently because of his outsized literary output.

On the other hand, there are no problems of scale when James Thurber is compared with his one-time New Yorker office-mate E. B. White. In 1929, the two co-authored Is Sex Necessary? (If you don't know the answer, you'll have to read the book.)

Coauthors of Is Sex Necessary?, 1929
Cartoonist and humorist James Thurber and essayist E. B. White are lock-step in their trajectories.

Now let's have some fun with this tool:

Five New Yorker Writers Named John

Father and son:

Editor William Shawn and his son, writer and actor Wallace Shawn

A married couple:

Husband and wife cartoonists Alan Dunn and Mary Petty peak in different decades.

Film critic Pauline Kael and staff writer Renata Adler, who famously criticized Kael in the New York Review of Books:

Film critic Pauline Kael and Pauline Kael critic Renata Adler

Authors who wrote about "The Last Days of The New Yorker."

The Pessimists
Gigi Mahon, author of The Last Days of The New Yorker, 1988
Renata Adler, author of Gone:  The Last Days of The New Yorker, 1999

Authors who brought alarming threats to public attention:

The Alarmists
John Hersey, author of Hiroshima, 1946
Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, 1962
Jonathan Schell, author of The Fate of the Earth, 1982

Four European favorite artists:

Four Major Postwar European Illustrators

Bob Mankoff's old home and his new home:

Cartoon editor Bob Mankoff's old and new homes in the magazine world

Note:  Go ahead. Make your own Google Ngrams here. Why should I have all the fun?


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Harold Ross

Rea Irvin

James Geraghty

Lee Lorenz

Françoise Mouly

Bob Mankoff

Emma Allen

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's Innumerate Index

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Modern Cartoonists Fight to Keep Pace with Changing Times, 1972

"Now [James Geraghty's] talking about retiring, but is holding off because nobody has been found to replace him."

The Washington Post news service

The Geneva Times, August 2, 1972

It was the end of an era. Of the many magazines which once published cartoons, the market by 1972 had shrunk somehow to the point of having only one major player: The New Yorker. The cartoon editor, James Geraghty, who had been hired in 1938, was getting set to retire. By 1973, Lee Lorenz would be named his successor. This was the big story in magazine cartooning forty-five years ago, and it sounds an awful lot like the story today. Once again it feels like the end of an era. As a publisher of single-panel cartoons, the New Yorker is even more isolated among magazines than it was in 1972. This time around, it is Bob Mankoff, Lorenz's successor, who is retiring as cartoon editor. Emma Allen is setting out to steward the next phase of this singular art form we call the New Yorker cartoon.

"Modern Cartoonists Fight to Keep Pace with Changing Times," The Washington Post news service
The Geneva Times, August 2, 1972, page 32

Scan courtesy of Michael Maslin

Note:  Thanks to Michael Maslin for providing this hard-to-find article. His blog Ink Spill reports on the world of New Yorker cartoonists.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

James Geraghty

Lee Lorenz

Bob Mankoff

Emma Allen

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's Retiring Index

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The New Yorker and Bob Mankoff Rethink Cartoons, 1997

Twenty years ago, Bob Mankoff was named cartoon editor of the New Yorker. The New York Times business section covered it as "Tradition on Trial As New Yorker Rethinks Cartoons." This week, Mr. Mankoff retires as cartoon editor of the venerable magazine. In hindsight, the problems cited in the Times article about the business of cartooning at the New Yorker and elsewhere seem more entrenched than ever.

"Tradition on Trial As New Yorker Rethinks Cartoons," Constance L. Hays, The New York Times, June 9, 1997

Cartoons by William Steig, Charles Addams, Lee Lorenz, and Bob Mankoff
"Tradition on Trial As New Yorker Rethinks Cartoons," Constance L. Hays, The New York Times, June 9, 1997

In the first column, Ms. Hays cites a Jack Ziegler cartoon from the June 9, 1997 issue as one "so dependent on the moment that [it] may not last." It's twenty years later now. Has it really aged that badly?

Jack Ziegler, The New Yorker, June 9, 1997, page 71

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1997-06-09#folio=070

In the final column of the piece, semiotics professor Marshall Blonsky singles out another cartoon from the issue which "particularly disturbed him." He says, "...it's got the wrong caption. No one wants to make pie crust any longer." You can decide for yourself whether Michael Maslin's cartoon has held up better than Marshall Blonsky's criticism of it:

"If I told you the secret of making light, flaky piecrust, it
wouldn't be much of a secret anymore, now would it?"
Michael Maslin, The New Yorker, June 9, 1997, page 50

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1997-06-09#folio=050

Note:  As of next week, Emma Allen will be the New Yorker's new cartoon editor. For handy reference, here is the magazine's roster of art editors and cartoon editors. From Mr. Geraghty's time to 1993, the art editor was responsible for covers and cartoons. Since 1993, the art editor has been responsible only for covers and the cartoon editor has been responsible only for cartoons.

Rea Irvin, art supervisor, 1925-1939; art director, 1939-1951

James Geraghty, art editor, 1939-1972

Lee Lorenz, art editor, 1973-1993; cartoon editor, 1993-1997

Françoise Mouly, art editor, 1993-

Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor, 1997-2017

Emma Allen, cartoon editor, 2017-


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Bob Mankoff

Tina Brown

The New Yorker

The New York Times

Charles Addams

Edward Koren

Peter Kuper

Lee Lorenz

Michael Maslin

William Steig

Jack Ziegler

Barbara Nicholls

Attempted Bloggery's Iconoclastic Index

Care for some pie?

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