Monday, July 28, 2014

How About Never...Is Never Good For You? by Robert Mankoff

How About Never...Is Never Good For You? My Life in Cartoons
by Robert Mankoff [Biography Mankoff]

I've always enjoyed the cartoons in The New Yorker magazine -- in fact, I hardly ever read any of the actual articles. Robert Mankoff has been the cartoon editor (as well as a contributor) to that venerable magazine for many years. This book is sort of a mishmash combination of autobiography for Mankoff and history of how cartoons (or "drawings" as they're referred to by the magazine) are submitted to the New Yorker, evaluated by the NY art staff, and ultimately make it into publication. As a bonus, Mankoff gives detailed advice on how best to turn in entries into the New Yorker's weekly "Caption This" contest. Mankoff loads this large book with almost 300 cartoons, both from himself and from other noteworthy New Yorker cartoonists. Mankoff has a terrific writing style - very conversational and sarcastic. This was a very fun, light but informative read. A must for fans of the dying art of traditional single-panel cartooning style. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library [ see Scott's Reviewer Profile and Other Reviews ]

[There have been a lot of special New Yorker cartoon compilation books put out over the years. Two I'd recommend would be The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker (2004), and The New Yorker 75th Anniversary Cartoon Collection (1999).]

[Also available in downloadable audio, book-on-cd, downloadable E-book and Large Print formats.]

[ official Story Behind This Book web site ] | [ official New Yorker Cartoon Bank web site ]


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