Cartoon critics Phil Witte and Rex Hesner look behind gags to debate what makes a cartoon tick. This week our intrepid critics take a look at those last sweltering days of summer. The last half of August gathers in anxiety as it hurtles towards Labor Day. Last minute vacations are hastily arranged as the frenetic…
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Anatomy of a Cartoon: The Dog Days of Summer
“Head above Water” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
In my fellow Chicagoan Pat Byrnes’ drawing, two mobsters have fitted their latest victim with concrete shoes and thrown him off a pier and into the river. His head, however, remains above water because he’s landed safely on top of a pile of other victims. He’s saying something to the mobsters on the pier. My…
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Bob Mankoff Cartoons: EXCLUSIVELY on CartoonStock.com
That’s right, licensing for New Yorker cartoonist Bob Mankoff is exclusively available on CartoonStock! In his twenty years as cartoon editor for The New Yorker, Bob Mankoff pored over literally thousands of submissions; analyzing, critiquing, and selecting each cartoon, he mentored cartoonists, new and old, towards the laughs readers expect. In 2005, he helped start…
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“50 dollar bill” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
In J.B. Handlesman’s cartoon, a bartender is addressing Ulysses S. Grant, whose face appears on a huge $50 bill. Ron Chernow, who wrote the Alexander Hamilton biography that Lin-Manuel Miranda turned into a smash Broadway musical, recently wrote a biography of Ulysses Grant, so I initially imagined the bartender speculating about Grant’s chances of becoming…
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