I ONLY READ IT FOR THE CARTOONS

Incisive interviews with a dozen cartoonists whose work highlights the esteemed magazine.

Through merchandising, anthologies and websites, the New Yorker’s cartoons enjoy a higher visibility than ever, but the stories behind the artists and their work remain little known by comparison. Even some of the names here may not by familiar to regular readers of the magazine, though their work will be. “The New Yorker operates as a loose-knit chorus of individual voices composing a loosely defined (cosmopolitan, sophisticated, liberal, bourgeois) aesthetic,” writes veteran journalist Gehr (The Phish Book, 1998). “[Former editor William] Shawn sought artists with distinct styles and somewhat broader socioeconomic focuses.” Among the insights gleaned by the author are just how radical and influential Roz Chast has been, how unpopular Shawn’s successor, Robert Gottlieb, was with so many of the artists, how deflating it can be for even the magazine’s most prolific artists to experience such a high rate of rejection, and how difficult it can be to define just what a New Yorker cartoon is. Among those spotlighted are former cartoon editor Lee Lorenz, his successor, Robert Mankoff, and stars such as Chast, George Booth, Gahan Wilson and Edward Koren. Yet the most fascinating profile here is of the lesser-known Arnie Levin, the heavily tattooed beatnik-biker who seems most at odds with what one expects a New Yorker cartoonist to be. There’s too much formulaic similarity among the profiles—each opens with an anecdote, followed by a childhood and family biography, the pathway to the magazine and some inside-baseball references that go beyond inspirations and technique to preferences in paper, drawing implements and the like. But each individual profile sustains interest because each has an interesting subject. As Gehr writes of Gahan Wilson, “It’s a terrifying world out there, his art seems to say, and this is how I’ve learned to cope with it.”

Readers who love the cartoons will appreciate knowing more about the cartoonists.