Memoir in cartoons by the longtime cartoon editor of The New Yorker People tell Bob Mankoff that as the cartoon editor of The New Yorker he has the best job in the world. Never one to beat around the bush, he explains to us, in the opening of this singular, delightfully eccentric book, that because he is also a cartoonist at the magazine he actually has two of the best jobs in the world. With the help of myriad images and his funniest, most beloved cartoons, he traces his love of the craft all the way back to his childhood, when he started doing funny drawings at the age of eight. After meeting his mother, we follow his unlikely stints as a high-school basketball star, draft dodger, and sociology grad student. Though Mankoff abandoned the study of psychology in the seventies to become a cartoonist, he recently realized that the field he abandoned could help him better understand the field he was in, and here he takes up the psychology of cartooning, analyzing why some cartoons make us laugh and others don't. He allows us into the hallowed halls of The New Yorker to show us the soup-to-nuts process of cartoon creation, giving us a detailed look not only at his own work, but that of the other talented cartoonists who keep us laughing week after week. For desert, he reveals the secrets to winning the magazine's caption contest. Throughout How About Never--Is Never Good for You?, we see his commitment to the motto "Anything worth saying is worth saying funny."

The New Yorker presents the best of its weekly cartoon caption contest. The book also presents fun facts and statistics about who enters and why.

Showcases the work of hundreds of artists who have contributed to the magazine throughout its eighty-year history, in a richly illustrated volume containing 2,500 black-and-white cartoons by Peter Arno, Charles Addams, Jack Ziegler, Roz Chast, and other notables, along with essays on the evolution of the magazine's humor and style, and a fully searchable DVD-ROM. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

"Joe Dator makes me laugh. Everybody loves to look behind the scenes and his new book shows the secrets, inspirations, heartaches, and triumphs of a life in cartoons. Christopher Guest and I have a collection of original cartoons, and we love our Joe Dator!" —Jamie Lee Curtis From inspiration to conception and all the trials in-between. Inked is a collection of cartoons from one of the New Yorker’s most beloved cartoonists. Filled with more than 150 of Dator’s single-panel cartoons, this lively, quick-witted book betrays a deadpan sense of humor. But Inked is more than a book of cartoons. Dator also dives into the creative process, offering bonus commentary on how ideas have come to fruition, how one idea has led to another, and the various attempts to get an idea right. Along the way, he shows how a spark of imagination has turned into a laugh-out-loud moment with only a single image and caption, and how other attempts have found themselves on the cutting-room floor.

A joy-inducing illustrated book about New York City in the ingenious style of William Steig's classic CDB! Just as there are few cities as storied and replete with life as New York City, there are few illustrators or writers who have charmed as many generations as William Steig. To Molly Young and Joana Avillez, a connection between the two seemed obvious, and so D C-T! ("The City!") was born. Using a playful phonetic language first invented by Steig in his now classic 1968 book CDB!--but which in today's world of text message and internet shorthand feels uncannily contemporary--Young and Avillez tell a different story on each page of this collection of illustrations stuffed to brim with humor and cleverness: "S L-I-F!" (It's alive!) A boy shouts gleefully at a pile of rubbish seething with rats "I M B-Z" (I'm busy) Declares the phone-wielding businesswoman to the would-be mugger "R U I?" (Are you high?) Asks the clerk at a bodega to the blissed out shopper Brought to life in Avillez's distinctively ebullient and droll style are precocious pets and pet-owners, iconic architecture, and startlingly intrepid anthropomorphic rats. At once recognizable, and imagined like never before, are the surprising, intoxicating, and not-always-entirely-welcome sights, sounds, and smells of New York City. Full of wit, romance, and sheer delight, D C-T! is both an affectionate portrait of the visual cornucopia that is New York City and a gracious love letter to the great William Steig, sure to enchant readers young and old alike just as his work has for half a century.

A Lit Hub “Most Anticipated Books of 2019” A Read It Forward “Perfect Gifts for a White Elephant Exchange” From New Yorker humorist Emily Flake, a hilarious, oddly enlightening book of illustrations, observations, and advice that embraces the inescapable awkwardness of two human beings attempting to make physical contact with each other. We've all been there. You encounter the mother of your recent ex. That guy your best friend dated sophomore year. That friend-of-a-friend who you've met once but keeps popping up in your "People You May Know" feed. Do you shake hands? Do you hug? Do you--horrors--kiss on the cheek? And then the inevitable: The awkward hug. That cultural blight we've all experienced. Emily Flake--keen observer of human behavior and life's less-than-triumphant moments--codifies the most common awkward hugs that have plagued us all. Filled with laugh-out-loud anecdotes and illustrations, astute observations, and wise advice, That Was Awkward is a heartwarming reminder that we're all in this together, grasping hastily at each other in an attempt to say: let's embrace to remind ourselves of our essential and connecting humanity, but also, please don't touch me for more than three seconds.

THE EXISTENTIAL DREAD OF MAKING (OR NOT MAKING) ART TAKES CENTER STAGE IN THIS TRENCHANT SATIRE OF MFA CULTURE Wendy is an aspiring contemporary artist whose adventures have taken her to galleries, art openings, and parties in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Toronto. In Wendy, Master of Art, Walter Scott’s sly wit and social commentary zero in on MFA culture as our hero decides to hunker down and complete a master of fine arts at the University of Hell in small-town Ontario. Finally Wendy has space to refine her artistic practice, but in this calm, all of her unresolved insecurities and fears explode at full volume—usually while hungover. What is the post-Jungian object as symbol? Will she ever understand her course reading—or herself? What if she’s just not smart enough? As she develops as an artist and a person, Wendy also finds herself in a teaching position, mentoring a perpetually sobbing grade-grubbing undergrad. Scott’s incisively funny take on art school pretensions isn’t the only focus. Wendy, Master of Art explores the politics of open relationships and polyamoury, performative activism, the precarity of a life in the arts, as well as the complexities of gender identity, sex work, drug use, and more. At its heart, this is a book about the give and take of community - about someone learning how to navigate empathy and boundaries, and to respect herself. It is deeply funny and endlessly relatable as it shows Wendy growing up from Millennial art party girl to successful artist, friend, teacher—and Master of Art.