The New Yorker covers: February 16, 1929

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.

Rea Irvin
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Steve Irwin

Crocodiles are easy. They try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first.

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

"Three Fishermen," ca. 1934, N.C. Wyeth

Movie Posters, 1991: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

 

Today in the history of the American comic strip: March 12

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.

 

3.12.1919: The word “malarkey” (spelled "millarky") makes its first known newspaper appearance, in George Herriman’s Mary’s Home From College. Tad Dorgan, would begin using the word in his cartoons three years later.

3.12.1951: Hank Ketcham launches Dennis the Menace as a daily strip. A Sunday page appeared a year later. Ketcham died in 2001, but others continued the comic, which remains in syndication.

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: January 26, 2026

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.

Adrian Tomine
"Post-Vacation"

And now, a few words from . . . Oscar Wilde

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.