Six Cartoon Publications, Mostly Signed

An ebay listing offered six publications, four of them cartoon-rich editions from The New Yorker, one New Yorker magazine, and one New York University Bulletin. The bulletin, magazine, and bookazines date from 2010 to 2015. In five of them, either Roz Chast, Matthew Diffee, or Jules Feiffer signed next to or on their own artwork in print. It's the kind of collection that would be nearly impossible to assemble today if it weren't already there for the taking. Yet it proved difficult to sell.

Of the six publications, the NYU Bulletin is probably the hardest to find, but there can't be much demand:

Jules Feiffer (1929-2025) signed his Bulletin cover.

Roz Chast signed her cartoon in the October 3, 2011, issue of The New Yorker—not a cartoon-themed issue—and a page from, probably, the magazine's 2011 cartoon calendar.

A Sam Gross rabbit cartoon was on the cover of the New Yorker Cartoons of the Year for 2011.

And Matthew Diffee signed his cartoon on page 4.

The New Yorker Cartoons of the Year 2014 has a dog cartoon by J. C. Duffy on the cover.

Matt Diffee signs on page 11.

The New Yorker 90th Anniversary Book of Cartoons surely deserved to be hardbound, but it was published as a bookazine. The bookazine cover art was adapted from Barry Blitt's 2015 anniversary magazine cover which had nine, not eight, modern-day Eustace Tilleys.

Again, Matthew Diffee was good enough to sign his Che Guevara cartoon on page 118.

The back covers:

Six assorted signed cartoon volumes
eBay listing accessed September 21, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285601622932?_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01K5QNXCMX5R18PN804RFGDKB3&hash=item427f2eeb94:g:~wkAAOSwDDNlbUaB&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cLVMMmPv3vOqghoI2UNwugDuGjgYuvD%2BnnE7qdCF3P058g6jJO0MOotbFnHn8o7D1uUwlYsfySyCzhf5XI1%2BD52

hFlcoHSCDnbVMpGm7MRfuLpXOTXoQz4QWm20%2BrS%2BKJzAV5Hq7Y32FFZazFrV9EPd%2BSlYToPBNDeY%2BTX4Z1rZfaSGYRsguH1vR0KcA%2BCpdAbEXaGVHgjmTgo1fsS5YStRqUEXTZY%2BWgDwX1QmJ1tbMz2m7%2FldXfAZ1govD2vL88%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9DK9fWtZg&autorefresh=true

Six assorted signed cartoon volumes
eBay item description

The set had been languishing on eBay since December 2023. Decisive action clearly was needed.

Sold for a best offer of $35.00.

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A Seasonal Diffee Doodle Print

A Diffee Doodle print by Matthew Diffee offered on eBay in 2017 seems to be an especially apt image for this time of year. Diffee created some 1,500 unique Diffee Doodles and they were offered as gifts to the first 1,500 subscribers to his newsletter back around 2015. There were also prints made of these drawings, or at least of some of them, based in part on demand, but some were given to later subscribers. The prints are signed and dated but not numbered.

Matthew Diffee
eBay listing  as of January 10, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Matthew-Diffee-Rejection-Collection-New-Yorker-Signed-Autograph-Card-Doodle-/252713410624?hash=item3ad6e4a040:g:55UAAOSwjDZYcG6Y

Matthew Diffee
eBay item description

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Warren's Copy of Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People by Matthew Diffee

When his collection Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People was published in 2015, cartoonist Matthew Diffee was especially generous at signings, inscribing copies for fans and adding clever original drawings. One book inscribed to someone named Warren is currently available from Back in Time Rare Books of Jacksonville. It includes a drawing of the face of a moralist, apparently, saying, "I hope you like this kind of smut!" I do and, incidentally, way to sell it!

Matthew Diffee
AbeBooks listing accessed August 26, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Hand-Drawn-Jokes-Smart-Attractive-People/31944716076/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Matthew Diffee
AbeBooks bibliographic details

Note:  This is the only signed copy of Matthew Diffee's Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People currently listed on AbeBooks and it's a doozy. I happen to have room here on the blog for other personalized copies with original drawings, even smutty ones. Please send images.

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The Lighter Side of Business Travel

In 2005, the National Business Travel Association, or NBTA, commissioned a custom book from the Cartoon Bank, The Lighter Side of Business Travel, a New Yorker cartoon collection. The NBTA did the same again in 2008, publishing another custom cartoon book with the exact same title but a different cover, also designated as a first edition. Presumably, the 2008 book is not merely a reprint of the 2005 book, but it's hard to be certain without examining them side by side. Instead, I examined the eBay listings side by side, surely the next best thing. They are archived below, with the newer collection first, because those photos are the better ones. Incidentally, the NBTA is now the Global Business Travel Association, or GBTA, but there are no new cartoon collections to show for it.

Why on earth are the words first class superimposed on Leo Cullum's cartoon on page 86? This is not at all typical of The New Yorker. Do similar superfluous designations appear elsewhere in the book?

The Lighter Side of Business Travel (2008)
eBay listing accessed February 8, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265535169404?hash=item3dd321237c:g:7-gAAOSwh2Fh~pKG

The Lighter Side of Business Travel (2008)
eBay item description

I'm afraid we don't get nearly as good a look at the 2005 collection:

The Lighter Side of Business Travel (2005)
eBay listing accessed February 9, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/193602761743?hash=item2d139fb40f:g:9VsAAOSwIfFhqqh8

The Lighter Side of Business Travel (2005)
eBay item description

Note:  Well, there you have it. An easy way to compare these two books would be to compare their artist indices. The one from 2008 is already included in the first listing, but I would like to be able to also post a scan of the Index of Artists from the 2005 edition, that is, the collection with Pandora's Carry-On by Robert Leighton on the cover. Please help me out, if you can.

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Ice Breakers: Signed and Drawn In by Matthew Diffee

Ice Breakers:  A New Yorker Book of Cartoons was published by the Cartoon Bank in 2005. It is a collection commissioned by Grand Marnier and the dust jacket flaps list drink recipes (the Ice Breaker, the Conversationalist, the Remarkarita, and the Sweet Talker) which have the distinctive liqueur as the first ingredient. Unlike most of the corporate collections put out by the Cartoon Bank with a black-and-white cartoon on the cover, there is instead a specially-commissioned color cover illustration by Michael Witte, uncredited, but still no doubt. 

Michael Witte
Ice Breakers:  A New Yorker Book of Cartoons (2005)

The press run must have been very limited making this quite a rare find. Scarcity does not necessarily indicate it's expensive. There are a great many privately-printed Cartoon Bank collections out there and they often sell for just a few bucks. This copy was priced at $10. Best of all, it also has an original drawing by New Yorker cartoonist Matthew Diffee.

Inscribed "To Fran/—DIFFEE"
With a drawing of children

Note:  If there's one, there could well be many. Attempted Bloggery would like to post photos of your own New Yorker rarities. 

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Matthew Diffee

Signed Books with Original Drawings

The New Yorker Book of…

Attempted Bloggery's 80-Proof Index

02824

Diffee Doodle Sibling Rivalry

My brother's Diffee Doodle has arrived! Diffee Doodles, if you haven't heard, are unique compositions by cartoonist Matthew Diffee, who a while back generously offered to give the drawings to his fans. Some 1500 people signed up before he came to his senses. He's been drawing ever since. Now he's about two-thirds of the way through the project.

My brother's Diffee Doodle depicts a half-length portrait of a curmudgeonly older man wearing glasses and a v-neck sweater under a shirt collar. Mine, you may recall, is a full-length portrait of a curmudgeonly middle-aged man with thinning hair and ballooning head in a business suit. Here's where the sibling rivalry comes in: who got the better curmudgeon?

Matthew Diffee, Diffee Doodle No. 975

Matthew Diffee, Diffee Doodle No. 748

Note:  Read more about Matthew Diffee in the blog archives.

The Diffee Doodle giveaway is over, but if you sign up for the Diffeeville Dispatch newsletter, you can still get a free Diffee Doodle print. Not too shabby!

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My Diffee Doodle

My Diffee Doodle just arrived! The first 1,500 people to sign up for Matthew Diffee's newsletter were offered a free drawing. This is No. 748, which means it's just about halfway through the projected series. The drawing depicts the elongated standing figure of a man seen head-on, wearing a suit but no tie, arms folded behind his back, with a balding balloon of a head. He looks somewhat tired. The figure is placed slightly to the left of the drawing, and it is signed on the lower right. Like all Diffee Doodles, it is unique.

As a compulsive doodler myself, I can assure you that Diffee Doodles are not doodles at all—they're full-fledged compositions created with a lot of thought and deliberation. Hence the relatively slow production of these is no surprise. These are no slapdash assembly-line creations, but individually crafted works of art. Somewhat puzzling is the fact that my Diffee Doodle was created on August 12, approximately five months prior to its arrival in my mailbox. Of course, Mr. Diffee became a first-time Dad in September and that may have slowed down the fulfillment process just a bit.

At any rate, this project is an extremely generous giveaway, and coming from a New Yorker cartoonist it is certainly one for the record books. Those who sign up now for Mr. Diffee's newsletter should still be able to get a free print of a Diffee Doodle, not a bad deal either.

Matthew Diffee, Diffee Doodle No. 748

Diffee Doodle No. 748, verso

Official Diffee Doodle Certificate of Authenticity

Proper Care and Handling. Now you know.

 Be my guest! You can like my Diffee Doodle on Twitter.

Note:  More posts about Matthew Diffee are in the blog archives. It's what I do instead of giving away doodles.

Sign up for your free newsletter, the Diffeeville Dispatch, and get a Diffee Doodle print!

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