It stems from a conversation that Bob Mankoff had one time while trying to arrange to have lunch with a “friend.” After several attempts to get together and several “not availables,” in frustration, Mankoff asked, “How about never—is never good for you?” Luckily, Mankoff is a cartoonist for the New Yorker, and he was able to parlay that conversation into a cartoon that is an oft-repeated question as used by Nancy Pelosi on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show during the 2012 election, and it is listed in The Yale Book of Quotations somewhere between Herman J. Mankiewicz and Mao Tse-Tung. It is also printed on coffee mugs and thong panties. To paraphrase Mark Twain, this is the joke that made Bob’s fortune.
Bob Mankoff has exploited his joke one more time by naming his memoir, How About Never—Is Never Good for You? My Life in Cartoons. Never is a new release by Henry Holt and Co. It is 285 pages of text and cartoons—lots of cartoons, most of which are from The New Yorker. There are cartoons from other sources used to compare the cartoon style of the different publications. But, most of all, it narrates the rise of Mankoff from an aspiring cartoonist to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker.
Along the way, Mankoff talks about the rhetoric of magazine cartoons. Among the stories is how a cartoon by Peter Arno that was published in 1941 became the cliché “Well, back to the old drawing board.” Some cartoons have a je ne sais quoi that resonates with the public and captures the imagination. As depicted, it may be the casual quality of the statement in light of the circumstances, but for some reason we, as readers, find it to our taste to repeat the phrase, and everyone knows what we are talking about whether we own a drawing board or not.
Caption: Well, back to the old drawing board.
Other aspects of the world of cartoons that Mankoff explores is the use of the Cartoon Bank, a digital storehouse of cartoon images that have been rejected by The New Yorker, but are still fine drawings that can be accessed by the public for a small fee. Mankoff began the bank in the early 1990s and managed it himself until it became unmanageable. The cartoons in the bank are sorted by subject matter so they are easy to access. He also discusses a Seinfeld episode in which Elaine cannot discern a New Yorker cartoon. And he assesses the different types of humor that are represented in the cartoons (while reminding us that analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog).
Perhaps, Mankoff’s most prized innovation is his “Caption Contest” in The New Yorker. This is his crowd-sourcing initiative that asks readers to write a caption for a drawing that is printed in the magazine. It is also available to non subscribers at http://www.newyorker.com/humor/caption. On the page, readers can submit an entry and vote on selected entries for previous contests. As a result of The New Yorker contest, there have been many political cartoonists that run caption contests. This is a link to one that was run by Tom Toles in the Washington Post.
The book is worth a read whether you invest the $32.50 (suggested retail price) for it now or wait until it sells for lower prices as a used book. But if I have not convinced you that it is time and money well-spent, listen to the interview between Terri Gross and Mankoff on NPR’s Fresh Air.
