Taking a Stab

Back to the genteel for the moment, this is an amazingly bucolic cover for one such as Charles Addams, taking a stab at an Escheresque concept, without a morbid element in sight.

Charles Addams — The New Yorker — May 19, 1975

A Return to Morality

What's all this fuss I read about Charles Addams being 100 years old?

Charles Addams — Publishers Weekly — August 1973

One Person Out of Billions

The best cartoon ideas are so obvious, yet only one person out of billions thinks of it.

Charles Addams —New Yorker — 1986

1981

Charles Addams

1951

Charles Addams

January 1 — Stop This Theme

Below, another gritty Lady in the Red Dress Winter Fiction cover. And with this group I think I'll stop this theme of New Yorker holiday covers that you've had to put up with for almost a month. I could go on for several more days with New Year covers, but really, I think we've had enough for now. That doesn't mean I won't return to my New Yorker stash every now and then, cuz there are bee-you-tiful covers throughout the year.

Anyway, once again, I'm wishing for a year we can all feel good about, but let's compare notes in 365.

December 31

Directly below, I do believe Charles Addams' New Year baby was reflecting the attitude of America, facing Kennedy's New Frontier. It was the birth, not only of a new year and a new decade, but of a new post-war era.

In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention earlier in the year, Kennedy said:

We stand on the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams, a frontier of unknown opportunities and beliefs in peril. Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.

In the words of Robert D. Marcus: “Kennedy entered office with ambitions to eradicate poverty and to raise America’s eyes to the stars through the space program"

Above, somebody always grabs a magazine to solve a math problem.

December 30

FYI: A new year's a comin'. Just so ya knows.

December 21

Above, yes, Edward Gorey

Above, yes, Charles Addams

December 19

Below, Carter Goodrich, very nice cover. Below that, the New Yorker seems to appreciates his work, as well.

Below, I had no idea that this UPS scene went that far back. I thought it was a fairly modern phenomenon. Who knew.

December 8

Subscriptions used to come in clear plastic wrappers, so as to keep the magazine pristine, and then in the 90s some bright boy or girl decided to save money and just put the subscription labels directly on the cover, and the label didn't just peel off, no, it ripped part of the cover off with it, hence the little tears on the cover below and a bunch of other covers from that time. Ah well, in the grand scheme of things . . .

One New York Afternoon in 1953

Charles Addams — The New Yorker — October 10, 1953

Wonderful

Staying with the always wonderful New Yorker covers, let's use the cover below by the wonderful Owen Smith as a segue between Halloween witches and Halloween pumpkins:

Below, the wonderful children's book illustrator William Joyce:

Below, the wonderful William Steig:

Below, the wonderful Charles Addams:

Below, the wonderful George Booth:

Below, the wonderful Warren Miller:

Below, the wonderful Peter de Seve, with a wonderful tribute to New York's finest, just a month after their darkest hour:

Below, not a New Yorker cover, and no punkins, but entitled Trick or Treat, again by the wonderful Peter de Seve:

Addams Witches

A quartet of Charles Addams New Yorker Halloween covers—not as spooky as I'd like them to be, but hey—

Ages of Man

The New Yorker has always proven that cartoon humor doesn't have to be ha-ha-funny to be really good. More like, HA-funny.