The New Yorker covers: October 10, 1931

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.

Theodore Haupt
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Michel de Montaigne

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

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

"Joan of Arc," ca. 1900, Juana Romani

Movie Posters, 1953: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

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

5.29.1935: William Addison Ireland dies in Ohio. A cartoonist for the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, he is the namesake of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University, which describes itself as the largest and most comprehensive academic research facility documenting printed cartoon art.
 

5.29.1960: Lance, a Western cartoon created by Warren Tufts, ends its run. The Sunday feature was notable as one of the last full-page comics.

5.29.1973: More than a dozen newspapers drop Doonesbury after a character in the strip condemns Watergate conspirator John Mitchell.

5.29.1974: Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks, is born in Chicago, Illinois. His strip, which starred young black radical Huey Freeman, made its national debut in 1999 and ran until 2006.

5.29.2010: The National Cartoonists Society announces that Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman have won the 2009 Newspaper Comic Strip award, for Zits.

5.29.2012: Thomas Andrae releases Walt Kelly: The Life and Art of the Creator of Pogo,  an illustrated biography.
 

The Boondocks

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 New Yorker covers: April 30, 1927

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.

Carl Rose
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Shelby Foote

A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library.

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

"Le Champ-de-Mars en hiver," 1892, William Brymner

Movie Posters, 1937: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!