Cartoonz 4 U

maTim Kreider, of The Pain--When Will It End? comics, gives a hilarious account of submitting his cartoons to the New Yorker in person to Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor, in Rejected From the New Yorker.

It is not easy to draw a New Yorker cartoon. (Indeed, as the title of this collage implies, I have failed to do so.) David Foster Wallace once described them as having "an elusive sameness." The usual subtext seems to be self-congratulation on (disguised as self-deprecation of) New Yorkers' trendiness, superficiality, and materialism. The typical reader response to one is a barely perceptible lifting at the corners of the mouth, and perhaps a murmured, "Mm." They have to be clever; droll, even.They must never actually be funny. Read On...

You may remember I did a series of the same name recently, although mine were not formally submitted and rejected. Check them out.

And check out these other recent comics:

• Slowpoke shows us Post-Ironic Cutism and other Aesthetic Movements To Come.
• Big Fat Whale shows how hilarious Global Warming can be.
• Ted Rall hips us to the dangers of Al Kidda.
• Mikhaela shows us conversations Bush isn't listening in on.