The New Yorker covers: July 24, 2000

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.

Art Spiegelman
"Reinventing the Wheel"

And now, a few words from . . . Clarence Darrow

I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.

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

"Water Bird," 1984, Pudlo Pudlat

Movie Posters, 1990: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

Today in the history of the American comic strip: February 15

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.

2.15.1954: Matt Groening of The Simpsons is born in Portland, Oregon. His comic strip, Life in Hell, ran from 1977 to 2012.  The strip featured anthropomorphic rabbits and a gay couple whom Groening used to explore a range of topics.

2.15.1965: Morrie Turner launches Wee Pals, a trailblazing strip about a racially and ethnically diverse group of kids.

2.15.1970: The Teenie Weenies ends its third and final run. The three runs, in combination, spanned more than 50 years. Created by William Donahey, the comic starred two-inch-tall humans who lived under a rose bush. 

2.15.1987: Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales, which featured stories adapted from various Disney films, is canceled after 35 years. It ran in relatively few newspapers.

2.15.1997: Jack Sparling, the Canadian creator of Claire Voyant, dies. He was 80 years old. His strip ran from 1943 to 1948. The title character was an amnesiac who, with no memory of her past, took to calling herself Claire Voyant.

 

2.15.2022: Fox announces that Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County “is being developed as an animated series . . . .”
 

Wee Pals

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: September 24, 1990

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.

Barbara Westman
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Winston Churchill

If you are going through hell, keep going.