Law 'n Order at Last: W. B. Park Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

W. B. Park's art was never featured on the cover of The New Yorker magazine, but that doesn't mean he didn't try to get it there. My guess is that Park's illustration titled Law 'n Order at Last was a proposal for a New Yorker cover. One big clue is the dark green steel girder running down the left-hand border of the artwork, the strap that The New Yorker famously uses on pretty much all its covers since the very first one. The illustration shows a big city that has been transformed into a police state, with apartment buildings that are now cell blocks.

SWAT teams, FBI agents, the bomb squad, and police are all out in force. The uppermost road sign says No Left Turn. Get it?

W. B. Park's signature and handwritten title

That Cell Block awning address reads suspiciously like a date:  November 30, 2007.

Impassive faces may be seen behind the window bars. Park meant to convey something serious.

Verso

W. B. Park
eBay listing ended April 30, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204871104589?_skw=%22W.+B.+Park%22&itmmeta=01K0ZSKEHQ7DCGV58XAV93GNDW&hash=item2fb344f84d:g:Py4AAOSwstZmh24h&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cbv3d1QpCBg9aXZ%2BilIIv7uimYuNKYTP6LBvNgUcUpfmPwDWDdSxBXyR%2FLLkWQFe9

hkKdj0356zTJmbEgLSaY1liAsZhqa5pLXcOuRZkpYPQUz%2BWYdLo%2BVU%2FF8BYoq4YAoVLqeBq4FUXbXyq9D408IRbxIUvZtZtJNATNVxtj5F6WYzchRdqy2SqBn4hMdkX2OyAGTZReEXmlRlFG3t1CM7Tgpvf5C9oSbHWuT6iu93dC%2FzlhHHet7K2ALPc0XS30%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_rozfmHZg

W. B. Park
eBay eBay item description

Note:  I do love to speculate, but I would never claim to know it all. If this artwork by W. B. Park was indeed published, I wish to hear form readers who can identify the where and when, or else the means, motive, and opportunity.

05012

W. B. Park: Delay of Game

There's not a lot of action to be seen on the baseball diamond in an original illustration by W. B. Park. The several spider webs are apparently a commentary on the slow pace of some baseball games. Park died in 2021, but this watercolor may have appeared decades before the advent of the pitch clock.

W. B. Park's signature

W. B. Park
eBay listing ended April 30, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204871090360?_skw=%22W.+B.+Park%22&itmmeta=01K0X707V7BY38PS5KGPD4MX0R&hash=item2fb344c0b8:g:QEoAAOSwgBBmh2mh&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1ffhgd%2BZSzgKguu3JcQlui72P9oJl4diQjwdf4RRszns3U7dbl7PS3QN8mC73PzxP4WQYpN5KdnbIhaRx%2Bp6Goid5AP2ibsdtWYr2ZL%2FXJk0cpk7Z4ChCcucZgwl6Tm0rwr0eoVNkUlGyUcPZrfK3iM9vMe9xU%2FhPMia0shOlvydMdckMd2J39BX4oReIsB7xJibIw7HkWSmjbQMSy7zlXL7QHkzZThgVoeUX42sceZAhjXl9dXCeMjmW8ONiQjxcQ%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9j9gKeHZg

W. B. Park
eBay item description 

Note:  If you should know where and when this was published, please come forward—and don't balk.

05011

W. B. Park: Outside the Movie House

A 1994 New Yorker cartoon by W. B. Park takes us out to the cinema—if there's any doubt, its name is The Cinema. But more important is what's currently showing at the movie house and who's going to see it. Park's original art was sold on eBay in February.

Health Plan:  The Movie
W. B. Park
Original art
The New Yorker, February 21, 1994, p. 114

The drawing needs no caption. At first it looks as if the movie marquee is the joke. Then we see the people standing in the ticket line, and one in particular. This serves as a one-two punch: setup and payoff.

Detail of moviegoers

Detail of motor vehicles with W. B. Park's signature

Wrapper

Verso

p h W. B. Park eBay listing ended February 15, 2025 https://www.ebay.com/itm/196479711123?_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01JSNF235573MCRCFXAEN63A24&hash=item2dbf1a7793:g:G2cAAOSwG6lmhI0F&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1dJTtWTViH0iqUnN%2Bq5c86pQLz7weYx5VaXbtlSi5L0WDc5wUoxrihJnRWVkNbbSZJfEslDPEe7EdhsB5DbYnzPVTfkdARSvmH1JLDmAbN8xp4YfqeRV%2FFHq4uwEMbOtBzc QEBQs0%2Ff0VRyKP5gRe92jFKX9NEtuw2a3Dwa2YwsNX1E40mtZqpgSdhGOvdeMCLtbftNqYXuIruS%2FpA4AYBR4xaCfCdCBR%2BXLMAS0%2B5GdQI%2BBI4EyzmXOKC6QWmKm9Vm2bY639Spg%2BpTV1wJbW3MqPl0qwUO8jtrKaNSbI35HQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR96yiK_NZQ

W. B. Park
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

Here it is in the magazine:

Health Plan:  The Movie
W. B. Park
The New Yorker, February 21, 1994, p. 114

Health Plan:  The Movie W. B. Park Original art The New Yorker, February 21, 1994, p. 114

With a cartoon by W. B. Park and an illustration by Jonathan Rosen https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1994-02-21/flipbook/114/

* * * 

And, for those who may not be interested in health plans, let me just go off on a visual tangent from book review on the facing page: 

Louis Althusser
Jonathan Rosen
The New Yorker, February 21, 1994, p. 115

04946