As Thanksgiving breathes down our collective necks (especially if you’re a turkey), I’ve been thinking about who or what we’re thanking on Thanksgiving. I guess it’s Him or Her, or maybe some non-anthropomorphic, supernatural It. You know—the supreme guy, gal, or thing who works in mysterious ways, miraculously saving a few homes during tornadoes, hurricanes, and the like, while, I guess, miraculously destroying many others. Really, an “act of God” is nothing to be thankful for. And it’s not for nothing that deeply religious folk are often referred to as “God-fearing.”
Also, the whole “God works in mysterious ways” thing is an enormous cop-out, because if you or I worked like that we’d get fired. Nevertheless, a whole lot of thanking is going to go on later this week, all of it, if the past is any indication, unreciprocated. I mean, has anyone, anytime, anywhere ever received a “You’re welcome!” back from the heavens?
However, if you are a fan of New Yorker cartoons, some thanks will definitely be in order this week—over two hundred and fifty of them. Why? Because “The New Yorker Cartoons of the Year” is now on fine newsstands everywhere. But not, I hasten to add, anywhere else.
So if you want to purchase a copy, you’re going to need to do some hastening of your own to that fine newsstand and get one before everyone else does. And if you’re reading this newsletter, you surely do want this special-edition bookazine. Don’t know what a bookazine is? Don’t be embarrassed. Neither does the program in which I’m writing this.
Hold on while I download the update that takes care of that.
Thanks. Anyway, a bookazine is like a magazine, but better. Better paper, better binding, better production values, even inkier ink. So, better in every way, uh, except the price, which in this case is worse, but also definitely worth it, because the magazine this bookazine is based on, The New Yorker, is plenty good already. Great reporting, commentary, essays, fiction, humor, and reviews, and, ahem, great cartoons. There’s just one problem with it. All the great reporting, commentary, essays, fiction, humor, and reviews take up lots of space, leaving room for only about fifteen cartoons per issue. Now, we could greatly increase the number of cartoons by eliminating all the articles, but that would be a huge loss. One I could live with, but still huge. And one that our esteemed editor, David Remnick, rightly objects to as a general policy. However, once a year, beginning in 2010, David has let us perform, as it were, an article-ectomy, and publish a special edition containing the best cartoons from the preceding twelve months. How good are they? Too damn good. Of the twelve cartoons that I, as a cartoonist, published this year, only one made the cut.
But this special edition is even more special than before, because there’s much, much more than just a gathering of our signature single-panel cartoons. Some highlights:
There are features by Roz Chast and Peter Steiner, which were specially commissioned for this edition, and have never appeared in the magazine. Roz takes us on a horrible holidays tour, what she calls “One More Trip Around the Sun,” a twelve-part exploration that includes National Unresolved Issues Month (February) and the month that we’re currently experiencing:
Then Peter Steiner, of “On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog” cartoon fame, takes a “whatever happened to” look at those two canines, who have stood as icons for the Internet age since their appearance almost twenty years ago.
And Bill Haefeli, who says he “mines the cultural landscape for humor,” finds a mother lode close to home, in his same-sex satire, “Gay Marriage.” But wait… there’s more.
Oh, stop waiting and go get the bookazine. Take my word for it: you’ll be thanking me this Thursday. And, by the way, you’re welcome!
