Sean's Copy of The New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons

I don't know who Sean may be, but his copy of The New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons (1998) was quite special. It was sold on eBay on September 11. The dust jacket art is by Michael Witte.

The unique feature of the book is the front free endpaper, which has drawings by five New Yorker cartoonists: Arnie Levin, Mick Stevens, Peter Steiner, Roz Chast, and Bob Mankoff. The cartoon census is one dog, one snake, one cat, and two human males. Through Stevens's signature, we learn that this assemblage dates to 1999, the year after publication.

Title page

Facing cartoons by Danny Shanahan and James Stevenson

Cartoons by Tom Cheney and Donald Reilly

Cartoons by Jack Ziegler and, again, Stevenson

A cartoon by Bernard Schoenbaum and the roster of cartoonists in the book

Back cover cartoon by Lee Lorenz

The New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons
eBay listing ended September 11, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/187559204260?_skw=signed+Yorker&epid=512875&itmmeta=01K5QGH0KS6DRRVXFTWR0EVASE&hash=item2bab6655a4:g:Uj8AAeSwlp1owhXH&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1e0PK9611tjD3x4MYjI0UTSilszT%2BAjheAETZrqA%2BeDAChD4%2FT8ebUMX9wyG4MjDVdGz%2F9u5aSmrgQHn4x%

2FvWoveYnH88BkXfKkbxK5zPDRcoo4VKcQ%2BsNjvVPe5%2BqY0QjPF80xGjBL7hFLoNVd8LEdMpM5NU1iJR7oR4A54NRjgjcjY9JO0tqgMfWR%2FE%2FyCMzLf939jKTQ2vqx3aus%2FC4VW8DFyWkuiJ69jhLyGcV6hsXw4JpWKDhdRF4H1GAymFkp%2Bp4IpH1G%2BAxlBQXNJMqkCu47j6wTvL9BCj%2FQzlwBzQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4KKxPCtZg

The New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons
eBay item description

Note:  I'm just a simple blogger who would like to post other endpaper drawings by other New Yorker cartoonists in other New Yorker books of this ilk. See what you can do.

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Jack Ziegler: In Praise of Mom

Tuesday's Illustration Art auction at Swann Galleries in New York had a generous selection of New Yorker art, including a few pieces by Jack Ziegler. His original cartoon from 1993 is as zany a tribute to motherhood as one could imagine.

"Yessirree, kids, your mother is one heck of a gal!"
Jack Ziegler
Original art
The New Yorker, March 8, 1993, p. 85

The drawing, of course, is exaggerated, the caption somehow understated—a potent combination.

Jack Ziegler
Swann Galleries Illustration Art sale of June 17, 2025

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/(NEW-YORKER)-JACK-ZIEGLER-(1942---2017)-Yessirree-kids-your-?saleno=2709&lotNo=173&refNo=830507

Here we see it in the pages of The New Yorker:

"Yessirree, kids, your mother is one heck of a gal!"
Jack Ziegler
The New Yorker, March 8, 1993, p. 85

"Yessirree, kids, your mother is one heck of a gal!"
Jack Ziegler
Original art
The New Yorker, March 8, 1993, p. 85

With cartoons by Dana Fradon and Jack Ziegler

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1993-03-08/flipbook/084/

* * *

Dana Fradon's cartoon uses heavier shading and rougher lines than Ziegler's. I'm convinced that the magazine in those days was very deliberately laid out so that the cartoons on facing pages weren't too similar graphically.

"Good news! We've been selected as a potential
burial site for nuclear waste."
Dana Fradon
The New Yorker, March 8, 1993, p. 84

Note:  Readers are welcome to share images of original Jack Ziegler art on this blog. Yessirree!

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Last Night's Swann Salon

Last night I ventured downtown to attend a Swann Salon at the auction house of that name.

There was a short preview of the forthcoming "Women Laughing" film documentary which happily exceeded my expectations. In addition, the gallery was set up for today's sale of Illustration Art: Featuring the Collection of Lee Lorenz. I thought I'd share photographs of a small selection of the art before its dispersal:

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A Collaboration at "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration"

One unusual piece on view at the Society of Illustrators on the East Side is a sequential drawing with contributions by four New Yorker artists: Mick Stevens, Roz Chast, Liza Donnelly, and Jack Ziegler—in that order. It was drawn over a lunch in the 1980s after the cartoonists dropped off their work with the cartoon editor and, of course, it did not appear in the magazine. The collaboration is in the form of a comic strip and is included in the show "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration," on view at the Society only through Saturday.

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W. B. Park: Double Courage

"Courage is grace under pressure."

—Ernest Hemingway

Original artwork by W. B. Park from 1984 portrays two men in business attire walking down a city street. One man name checks Ernest Hemingway. The art changed hands on eBay this past September. It bears the stamp and ID of an original New Yorker finished cartoon, brown paper wrapper and all, yet it did not appear in the magazine in this form, nor was it killed. Rather, it was redrawn prior to publication three years later, making this a very unusual example of preliminary art for the magazine that first had been purchased and prepared as finished art intended for publication.

"Like Hemingway, I believe in grace under pressure—unless, of course, things get too hot."
W. B. Park
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, March 23, 1987, p. 32

Detail, left

Detail, right, with W. B. Park's signature

The New Yorker Editorial Department stamp and layout notations

New Yorker copyright label

W. B. Park
eBay listing ended September 21, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204866893916?_skw=Rare+Original+The+New+Yorker+Illustration+Drawing+Published%2C+signed+%26+Fine&itmmeta=01JFEAMZEVRYHDT5AWD6341NHM&hash=item2fb304b85c:g:SsIAAOSw6qpmhJBa&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAABEHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkVj23opHgwpQNXK7V4oIX8zWvWemmzUa3F8V%2BSiRqJwrwxRqrnz%2BcyVl8ZvfF8j0YZulj1N9vJZNSt

A0EQLzY01pMr7E0TJCuFRyBPHLsRKLKKjiFZyHhJb9zxk8CL4cd%2B12SLaAWrOWZt0aAAUiV%2F5q7ijpAcS4ibH6Cazq4HFBamuDQk5rEllN8M2ymXyXDeOP9K5HFE8uOuzDDgTabdNk%2FFLuhjmenTMpBdl0xVn4sNoo6jQXoVe12zpUeTGmxh9%2FLFv0PO2Q74zACk5RR8rfvH76tZZJ1F%2B66ZHgUnu1BIfbIHUDk8bYgsoaubVMm096kIShLJT4DBF9DSoEbf%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8D308r7ZA

W. B. Park
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

The problem with the image, evidently, was one of scale. Someone decided that Park's original drawing would be better rendered in a close up, with greater emphasis on the figures rather than on the street.

"Like Hemingway, I believe in grace under pressure—unless, of course, things get too hot."
W. B. Park
The New Yorker, March 23, 1987, p. 32

"Like Hemingway, I believe in grace under pressure—unless, of course, things get too hot."
W. B. Park
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, March 23, 1987, p. 32

With cartoons by W. B. Park and Jack Ziegler

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1987-03-23/flipbook/032/

And opposite the Park drawing, there's a gold record winner from Jack Ziegler:

"Cyndi Lauper on four, sir, with a bullet."
Jack Ziegler
The New Yorker, March 23, 1987, p. 33

Note:  I am not aware of any other New Yorker cartoon which was prepared in two distinct, supposedly finished, versions. I would like to hear about any similar examples.

My thanks to Michael Maslin for walking me through all this and for explaining the Jack Ziegler cartoon which, honestly, I didn't get.

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