Rolling Stone's new list of the greatest albums of all time: No. 22

Rolling Stone recently remade its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time "from scratch," according to the magazine, which first published the rankings in 2003 and revised them "slightly" in 2012. I’m posting images of the top 100 albums from the new list. You can access the complete list here.

---------- The Notorious B.I.G. ----------
"Ready to Die"
1994

The New Yorker covers: April 13, 1957

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. Yes, there have been some duds. Some covers have not aged well. But many New Yorker covers are stunning, no matter how old. Witty. Whimsical. Poignant. Pointed. Or some combination thereof.

by Abe Birnbaum
(covers untitled until February 1993)

The Great State O' Maine celebrates 200 years of statehood!

In July 1819, Maine voters opted to separate from Massachusetts, and a constitutional convention was held in October of that year. The proposed constitution won voter approval the following January, and Maine became the 23rd state on March 15, 1820. In honor of the Pine Tree State’s 200th anniversary of statehood, I’m posting Maine-related photos and images.

Today in the history of the American comic strip: September 29

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.

9.29.1947: Time magazine reports that Al Capp’s Li’l Abner disappeared from the Pittsburgh Press the previous week because a series of strips poked fun at the U.S. Senate.

9.29.1970: Gilbert Seldes dies. A writer and cultural critic, he wrote in The Seven Lively Arts (1924) that George Herriman’s Krazy Kat “is, to me, the most amusing and fantastic and satisfactory work of art produced in America to-day.” 

9.29.2002: In a review of The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo, a collection of strips about a fictional species in Al Capp’s Li’l Abner, The Baltimore Sun says the comic “was never more celebrated than during the Time of the Shmoo, 1948 until roughly 1952 and then again in 1959. The Shmoo, any literate person must know, was one of history's most brilliant utopian satires.”
 
9.29.2012: John Forgetta, creator of The Meaning of Lila, announces that he cannot afford to continue the strip, which launched in 2003. The strip was written by Forgetta and three collaborators identified collectively as L. A. Rose.

9.29.2018: Hazel, a single-panel cartoon about a live-in maid working for a middle-class family, is canceled.

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.

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

“Vines seen through a Window," date unknown, Max Hauschild

Rolling Stone's new list of the greatest albums of all time: No. 23

Rolling Stone recently remade its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time "from scratch," according to the magazine, which first published the rankings in 2003 and revised them "slightly" in 2012. I’m posting images of the top 25 albums from the new list. You can access the complete list here.

---------- The Velvet Underground ----------
"The Velvet Undergound and Nico"
1967

The New Yorker covers: July 17, 1943

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. Yes, there have been some duds. Some covers have not aged well. But many New Yorker covers are stunning, no matter how old. Witty. Whimsical. Poignant. Pointed. Or some combination thereof.

by William Steig
(covers untitled until February 1993)

The Great State O' Maine celebrates 200 years of statehood!

In July 1819, Maine voters opted to separate from Massachusetts, and a constitutional convention was held in October of that year. The proposed constitution won voter approval the following January, and Maine became the 23rd state on March 15, 1820. In honor of the Pine Tree State’s 200th anniversary of statehood, I’m posting Maine-related photos and images.

Charles Norman Shay (1924-)