The New Yorker covers: September 29, 1980

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.

Gretchen Dow Simpson
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Samuel Johnson

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

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

"Boats at Rest," ca. 1895, Arthur Wesley Dow

Movie Posters, 1920: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

Today in the history of the American comic strip: May 1

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.

5.1.1953: Walt Kelly's Pogo introduces a wildcat, Simple J. Malarkey, an obvious caricature of red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

5.1.1988: Kitchen Sink Press launches its series of Li’l Abner reprints with Li’l Abner: Dailies, Vol. 1: 1934-1935. The demise of Kitchen Sink in 1999 stopped the series at Volume 27, which covered 1961.

5.1.1997: Mike Doonesbury and Kim Rosenthal, a Jewish-raised Vietnamese orphan, are married in Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury.
 

5.1.2004: Checker Book Publishing Group releases Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Vol. 1, launching a series of reprints.

Pogo

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: June 5, 1971

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.

Laura Jean Allen
(covers untitled until February 1993)

Review: "The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives"

Find exclusive book reviews, including this one, at The Walrus Said blog.

And now, a few words from . . . Karel Schoeman

The past is another country; where is the road leading there?

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

"Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers," 1912-13, Marc Chagall