Inspired by George Booth

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of a Legend

When you pitch to The New Yorker in the office, you sign in on a sheet and wait your turn. Except if you’re George Booth, in which case as soon as you walk in everybody lights up, says, “George!” and ushers you through the office. George Booth was the warmest, friendliest guy who also happened to be a legend. To be a cartoonist in 2022 is to stand on his giant shoulders. We lost him this week. 

Hilary Campbell

There’s so much to say about George. I’ll always think of him walking into The New Yorker in his red and white varsity jacket, smiling, and greeting everyone. I feel so lucky to have just even had a few lunches with him. Whenever I think of the artist I hope to be, I think of George and his line work. So completely free of worry and full of expression, just like him. He will be missed, but his work (and his dogs) will live on forever.

Paul Noth

When this idea occurred to me in 2012, I immediately thought of how George might handle a crazy room full of dogs. Though I knew I couldn’t match or even imitate him, I tried to sketch the beagles in a sort of Booth-like spirit. In other words, I let myself have a lot of fun. Though not as much fun as George would have had. His room would have been a hundred times crazier.   

Jeremy Nguyen

George is a tall, tall man. He is unmistakable and you absolutely feel his presence in the room. And not in a daunting way, he has a warmth that reminds you of walking into a room with a fireplace going. And he has the inviting personality of one, too! I’m lucky that my best friend, a dog named Lava, was able to meet him, and it was so cute to see one of the kings of dog cartoons delight in cuddling up with her. Thanks for all the dogs, George!

Amy Kurzweil

Seeking the best Booth tribute, I looked through all my cartoons, and not a one has the energy of line, the charming zaniness, or the real life absurdity of a George Booth cartoon. I once drew a cat drinking whiskey -- it’s kinda funny. But in a Booth cartoon the dog isn’t actually drinking coffee, or eating chicken with forty cloves of garlic; all the dog is doing is being a dog in a room with the possibility of chicken with forty cloves of garlic in his vicinity, and that tension is full and perfect. Something is always about to happen to a Booth character, or something has just happened to a Booth character (hence the mess), but what Booth shows us are those moments of resigned acceptance of life’s insanity. Perfect timing, and perfect disorder. So, I ask George Booth, whenever he is: have your dogs calls my dogs, they could use a little more mess.

Mat Barton and Adam Cooper

When we first started submitting cartoons to the New Yorker, a George Booth book practically lived on my drawing table. 

I would study his work, trying to emulate the looseness and the energy of his lines. The spontaneity of a Booth drawing seemed like the secret ingredient to a successful single panel gag. 

Take this cartoon of ours that ran in the New Yorker in 2019. It was originally drawn in a flat, deadpan manner, and they passed on it. But we resubbed the more lively, Booth-like version that got published. Looking at it now, it’s a little embarrassing just how Booth-like it is—with influence giving way to imitation. Maybe they bought it because they thought it actually was a Booth, and that he was having an off week.

Adam Douglas Thompson

Being a relative newcomer to the cohort of New Yorker cartoonists, I never had the opportunity to meet George Booth. But, like many others, my own sense of what a cartoon is and can be was shaped by growing up with his work. As a minimalist by nature, one who tends to cling to straight lines for dear life, I rarely pursue the glorious mania of which George Booth was the ultimate master. But once in a while I try, and when I do I always think of him. Now that he is gone, I resolve to try harder.

Theora Kvitka

I have always loved George Booth’s work for its heart – whether his love for dogs or the too-comfortable rapport of an old couple. Even when his humor is literally at the gallows, there’s a lot of humanity that comes through. That really inspired me when I was first trying to find my voice as a gag cartoonist (and plus I love dogs, too).

Andy Dubbin

My condolences to those who knew George Booth, a cartooning giant. He used his ebullient draftsmanship to deliver punchlines that still land like thunderclaps decades later. 

Booth's zany vignettes capture deceptive emotional range, like cramped living rooms with just enough space between the furniture for characters to crash into each other while the cats and dogs stare directly at you through the fourth wall. Before I knew his beautiful magazine covers and one panel drawings, my parents shared children's books illustrated by George Booth with me, and his characters were among the most memorable. It's awesome to be a very small part of an institution that is animated so much by George Booth's spirit.

Juan Astasio

I like to think that there is a cartoon universe somewhere out there inhabited by the creations of every cartoonist who ever lived, drawn in their particular style. I didn't have the fortune to meet George Booth in person, but maybe some of my characters met his. Perhaps my cats hang out with Booth's dogs all the time and get pro tips to be funnier. How lucky.

Ellis Rosen

When I feel uninspired and out of ideas, I like to read cartoon books by the top cartoonists. I had just devoured a George Booth book and although I knew it was a fool's errand to attempt to do what he does, I decided to try it just to see what would happen. I focused on his art: the looseness, the specificity in character, the liveliness of the clutter and the attention to detail. I ended up drawing this cartoon. The joke is not funny and the drawing doesn’t come anywhere close to the magnificent art of Booth, but it is one of my better drawings. 

In other words, by failing to be anywhere as good as Booth, I ended up drawing one of my best Ellis pictures. He was just leagues ahead of the rest of us.

P.S. 

One my one Booth story: I only met him once in the office. I had a very tiny bottle of water next to me, he looked at it and said, “I see you fell off the wagon again.”

Kendra Allenby

I first met George Booth when I was a small child, curled up in an armchair at my grandparent’s house, poring over New Yorker anthologies. His work was a world - one that felt foreign and familiar all at once. I next met George Booth in the New Yorker offices in my late 20’s. I met many gracious and friendly established cartoonists at that time, but even among them George’s gentle kindness stands out. In his cartoons, George is a master of comforting cacophony. Crystal clear clutter, which is to say the unfathomable mess of everyday life is there in the art without obscuring the joke in the slightest. This is a special kind of talent and George Booth was a master of it. For this cartoon I channeled that chaotic energy but look how clean mine is compared to George. This cartoonist still aspires to learn much more from Mr. Booth.  

Guy Richards Smit

It is a great regret of mine that I never met George Booth, but I’ve always been wowed by his use of language, attention to detail and his amazingly distinctive drawing style. He epitomized the evasive goal of creating a style so personal, an entire genre so recognizably ‘yours’, that each utterance from its rich vein is hilarious and easy and makes perfect sense in the larger context. I loved his old couples and how he played between the mundane and the majestic. The frustrating wall against which his character's lofty aspirations were dashed. Ultimately finding refuge from the storm in a comfy chair, in a turbulent front room, next to a flea bitten dog. I can only imagine how much fun each day must have been for him.

Jason Adam Katzenstein

This is my favorite George Booth cartoon:

And while I often take this imperative quite literally — I write about my dog all the time — I also think it’s the perfect meta-cartoon about cartooning: the world is full of humor and wonder, and all we need to do is notice. Thank you, George, for everything you noticed. <3  

ToonStack NewsStack:

• Buy a copy of Jeremy Nguyen’s new book Can I Pet Your Dog?, now available in bookstores! Order here or from your favorite local bookseller.

• Amy Kurzweil teaches cartoon classes on Patreon! Sign up now to get the recording of every past class!

• Listen to Hilary’s podcast What’d You Do This Weekend?

• Sofia Warren’s Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator is out and available to order here.

• Order Send Help! a desert island cartoon collection by Ellis Rosen and Jon Adams, out now!

• 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!