The New Yorker covers: May 25, 2009

Some of the politicians who have appeared on older covers of The New Yorker are cartoonish fabrications making campaign swings or holding news conferences. In recent years, though, real-life candidates and officeholders have made the cover, often in an unflattering light.

Barry Blitt
"Nip and Tuck"

And now, a few words from . . . Hermann Hesse

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.

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

“Elizabeth and Thomas Linley,” ca. 1768, Thomas Gainsborough

Movie Posters, 1966: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

Today in the history of the American comic strip: June 27

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.

6.27.1924: Jerry Marcus, the creator of Trudy, is born in New York City. Launched in 1963, Trudy focused on the homemaker of the title as she managed her family and its pets.

6.27.1948: Frank Godwin's Rusty Riley, already in print as a daily strip, adds a Sunday page. The comic ran until 1959.

6.27.1965: Art Sansom’s The Born Loser, about a guy who just can't catch a break, introduces a Sunday strip to complement the existing daily comic.

Rusty Riley

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: October 28, 1991

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.

Eugène Mihaesco
(covers untitled until February 1993)

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

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

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

"Not to be Reproduced," 1937, René Magritte

Movie Posters, 2025: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!