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Ah, books. Are there any objects more sacred? I remember the wise words my father told me on my first day of college. He pulled me aside and said, “Ellis, have you seen my book?” In a way, aren't we all looking for our lost books? Unless of course you're not because you're oh-so organized. Good for you.
But maybe you're looking for a new book? That next adventure on the horizon. Maybe you want a good romance, or horror…or maybe you're looking for, and I'm just pulling this out of thin air, a collection of desert island themed cartoons? How about a humorous graphic investigation of the author's obsession with true crime? Maybe you're more in the mood for a story that’s best described as “activist organizing meets government gridlock as a millennial New Yorker cartoonist follows a first-year senator on her unforgettable journey — from outsider to insider.” I don't know, perhaps you want a collection of comics featuring one of Australia's most iconic comic strip characters, or a comic about “all the self-destructive stories someone tells himself, over and over, until they start to seem true,” or what about cartoons, confessions, rejected ideas and secret sketches from the New Yorker's Joe Dator? These are just random examples! I don't know what you're looking for. However, below is a sampling of some new books for you to check out, and boy oh boy, we would love it if you did, and even more so if you bought them. Hell, buy two! Why limit yourself?
Sofia Warren
Radical is about the year I spent embedded with a local politician—a former community organizer— asking stupid questions and trying to figure out how government really works. If you’ want to know more about politics or know someone who’s looking to more actively engage as a citizen, you can pre-order this book!
Jon Adams and Ellis Rosen
If you’ve ever felt isolated and alone, or like you wanted to fake your own death to ensure no one would come looking for you while you lived out your days on an uncharted island, free from the pressures of society—good news!
Ellis and I have put together a 208-page hardcover book with over 100 hilarious cartoonists (including many of the cartoonists here!), each of us providing our own take on the classic desert island trope. It includes not only cartoons, but a history of the desert island cartoon by Bob Mankoff, an activity section, stories of real-life castaways, and a foreword by The New Yorker’s cartoon editor Emma Allen.
Order from the retailer of your choice, here.
Hilary Campbell
I have been very annoyingly telling literally everyone on the street that my graphic memoir Murder Book is coming out this Tuesday November 9th! (High-five book birthday twins, Ellis & Jon!). Murder Book is a graphic exploration of my obsession with true crime since I was a cute little morbid girl. It begs to answer to question, “why am I so into this shit?” Part historical, part memoir, part love letter to murderinos, Murder Book is quite frankly, a lot of fun. Or as Karen Chee put it, “surprisingly sweet for a book about murder!”
Here’s one of my favorite pages that makes fun of Zac Efron who (horribly) played Ted Bundy in that Netflix movie.
If you live in New York please come celebrate the release of Murder Book at Littlefield on Tuesday! I’ll be there with comedians Jena Friedman, Jes Tom, Anna Drezen, Natasha Vaynblat, and Christiana Jackson! It’s gonna be a blast!! Tickets available here.
Don’t live in New York? Pre-order the book today or find it at your local bookstore this week!
Liza Donnelly
When I began as a professional cartoonist, I knew that there weren’t many women in the field. At the time, it intrigued me, but didn’t really concern me; I just wanted to draw for The New Yorker. But around 2000, I started to think about it more seriously and began researching The New Yorker archives at the Public Library to try to understand why, and see if there were more than the few I already knew about. What I discovered surprised me--in the inaugural issue of the magazine in 1925, there was a cartoon by a woman, Ethel Plummer.
My research uncovered more women over the course of the magazine’s first 75 years, usually no more than around 8 or less in any given year. Helen Hokinson, Barbara Shermund, Mary Petty, Alice Harvey-- to name a few-- were popular in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s.
In the 1960’s there were no women cartoonists; in the 1970’s, Nurit Karlin, Roz Chast, Roz Zanango and myself were brought in. Ultimately, my research led to the publication of Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons.
A few years ago, the magazine put out an issue with more women cartoonists than men, a first discovered by Michael Maslin. Soon after that, my publisher agreed to an updated edition of Funny Ladies, called Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Women Cartoonists. I interviewed many cartoonists for the new chapters, I wrote about the evolving cultural conversation on gender, and the increase in diversity in the cartoonist community since Emma Allen became Cartoon Editor. The new edition has lots of new cartoons, and I am excited to say David Remnick and Emma Allen wrote a foreword together. Very Funny Ladies is due out Feb 2022! Here is a link to pre-order a signed copy from my local bookstore. And for more about the book, go to the publisher’s page.
Joe Dator
INKED: Cartoons, Confessions, Rejected Ideas and Secret Sketches from the New Yorker's Joe Dator is the name of my book that’s just out and the title pretty much says it all, so there’s no need for me to say more. Oh, alright, if you insist. INKED is more than a book. It’s a job. It’s your car. It’s a best friend, a lover. It will be there in your old age. It will visit you in the hospital as you lie there, hooked up to tubes and breathing your last pathetic breaths. It’s the only thing that will come to your funeral.
It’s also a collection of more than 150 of my cartoons, from the greatest hits to my never-before-seen gags, with plenty of behind-the-scenes sketches and peeks at how the cartoon sausage gets made.
It’s available at all the places you buy books, including that one, and, y’know, that other one, and they’re all here: https://joedator.com/buy
Jason Chatfield
Celebrating 100 years of the iconic character and Aussie legend Ginger Meggs, these four brand new and original stories are written by Tristan Bancks, the great-great nephew of creator Jimmy Bancks, and illustrated in full colour by the current Ginger Meggs comic-strip cartoonist, Jason Chatfield.
Kids and grown-ups alike will revel in the rambunctious adventures and comical capers of the ginger kid who never gets old. (Think of him as an Australian Dennis the Menace… with a way cooler haircut.)
Learn more and order yours here!
Jason Katzenstein
If you have OCD, love someone who has OCD, or simply want to learn more about what it’s like, I made you this comic. I think it pairs well with the anxiety surrounding the holidays. Order Here!
Amy Kurzweil
It’s painful to joke about the historical traumas handed to you from your parents and grandparents. It’s also painful NOT to joke about them. If this paradox resonates with you, or if you also spent some days of your childhood watching your pupils dilate in the bathroom mirror,
if you have a close family relative with a special relationship to their household furniture,
if you’re a woman, a Jew, an immigrant or child of immigrants, or a human person with a family, you might enjoy my book Flying Couch, a story about three generations of Jewish women, a multi-threaded tale of survival, migration, home, anxiety, and the complexities of identity. The book is five years old this year, and you can buy it wherever books are sold!
Navied Mahdavian
Love buying books but never can find the time to read them? Lucky for you, my book, This Country, doesn’t come out until spring 2023. So you have plenty of time to get rich, retire, and start living your best leisure life.
Liana Finck
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Guardian • New York • Refinery29 • Kirkus Reviews!!! Passing for Human is a visually arresting graphic memoir about a young artist struggling against what’s expected of her as a woman, and learning to accept her true self.
Passing for Human is what Finck calls “a neurological coming-of-age story”—one in which, through her childhood, human connection proved elusive and her most enduring relationships were with plants and rocks and imaginary friends; in which her mother was an artist whose creative life had been stifled by an unhappy first marriage and a deeply sexist society that seemed expressly designed to snuff out creativity in women; in which her father was a doctor who struggled in secret with the guilt of having passed his own form of otherness on to his daughter; and in which, as an adult, Finck finally finds her shadow again—and, with it, her true self.
For Your Pleasure: Cartoon Extras
Have you checked out cartoonstock.com? Thanks to New Yorker cartoon editor emeritus, Bob Mankoff, this is the place to license and buy prints and merch of the best cartoons in the world, from The New Yorker, Wired, Airmail and... coming very soon... ToonStack!
Amy Kurzweil teaches cartoon classes on Patreon!
Jason Chatfield has a Substack called New York Cartoons!
Be sure to check out Shelby Lorman’s newsletter, Please Clap!
The same goes for Sofia Warren’s advice newsletter, You’re Doing Great!
See more cartoons from Ellis Rosen’s weekly Junk Drawer!
And hey, we always would love it if ya…