The New Yorker covers: August 6, 1960

Birds of almost every size and description have popped up on covers of  The New Yorker from time to time. Some of them closely, or at least loosely, resemble actual birds. Others are too whimsical and fanciful to be mistaken for anything that exists in the real world. These are not all birds of a feather, by any means.

Charles E. Martin
(covers untitled untilFebruary 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . James Stephens

Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera.

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

"Steamboats in New Orleans," 1853, Hippolyte Sebron

Movie Posters, 2008: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn!

Today in the history of the American comic strip: February 11

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.

2.11.1970: Lee Wright Stanley dies in Cleveland, Ohio, at 84. In 1923, he introduced The Old Home Town, featuring small-town and hillbilly-type characters. It ran until 1966.

 

2.11.1972: Al Capp, the creator of Li’l Abner, pleads guilty to attempted adultery in Eau Clair, Wisconsin. He did so in a plea deal that dropped sodomy and indecent exposure charges stemming from a sexual encounter Capp had with a female college student on April 1, 1971.

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: May 20, 1950

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.

Ilonka Karasz
(covers untitled until February 1993)

And now, a few words from . . . Mahatma Gandhi

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.