How About Never—Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons

New York Times Bestseller: “A memoir [and] an enormous window into the mystery and alchemy behind the creation and selection of New Yorker cartoons.” —The Washington Post

Hi, this is me, Bob Mankoff. And this is my memoir. In it I’ll usher you into the hallowed halls of the New Yorker (Shhh! Quiet, you’ll upset the fact checkers) to show you the soup-to-nuts process of cartoon creation, giving you a detailed look not only at my own work, but that of the artists who keep you laughing every week, except, of course, when they don’t, puzzling you with a cartoon that you “don’t get” and then you shoot me an email asking me to explain it. Well, you can stop the shooting. You’re holding the solution to those cartoon puzzlers in your hands (it’s in chapter nine).

What else? Oh goodness, self-effacing, humble me has left out the personal part, the essential me-ness part, forged in 1950s Queens, New York, where I became a wisecracking Jewish kid who mimicked Jerry Lewis, did funny drawings, and turned my mother’s Yiddishisms into American humor, leading straight to a career as a successful cartoonist and cartoon editor of the New Yorker. Nah, that’s not the way it happened. You’ll need to read the book to find out how it really went down.

“Fascinating, forthright, and funny . . . Mankoff also writes with first-hand knowledge about the topic of laughter itself. He dares to ask the question, ‘What makes something funny?’, and answers it with intelligence, originality, and, of course, humor.” —Roz Chast, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

“Not just a charming memoir but also a charming grab bag of cartoon history, cartoon theory (nothing too woolly), and shop talk.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Serves up not only a mini-collection of great cartoons but also a look at the shift in styles through the editorships of legendary William Shawn, Tina Brown, and current editor David Remnick. Mankoff also provides a very funny and insightful look at how to win the New Yorker caption contest.” —Publishers Weekly

© 2024 Henry Holt and Co. (Ebook): 9780805095913

Release date

Ebook: 1 May 2024