A memoir penned by New Yorker Cartoon Editor Bob Mankoff is set to be released in March of next year. The book is entited, “How About Never–Is Never Good for You?: A Life in Cartoons”
From the publisher’s description:
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.
I’ve always wanted to see a humor showdown between Bob Mankoff and the cartoonists from the Cartoon Bank versus Daryl Cagle and the Cagle.com posse (could someone draw that, please?). I think the Cagle clan would be pretty scrappy. The New Yorker bunch would be more obtuse, but they can’t be underestimated. Who would prevail? The world may never know.
I’m really looking forward to reading Bob Mankoff’s book. What a tease that it won’t be out until March 26, 2014. In the meantime, I’ll read Bob’s editor notes from the cartoon desk and keep smiling.
Really looking forward to this one. I already follow his “Cartoon Bureau” blogs and come away understanding cartooning better than ever. He truly loves and understands the craft.