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.

05075

John Hersey: Two Signed Copies of Hiroshima

The New Yorker's issue of August 31, 1946 was entirely devoted to a single editorial piece, John Hersey's "Hiroshima." The landmark article on the nuclear destruction of a Japanese city was published in book form that year by Alfred A. Knopf. Nearly forty years later, author Kirby Congdon had Hersey sign copies of the magazine and the first edition of the book. They were both inscribed to the poet on February 24, 1985. Yesterday, they were sold together at auction by PBA Galleries of Berkeley.

The auction house provides us with a few photographs of the very collectible issue of the magazine. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the final page of the article where Hersey signed.

Wraparound band

The book is signed and inscribed on the title page with a quotation from the book:

The presale estimate was $500 to $800 plus a 25% buyer's premium. Bidding started at $250.

John Hersey
PBA Galleries listing accessed April 23, 2023

https://www.pbagalleries.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/648/lot/212615/Hiroshima-two-inscribed-editions?url=%2Fview-auctions%2Findividual-lots%2F%3Fkey%3DHersey

Sold!

04310

J. D. Salinger Signed New Yorker Short Stories

An eBay listing from a year ago included two copies of The New Yorker containing short stories by J. D. Salinger, each signed by the author. The stories, "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" (June 5, 1948) and "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" (July 14, 1951), were both later collected in Nine Stories (1953).The magazines come from the 2008 Princeton estate sale of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann.

Magazine covers by Leonard Dove, Arthur Getz, and Robert Vickery

Salinger signed both magazines "with best wishes[,]/J. D. Salinger" above the story title. 

It's an apparent coincidence that the title page of each story is decorated with a spot drawing by Abe Birnbaum.

Too bad the eBay seller wasn't a better photographer.

J. D. Salinger
eBay Listing Ended June 19, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1948-amp-1951-J-D-SALINGER-SIGNED-INSCRIBED-SHORT-STORIES-NEW-YORKER-MAGAZINES-/184325551854?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc

J. D. Salinger
eBay Item Description

J. D. Salinger
eBay Bid History
Only one bid in the final two minutes

0000

Saul Steinberg: Derrière le Miroir No. 224, May 1977

Derrière le Miroir (DLM) is an art magazine that was published by Aimé Maeght between the years 1946 and 1982. Each issue presented a portfolio of an artist's work related to an exhibition at the Galerie Maeght, located on the Left Bank of the Seine. The May 1977 issue, #224, features the work of Saul Steinberg. One of the pages shown here from the signed limited edition's current listing on AbeBooks appeared as a cover for the New Yorker and another is a very close variant of a New Yorker cover.

Saul SteinbergDerrière Le Miroir No. 224, May 1977
AbeBooks Listing Accessed March 19, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/Derriere-Miroir-Steinberg-Saul-Paris-Adrien/30515845231/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore

For some reason Steinberg took the trouble to affix a New Yorker copyright notice to the lower right corner of the cat and water pitcher original reproduced in DLM. Yet a comparison of the DLM print with the published magazine cover shows that the DLM art is not the same as the art used for the New Yorker cover; the two are close but very distinct variants.

Saul Steinberg
The New Yorker, August 25, 1975

The color words original also bears a New Yorker copyright notice, but here it is correct. This DLM print is made from the very same art as the 1972 New Yorker cover.

 

Saul Steinberg
The New Yorker, October 21, 1972

Note:  Derrière le Miroir translates as Behind the Mirror. But we all know you didn't need me to tell you what derrière meant.

Saul Steinberg appeared in a total of seven numbers of Derrière le Miroir. The first from 1953 is a double issue and the last from 1980 was shared with artist Richard Lindner. Here's the rundown:

#53-54, 1953:

#157, 1966:

#192, June 1971:

#205, September 1973:

#224, May 1977:

#241 (with Richard Lindner), October 1980:

At the time of this posting, the signed limited edition DLM issue #224 of May 1977 was still available for sale on AbeBooks. The price is 650 Euros.

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