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

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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: 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

W. B. Park: The Balanced Meal

W. B. Park's drawing The Balanced Meal is fairly diagrammatic and has no shading. Purchased by The New Yorker in 1981, it saw print in the magazine only in 1984. The original art was sold on eBay in July.

The Balanced Meal
W. B. Park
Original art
The New Yorker, April 23, 1984, p. 113

Detail

W. B. Park's signature

W. B. Parke
eBay listing ended July 14, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196479726826_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01J9T2QP6CHYTEKK6J334MGDTZ&hash=item2dbf1ab4ea:g:0vcAAOSwoS9mhJAG&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV

3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKlYz3l%2F5CrxAPhfrl1uJsYUWq%2BNGry7ikyy23LuxniHkqihCI55VZ8mefOScd4ILuvKT1NC9OIGkvs6cDgzv7L0AZimxrHmKvUDydBw

Gk164JC93Yh7qdT%2B4nE7VbkQ40OcwlEDx4A9gZsGu6yOzrYjF9WrvLzfZB4Amzk53Ws0fGvyLWOKXNmZTetaBljj0V%2B44qp36j3w0lBuri

VELhCnMq9fDf%2BFFkBS43CfN5Rfk%2BvXQAayl5Q%2BPEMsLkfF3Uc%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6bj3sLOZA

W. B. Parke
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

The Balanced Meal
W. B. Park
The New Yorker, April 23, 1984, p. 113

The Balanced Meal
W. B. Park
Original art
The New Yorker, April 23, 1984, p. 113

With cartoons by Eldon Dedini and W. B. Park

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1983-06-20/flipbook/076/

Eldon Dedini's cartoons frequently poked fun at the generally unfunny Soviet Union. Whatever shading the Park drawing may have lacked, the Dedini on the opposite page makes up for. Neither has a spoken caption.

Lenin, Up Early, Freshly Showered, Makes His List for the Day
Eldon Dedini
The New Yorker, April 23, 1984, p. 112

04832