Product Description

All 68,647 cartoons ever published in The New Yorker have been gathered together for the first time in THE COMPLETE CARTOONS OF THE NEW YORKER, a lavish 656-page hardcover book that includes two browsable CDs. It’s a groundbreaking collection and a must-have for all fans of the New Yorker’s unique blend of laugh-out-loud humor and literate social commentary.

Organized by decade and introduced by some of the magazine's most esteemed writers, the book showcases such talented artists as Peter Arno, George Price, and the ghoulish Charles Addams; perennial favorites Roz Chast, George Booth, and Jack Ziegler; as well as such hot, young cartoonists as "King of the Hill" writer Alex Gregory and "Six Feet Under" producer Bruce Eric Kaplan.

An entertaining and one-of-a-kind collection, THE COMPLETE CARTOONS OF THE NEW YORKER offers devotees and new fans alike a fascinating perspective on American life and art over the past 80 years, as depicted by the talented pens and singular perspectives of hundreds of gifted humorists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50056 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 656 pages

From Publishers Weekly
What could be better than a gigantic 656-page collection of 2,004 (get it?) of the best cartoons published in the New Yorker over the last 80 years? Perhaps a double CD set with all 68,647 cartoons ever published in the magazine—complete with a nifty search function that allows readers to search for cartoons by year of publication or by cartoonist's name. This improbably large offering is a bonanza of wry Manhattan-centric comic commentary on urban life and much else in American culture over the years. There's Peter Arno's 1948 ink-and-wash cartoon of a mildly concerned matron, book in hand, asking her newspaper-reading husband, "Is there a Mrs. Kinsey?" Or Peter Steiner's now famous cartoon drawing of two dogs chatting in front of a computer. "On the Internet," says one canine to the other, "nobody knows you're a dog." The book offers an introduction by New Yorker editor David Remnick and short essays introducing each decade—which readers may want to read after perusing the cartoons first—by such New Yorker luminaries as Roger Angell, Lillian Ross and John Updike. This is an absolutely fabulous collection of sophisticated silliness that will soon take its rightful place on coffee tables all over the country.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Issued as part of the New Yorker's eightieth anniversary celebration, this greatly oversize, undeniably heavy, but amazingly low-priced volume collects, in two formats, the cartoons that have appeared in the pages of that magazine over the course of its distinguished publishing history. Home to outstanding prose and poetry, the New Yorker has also enjoyed an outstanding reputation for its weekly showcasing of socially and politically satiric and, yes, cerebral--but also downright hilarious--cartoons from some of the most popular, cutting-edge, and stiletto-sharp cartoonists of the day. The book itself gathers 2,500 of the most representative cartoons for display, but two accompanying CDs contain all the cartoons (68,647, to be exact) ever published in the magazine. Arrangement is by chapter, with each covering a decade of the New Yorker's existence. Chapters are introduced by noted New Yorker writers, including John Updike, Roger Angell, and Lillian Ross. A testament--a tribute--to the great magazine but also an absolutely special way to spend quality time. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A monumental merger of paper and technology....Their work will make your stomach ache with laughter." -- Raleigh News & Observer

"A...fabulous collection of sophisticated silliness that will soon take its rightful place on coffee tables all over the country. -- Starred review, Publishers Weekly

"An absolutely fabulous collection of sophisticated silliness that will soon take its place on coffee tables all over the country." -- Publishers Weekly

"It’s fascinating to see the artists’ takes on various themes and events throughout the decades." -- New York Post

"Not only a stand-up routine for smart people who own a coffee table but a history of American culture." -- Joel Stein, Time

"One of the biggest gift books, literally....With 68,647 cartoons, it weighs in at more than nine pounds." -- USA Today

Customer Reviews

it's partly the cd
that brings my rating down to 2 stars.

i have a very advanced, nearly state of the art cpu and monitor. i can't read the captions on the most of the cartoons. they're pertectly legible if i print them out, but that's hardly a sensible solution.

the other part of the low rating is the size of the book. obviously, the book industry has become infatuated with huge tomes lately. i would have preferred two, or even three, volumes of a size that could be read comfortably in a chair or in bed. unless i buy an actual lectern, i have nowhere in my house to put this book where i can read it casually or easily.

as most reviewers do, i love the new yorker cartoons. i'm glad to have the collection, but i wish i could enjoy it more easily.

What a MAJOR disappointment!
I should have read more of the reviews here. I wanted this book since the day I spotted it in the bookstore, but held off because of the price. I was particularly anxious to see the 2 CDs. But the cartoons are all LOW RESOLUTION--what a disappointment. I can understand why--they don't want people to be able to print high-res versions...to still have to go to their website if they want to do that. But they should have announced that on the cover. Really--it is almost sinful. What a RIP-OFF. Read the other comments here about how unreadable some of the cartoons are because of the LOW-RESOLUTION. Really disgusting.

Product should not be on the market
The book is outstanding (hence one star) but the New Yorker is engaging in a form of fraud for claiming that the CDs contain all the cartoons ever published. In actual fact the CDs are of such low resolution that MANY of the cartoons cannot be interpreted because the caption or even the entire drawing is illegible. If a drawing is too illegible to interpret it is the same as not being included. I love the cartoons of the New Yorker and it was incredibly frustrating browsing the CDs and repeatedly finding cartoons that simply cannot be read. Enlarging them doesn't help. You WILL get a headache. The publisher should retract their claim and remove the illegible cartoons from the CDs. And shame on them for foisting this on those of us who truly love their cartoons.