[READ: May 2022] Inked
I loved this book of cartoons from Joe Dator. I can’t say that I recognize his style especially, but his cartoons did look very New Yorker to me.
Indeed, this book features dozens of comics. It’s not always obvious which ones were accepted and which were rejected (although he does mention some that were rejected specifically).
He talks bout the state of mind of the New Yorker artists: On a very good week, they will buy one of your cartoons for publication. Most weeks they will not buy one. It’s a little bit like having a job at which every week you get fired then you have to go in next week to re-apply and hope you get hired back.
He has a few sections called Betwixt the Punchlines in which he explains the motivation behind a particular piece (He says the one where the coffee maker says she’ll come back, she always comes back (while he’s using a French press) is from his own habit of buying gadgets but always returning to old faithful.
I rather enjoyed the picture of the army man with medals on his chest who say “Anytime I’ve even been asked ‘What do you want. a medal?’ I’ve said yes.”
He also talks bout his drawings of God.
God is about 7’1″ You might think that seems kind of small for the Supreme Being, but its just big enough to make the average mortal say “Wow, that’s a big guy.” God knows people are easily impressed.
I really enjoyed Sketches I have done from a train (four squares of scribbles). And the concept of Citi Pants makes me chuckle
He also talks about being obsessed with the smiley face on pancakes conceit and has several jokes about it
He tells a story from when he was in a middle school science class and a teacher draw a tree on the board. Dator muttered “nice tree” The teacher asked him if he could do any better. A girl in the class said, yes he could.
He’s also obsessed with anteaters, as am I. But I also love the visually satisfying jokes bout Swedish “meta balls.”
Or how about two people on horses with bowling balls and pins on the floor asking the neighbor “you can hear this?”
I was also tickled by “hold on, your boarding pass says possum and your passport says opossum.”
The book ends with cartoons “they” didn’t want him to create. It’s amusing since they are no more risque than his other ones, really. But maybe that’s the point.
I enjoyed this collection and wished it was a lot longer.
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