The New Yorker covers: July 24, 1937

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.

Arnold Hall
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Lenny Bruce

Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.

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

"Houses and Figure," 1890, Vincent van Gogh

Movie Posters, 1921: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

Today in the history of the American comic strip: October 19

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.

10.19.1893: William Donahey, creator of The Teenie Weenies (1914-1979), is born in West Chester, Ohio. The strip was about two-inch-tall people living under a rose bush.

10.19.1952: In Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts, which launched in 1950, Snoopy dances on two legs for the first time.

10.19.2010: The Library of American Comics releases the first of two volumes reprinting the earliest years of Chic Young’s Blondie.

10.19.2014: Freshly Squeezed, a cartoon by Ed Stein about multi-generational families, draws to a close after four years.

 

10.19.2023: Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts honors George Herriman’s classic Krazy Kat strip when Mooch, the cat in Mutts, asks his dog pal Earl what day it is. The second panel shows Ignatz Mouse tossing a brick at Krazy Kat, as he often did in Herriman's comic, prompting Earl to tell Mooch in the third panel that it’s “Throwback Thursday.”
 

Peanuts

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: November 3, 1928

In a 1697 play entitled The Mourning Bride, William Congreve famously wrote: “Musick has Charms to soothe a savage Breast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.” On a more humble level, music may bring a smile to a reader’s lips, when depicted on a magazine cover.

Julian de Miskey
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Albert Einstein

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

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

"At this the whole pack rose up into the air and came flying down upon her," 1907, Arthur Rackham, (illustration for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," by Lewis Carroll)

Movie Posters, 2026: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!