Cartoon, like radio, is a medium where the artists are invisible “voices.” With cartoons, the reader is forced to create a mental picture of the individual(s) making the work—sometimes it doesn’t matter, but I believe picturing the creator is somehow part of the overall experience. The images of New Yorker cartoonists in photographer Alen MacWeeney’s new book add that missing dimension by revealing the people behind the art, alongside conversational texts about each artist by Michael Maslin (himself a New Yorker cartoonist).
Conceived and designed by Bob Ciano, MacWeeney’s longtime friend and art director, At Wit’s End: Cartoonists of The New Yorker is an elegantly designed showcase. An implied question, rhetorically raised by Emma Allen in the foreword—”What makes someone a New Yorker cartoonist, when as this book demonstrates, they work so differently, think so differently, see the world so differently, and draw so differently?”—is not definitively answered, but comes down to one commonality: making people laugh.
I asked MacWeeney and Maslin to talk more about the process and decisions in creating their book, a unique document that pays homage to some of the older (and a few deceased) masters, transitional pioneers and the latest wave of artists. And for those who wonder whether or not the cartoonists resemble their art, you can judge for yourself.
I am presuming that At Wit’s End was triggered by Alen’s photographs that include some principal cartoonists who have passed away, and with them a certain sense of humor. How, indeed, was this project conceived?
MacWeeney: Bob Ciano, my longtime friend and art director of Esquire magazine in 1978, loved The New Yorker, cartoons and wondered what the invisible faces looked like behind them. His curiosity got the better of him and he assigned me to photograph five cartoonists for the magazine to make a good story for Esquire and answer his curiosity. Each cartoonist was a surprise, different, somewhat eccentric and a lot of pleasure to photograph. (Gahan Wilson, Jack Zeigler, George Price, Ed Fisher and Sam Gross.) [They were] enthusiastic about the photographs, but we never saw their publication in Esquire as Bob left working for the magazine soon afterwards.
What else inspired you to photograph New Yorker cartoonists (and how long did it take to amass this portfolio of images)?
MacWeeney: In 2014, The New Yorker assigned me to photograph eight cartoonists for the cartoon issue of the magazine. The cartoonists were partly my choice and those of the magazine’s, and that was the impetus for me to really get going again.
But, the idea of a book of cartoonists really began then in Bob’s and my mind, too. Bob was the instigator from the start. He pushed the idea and me forward for many years to come. I approached The New Yorker several times over the next years to propose publishing monthly a cartoonist portrait in the magazine; this was before it had published photography at all, and to reveal its hidden assets and identity of the mysterious cartoonists …
Liana Finck
With a few notable exceptions, many of the cartoonists in this book are post–Lee Lorenz (cartoon editor from 1973–1993). What determined who you covered?
Maslin: Alen already had photographed 20 or so cartoonists by the time I was brought into the project in 2018. The magic number was 50 for the book (we ended up having 52). I’m not sure if we knew we were looking for a representation of eras ([executive editors] Ross, Shawn, Gottlieb, Brown and Remnick), but we managed to include cartoonists who came into the magazine from 1929 up to the present. We had numerous discussions about who should be considered, but in the end it was Alen’s call. He was the one going out into the field. There were several cartoonists we wanted to include but, alas, geography got in the way.
I had expected a few more of the older generation (you include the late George Price, for instance). Was this even possible?
Maslin: The larger number of photos were taken in the past six years. By that time, the older generation had thinned out considerably. By the time the book was underway, we counted ourselves very fortunate to get Dana Fradon, who was the last cartoonist brought in during the Harold Ross era.
Michael Crawford (1945–2016)
The gag cartoon, which is the focus of the book, once played a key role in many periodicals. Did your motivation come, in part, from the possible extinction of this once-ubiquitous artform?
Maslin: That wasn’t on my mind. As someone who loves the magazine’s history, I saw this as an opportunity to put in book form an extended yearbook of sorts. I only wish there had been books like this decades ago.
Who decided on the cartoonists that are featured?
MacWeeney: I selected photographing the cartoonists I most enjoyed, with suggestions from Bob and Michael, but some cartoonists lived too far away and my travel was restricted by expense. Sadly, there was a number of very eminent cartoonists not in the book. In recent years it seems from The New Yorker secret source has emerged a flurry of fresh-minted cartoonists’ drawings appearing weekly.
There was a mutual agreement to make the book reflect the surprising differences in our subjects and be unpredictable. I used the same camera for the 46 years it took me to photograph 52 portraits.
Barry Blitt
Was there logic behind which pair of cartoons were selected to represent each artist?
MacWeeney: I approached Michael as a cartoonist and historian of The New Yorker cartoonists about 2016; he helped enormously, introducing me and contacting our subjects for the book.
Michael and I selected the cartoons together [by] Zooming several times, and naturally it was a very enjoyable activity and fun to share doing.
I originally conceived the book to have only a single black-and-white portrait of each subject, with a sample cartoon and bio on other pages, really to keep some mystery about the cartoonist revealed only by a single image.
Bob thought otherwise about it and in consideration of the book’s layout to integrate the profiles Michael would write and include a sample of one or two cartoons for each subject.
Barry Blitt
Was there anyone who decided not to be your book?
MacWeeney: One cartoonist chose not to be in the book, disappointingly, and [was] very much missed: Sam Gross, my best cartoonist portrait.
Who decided on the title, which is a tip of the hat to the book Wit’s End: Days and Nights at the Algonquin Round Table?
MacWeeney: We were talking about what could be a good title when Bob came to the rescue with “At Wit’s End.”
Ed Koren (1935-2023)
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