The New Yorker covers: November 29, 1999

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.

Steve Brodner
"Turkey Day"

And now, a few words from . . . Robert Benchley

There seems to be no lengths to which humorless people will not go to analyze humor. It seems to worry them.

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

"On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt," 1868, Claude Monet

Movie Posters, 1999: Two adults, please, and a large popcorn

Today in the history of the American comic strip: November 5

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.

11.5.1939: The Superman comic, which debuted as a daily strip in January 1939, adds a Sunday feature. Several writers and artists worked on the strip until its demise in May 1966.
 

11.5.1979: Al Capp, best known as the creator of Li’l Abner, dies in South Hampton, New Hampshire, at 70. Although Capp was from Connecticut, he spent 43 years teaching the world about Dogpatch, Kentucky.
 

Li'l Abner

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 5, 1987

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 . . . Marc Chagall

All our interior world is reality, and that, perhaps, more so than our apparent world.

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

"Studios at Ogunquit, Maine," no date, Carroll Thayer Berry

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