The blog of Richard Thompson, caricaturist, creator of "Cul de Sac," and winner of the 2011 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Unseen New Yorker


This was done two or three weeks ago for a piece in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell, a book review, that will likely never run. The book dealt with a long-time head of Goldman Sachs who'd grown up poor in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood and started at the firm as an assistant janitor while in his mid-teens. He'd gone on to be a titan of finance, deal-maker & adviser to presidents, and Gladwell's take was that outsiders can often do things within the system that others can't, and hence do well. One of his counter-intuitive pieces, and it was interesting.

Well, Wall Street looks different now, and the piece may now be too out-dated to run without a lot of revisions, which is too bad. But here's the drawing to go with it, selected for finish from 3 roughs, and tweaked some. At SPX last weekend I talked to two artists who do New Yorker illustrations, Joost Swarte and Istvan Banyai, and we wept over drawings we'd done for them that because of circumstances will never see print. That collection of rejected NYer cartoons "The Rejection Collection" needs a counterpart for illustration work. Maybe call it "The Refuseum".

9 comments:

Stacy Curtis said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RICHARD!

Kid Shay said...

Wow, the Giant Mess-Up on Wall Street has already affected your job. That was fast.

I would totally buy a book full of rejected New Yorker illustrations. Would they be as risque as the rejected comics?

Mrs. Denneldoff said...

Is it your birthday? Many happy returns of the day!

Mike said...

As long as the check clears, the transaction was a success. I once got galleys back on a piece so badly edited that I told them that, while I didn't care if they ran it or not, I didn't want my name on it. They ended up not running it. But I kept the money. If I sell you a head of lettuce, whether you eat it or let it rot in the fridge really isn't my deal.

Unknown said...

Hi Richard!!!

It's Jarrett from the former Pursuit of Mandy. Been awhile since we spoke and I just wanted you to know that you and your comic were a major inspiration for my new comic...launching soon. More on that on an email to you!

Is it seriously your B-day?? My sisters is today also..crap!

Whats the kill-fee like for the New Yorker? do they pay full?

angryparsnip said...

If it is your Birthday.... Yea !

Happy Happy Birthday...

Doug said...

looks like it's your Birthday... hope you have a great one!

I really like being able to click on the image and seeing it really large. What size is the original piece?

Also, I was wondering what size your Poor Richard's Almanac originals are.

...enquiring minds want to know! :0)

Mike Rhode said...

The Poor Richards are life-size in which the finger puppet is drawn the size of an actual human, which is why he sells very few of them. His backyard is completely stacked under 20 feet x 40 feet paper soiled with ink.

Mrs. Denneldoff said...

Thanks for signing the books for Kevin and me at SPX! How does little Alice know so much about Kevin?