Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series presents: Bob Mankoff
Hope College, Holland
Oct. 23, 7 p.m.
hope.edu, (616) 395-7000
You might say that Bob Mankoff has humor down to a science. After all, before beginning his journey from budding cartoonist to cartoon editor of The New Yorker, Mankoff was just a few credits shy of a PhD in experimental psychology. But despite his keen understanding of how and why we laugh, he’ll be the first to tell you that the process behind America’s longest standing comic tradition is anything but formulaic.
“Humor changes as the world changes, and New Yorker cartoons change with it, yet part of them remains the same,” Mankoff said. “I think that’s sort of neat.”
Mankoff’s own narrative arc, chronicled in his new memoir, How About Never, Is Never Good For You?: My Life in Cartoons, took him from adolescent cut-up to psychological scholar to aspiring stand-up comedian before he finally found his niche as a cartoonist.
“My thirties were looming and [cartoons] were like my plane ticket out,” he said of his decision to abandon graduate school. “I just barely made it under the wire.”
As a freelance cartoonist for 20-plus years, Mankoff had more than 900 of his cartoons published in The New Yorker. Now, since taking the reins from longtime New Yorker cartoon editor Lee Lorenz in 1997, Mankoff spends each week sifting through a thousand or more submissions, some from seasoned veterans of the trade and many more from hungry up-and-comers looking to make their mark. Deciding on the chosen few that will make the cut is a constantly evolving challenge.
“[At The New Yorker], we take humor seriously, but not too seriously,” he said. “I don’t see myself as some sort of infallible judge of humor – humor is very subjective. But we give it a real effort. We care. Anyone’s who’s a professional in anything cares. No matter what our opinion is though, cartooning is something where truthfully, the audience has the last word.”
The iconic combination of a sparse illustration and a succinctly witty caption into a single-panel home run isn’t easy to attain – in fact, many aspiring New Yorker cartoonists see publication as their Everest. And unlike comic strips, New Yorker cartoons don’t have the luxury of featuring characters audiences can develop relationships with. They also exist within the context of a magazine that doesn’t rely on vulgarity or shock value to garner readership.
“New Yorker cartoons have to do the work differently in that some are clever and cognitive and force the readers to put something together on their own, while others can be very mild, like a slice of life, or they can just be whimsical, where there’s nothing really to get and the reader just goes with the flow,” Mankoff said.
One thing is for sure: New Yorker cartoons are not for everyone. Mankoff believes engaging with them requires a certain level of education, intelligence and curiosity about humor itself. But they have always had an uncanny ability to not only reflect our popular culture, but keep a finger on the pulse of human experience and help unburden us from the troublesome and the fearful.
“You’ll notice when you talk to people tomorrow that any little nervousness, anxiety, glitch or mistake will cause people to laugh, which shows you that laughter itself is a type of emotional regulation mechanism,” he said. “Its much more complicated and more interesting than people think, and much broader than jokes.”
Other Literary Events
An Evening with Philip Stead
BookBug, Kalamazoo
Oct. 4, 3 p.m.
Bookbugkalamazoo.com, (269) 385-2847
Join Bookbug in welcoming Caldecott award-winning author and illustrator Phillip Stead for a special presentation celebrating the release of his hopelessly charming and soulful new picture book, Sebastian’s Balloon.
Thomas Dilley and the Art of Memory
Grand Rapids Public Library – Main Branch
Oct. 11, 5pm
grpl.org, (616) 988-5400
Celebrate Thomas Dilley’s The Art of Memory: Historic Cemeteries of Grand Rapids, Michigan with an interactive exploration of the history of American cemeteries. With his new book, Dilley takes the reader through the history and evolution of cemetery design from its earliest days to the present, detailing how Grand Rapids’ park cemeteries followed national trends, as well as how cemeteries as places reflect cultural beliefs about honoring the dead.
Author Talk - John D’Agata
Aquinas College
Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m.
aquinas.edu/cw, (616) 632-8900
Author and educator John D'Agata brings his knowledge and experience to the Aquinas Contemporary Writers Series stage for this intimate presentation. A master of multiple genres, D’Agata has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Howard Foundation, and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies. He is currently working on a translation of a book by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch, as well as a new essay collection.
