“Sadder events…”
(image: carolita johnson)
Writes Janet Maslin, in her long-titled and not very encouraging review (“In search of the Dark Muse of a Master of the Macabre”) of Linda H. Davis’ biography of Charles Addams (New Yorker cartoonist extraordinaire):
“One of the sadder events in Mr. Addams’s life was the transformation of The New Yorker’s policy regarding material for cartoon artists. When he began freelancing (and he was still a freelancer 50 years later), writers supplied some of the premises for cartoons. Later, these writers could illustrate their own work, and Mr. Addams, who died in 1988, had to rely more heavily on his own inspiration. “Charles Addams: A Cartoonist’s Life†never quite fathoms what it was.”
I involuntarily found myself wondering if there was a piece of the sentence that accidentally got edited out. Davis may or may not have written the best biography of Addams, but what is that closing paragraph supposed to mean? Could Maslin be in cahoots with Rex May (apparently also known as “Baloo”), who wrote to me just a day ago proposing to sell me gags for my own TNY cartoons? Every now and then I get an email from a gag writer peddling his wares and understand that they wouldn’t exist if they weren’t making a living somehow, but I don’t know anyone who uses them.
October 29th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
Cartoon bore here Carolita. Your blog is as usual like a ray of sunshine slicing its way through this often gloomy exsistence.
I know Rex, he is a very prolific gag writer and cartoonist. I do believe that one or two New Yorker cartoonists have used his gags over the years. He’s very funny, and multi-talented. He has recently been working on a graphic novel, but I somehow doubt his claim that he invented Mayonnaise.
October 29th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Hi Rod!
Well, you’re no bore. And I have no doubt that Rex is very funny, but we’re not supposed to use gag writers at TNY. That’s just tradition. There used to be gag writers, and I’ve personally seen the gag lists in the archives, but we’re all supposed to come up with our own material now. I’d love to know who at TNY has used his gags! Perhaps it would surprise me!
In any case, I did tell Rex that I don’t make enough money doing cartoons to be willing to share any of my profits. Also, I’m handicapped in that I can only consider a cartoon funny if:
a) I came up with it myself because I thought it was funny
b) it’s someone else’s cartoon
That doesn’t leave much room for listening to other people’s gags.
TNY cartooning is such a luxury for many of us that I think all the pleasure of it would be lost if we started paying for gags. Our cartoons are very close to our hearts in most cases.