Thursday, May 22, 2025

The New Yorker covers: June 10 & 17, 2013

Over the years, there have been many magazines whose covers have featured the work of highly talented artists and illustrators. But probably no magazine has had more varied and memorable covers, over a longer period of time, than The New Yorker, which was founded in 1925.


Birgit Schössow
"Big City Noir"

And now, a few words from . . . Henry Ward Beecher


A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.

"What is art but a way of seeing?" Saul Bellow

"The Viaduct at L'Estaque," 1907, Georges Braque

Movie Posters, 1957: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

 

Today in the history of the American comic strip: May 22


American cartoonists and writers may not have invented the comic strip, but some argue that the comics, as we know them today, are an American creation. Clearly, the United States has played an outsize role in the development of this underappreciated art form.

5.22.1915: George Baker, the creator of Sad Sack, is born in Lowell, Massachusetts. Sad Sack debuted as a comic strip in June 1942, in the first issue of Yank, the Army Weekly.

5.22.1923:
Wallace Carlson and Sol Hess launch The Nebbs. A family strip, it closely resembled Sidney Smith's very popular comic, The Gumps.

5.22.1949: Warren Tufts unveils Casey Ruggles, a Sunday strip set during the California gold rush. It ran until 1955.

5.22.1962: John H. Striebel dies. He began drawing the show girl/career girl strip Dixie Dugan when it debuted in 1929, and continued to do so until the early 1960s, when he became ill.
 
5.22.1974: Loretta, a minor character in Peanuts, makes her debut. She only appeared in the strip twice, selling Girl Scout cookies.

Sad Sack
 
Most of the information listed here from one day to the next comes from two online sites -- Wikipedia, and Don Markstein's Toonopedia -- as well as 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics, edited by Maurice Horn. Note that my focus is on American newspaper comic strips (and the occasional foreign strip that gained popularity in the United States). Thus, comic books and exclusively online comics are not included here.

The birth of an artist: May 22

 

Mary Cassatt
May 22, 1844

Arnold Lobel
May 22, 1933

Max Velthuijs
May 22, 1923

Lorraine Fox
May 22, 1922

Hergé
May 22, 1907

Lionel Walden
May 22, 1882

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

The New Yorker covers: March 17, 2008

Some of the politicians who have appeared on older covers of The New Yorker are cartoonish fabrications making campaign swings or holding news conferences. In recent years, though, real-life candidates and officeholders have made the cover, often in an unflattering light.


Barry Blitt
"I'll Get It!"