Keith's Copy of Inked by Joe Dator

Inked: Cartoons, Confessions, Rejected Ideas and Secret Sketches from The New Yorker's Joe Dator (2021) is by none other than . . . The New Yorker's Joe Dator. Keith's copy was inscribed by Joe in 2023 with an original sketch of the character Walter. This year marks Joe's twentieth at The New Yorker, and we're all the better off for it.

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Joe Dator: The Centaur Scale

New Yorker cartoonist Joe Dator, operating under the eBay handle joedatornewyorker, has been listing some of his wonderful, original art on the website for several months now. Here is The Centaur Scale as imaged and described by the cartoonist. It was sold on July 27 for an undisclosed best offer.

Joe Dator's signature

Verso

Joe Dator
eBay listing ended July 27, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286679326665?_skw=JOE+DATOR&itmmeta=01K7JG1RWZH9CEFNNKY0BP3HK6&hash=item42bf6b5fc9:g:Jh4AAeSwD1FoYJa3&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA4FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eNrSZECmmQgW5G6FX6wlw9XJayJOnvdy%2Bsd0XiOr7cDtDIErvYZ%2FwrPanjcFUK9Ut6LnR6kMFzW4GK6EStJhs379QAhEeA4SdJgOpgmTVv%2F7Z91thmUmS%2F5Ck56%2FIR%2F41YfRgghW9p1yQXtqtoGI6mvDg%2FMNJ%2BOjLbOB10s9u2K1sE0m0tivCPr9Hwc10GLjvhzCuwgtNItXidNXti6YoKF2%2B4DWeaEcHyb9PzlYETHCHIHFbi2x1FEn99%2FnNeXfvgUJ0Nj0mb2TwOu6XtwNQZ%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8yOh9C8Zg

Joe Dator
eBay item description

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #956

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #956 from the issue of August 18, 2025, a man sitting on an ostrich addresses another man on the sidewalk. My entry appears below. The drawing is by Joe Dator.

"Am I fifteen feet from the hydrant?"

These captions didn't sit well:

"Ask if she'll split a fare."
"She's really a Tesla."
"I'll bet you could use some insurance."

August 25, 2025 Update:  The Finalists

September 13, 2025 Update:  I voted for the caption from Los Angeles.

September 15, 2025 Update:  The Winner

 

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Joe Dator: The Architect's Presentation

One week ago, an original cartoon by Joe Dator was purchased on eBay. The seller was the artist.

"It's my most personal building yet."
Joe Dator
Original art
The New Yorker, May 14, 2018, p. 73

Detail

Detail

Joe Dator's signature

Verso

"It's my most personal building yet."
Joe Dator
The New Yorker, May 14, 2018, p. 73

With a cartoon by Joe Dator

Joe Dator
eBay listing ended July 26, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286691338491?_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01K1M4DD9EA06B9HTDQN6MGVQ9&hash=item42c022a8fb:g:5H4AAeSwFm9oad-r&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cn4Y1Qa7dLe3pri%2Bh7ViT0IqFhAryRTjC8oog6jo8gOBTCA28NTafP3Q8e5aUSwW0pMeUM7RO%2B3YZo1V2XtjrGZmI9FlU1iZFpLCX4MvI84A6bxIwv1sD33xABSgArmh0pC9UcN5z7g9EFv1txskQXk%2FQja5CmyUr7vv%2FatwGEK%2B%2B4ZRQOPRTU6PLsITk40lVAcxO1V%2FEJ6mPkupFisFCtJ3S86Mw2huOjIhlG0QQ73gMeQ5xcTjf1tWpFgaPD038%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-7UtYSNZg

Joe Dator
eBay item description

Note:  You too can collect original cartoons. Right now there's a treasure trove of original Joe Dator art for sale on eBay here.

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Joe Dator: Good News

Recently, New Yorker cartoonist Joe Dator listed a number of his original drawings on the Big Cartel website. One of these was published in April of 2020, the month after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization. It draws an interesting parallel with a plague four centuries earlier.

"Good news—Shakespeare is using this time to write 'King Lear,'
so we'll have more stuff to binge soon."
Joe Dator
Original art
The New Yorker, April 27, 2020, p. 17

Following its style guide, the magazine added quotation marks in the caption around the title of the play.

Joe Dator
Big Cartel listing accessed June 29, 2025

https://joedator.bigcartel.com/product/original-new-yorker-cartoon-good-news

This drawing, like all of Dator's Big Cartel drawings, was also listed on eBay, where we now see that it has been sold.

Note:  Did Shakespeare really write "King Lear" while London was in lockdown from the bubonic plague? Could be. The Guardian covered the topic here the month before Joe Dator's cartoon appeared in The New Yorker.

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My Copy of At Wit's End: Cartoonists of The New Yorker by Alen MacWeeney and Michael Maslin

On November 21 at the Rizzoli Bookstore on Broadway, At Wit's End: Cartoonists of The New Yorker received its official launch. The book includes Alen MacWeeney's striking photographs of more than fifty New Yorker cartoonists past and present with accompanying profiles by Michael Maslin and a select sampling of cartoons. This is the first book celebrating the centennial of cartoonists at The New Yorker. One hopes there will be more. 

Seen on the panel at the event, left to right, are moderator Charles Traub, MacWeeney, and Maslin. Justin Sheen's photograph from the book is up on the screen behind them.

The half title page of my copy is signed by the two principals, Maslin and MacWeeney.

Many New Yorker cartoonists included in the book were present at the event. Should I have asked those cartoonists to add their signatures to that half title page? Maybe, but the cartoonists I approached all gravitated toward signing their own pages on the first (of two) spreads without any coaching. Here then are their pages alphabetically as signed, sometimes with a drawing, starting with that of David Borchart:

Note:  As you see, at the event I got fourteen people in total to sign my copy of At Wit's End. Although other cartoonists were also present at Rizzoli, I missed out on obtaining the signatures of Ellie Black, Akeem Roberts, Justin Sheen, and Victor Varnado. I suppose I have no one to blame but myself. If anyone did obtain signed pages from these cartoonists at the launch event or elsewhere and wishes to share them here, I'd be happy to append photos or scans of the relevant pages to this post.

As of this writing, Rizzoli still has books signed by the authors available on its website here.

Cartoonist Michael Maslin posted an extensive account of the book launch event on his Ink Spill blog here.

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