Books & Other Works

The New Yorker Cartoons of the Year 2016

Cartoons of the Year 2016. This year, take a look at C.S.I.: Cartoon Scene Investigation, remember Chairman Mao with Edward Steed, and review books for grownups with Liana Finck.  Laugh your way through the holidays with more than 250 of the best cartoons from 2016, plus an introduction by Bob Mankoff and an epilogue by Roz Chast about her book, CAN’T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT? A MEMOIR.

How About Never - Is Never Good For You?

Fascinating, forthright, and funny . . . Mankoff also writes with first-hand knowledge about the topic of laughter itself. He dares to ask the question, ‘What makes something funny?’, and answers it with intelligence, originality, and, of course, humor.”- Roz Chast, cartoonist for The New Yorker

Hi, this is me, Bob Mankoff. And this is my memoir. In it I’ll usher you into the hallowed halls of The New Yorker (Shhh! Quiet, you’ll upset the fact checkers) to show you the soup-to-nuts process of cartoon creation, giving you a detailed look not only at my own work, but that of the artists who keep you laughing every week, except, of course, when they don’t, puzzling you with a cartoon that you “don’t get” and then you shoot me an email asking me to explain it. Well, you can stop the shooting. You’re holding the solution to those cartoon puzzlers in your hands (it’s in chapter nine). What else? Oh goodness, self-effacing, humble me has left out the personal part, the essential me-ness part, forged in 1950s Queens New York where I became a wisecracking Jewish kid who mimicked Jerry Lewis, did funny drawings, and turned my mother’s Yiddishisms into American humor, leading straight to a career as a successful cartoonist. Nah, that’s not the way it happened. You’ll need to read the book to find out how it really went down.

Released: October 2015
Source: Amazon

The Naked Cartoonist: A New Way to Enhance Your Creativity

As cartoon editor of The New Yorker, and one of its most gifted contributors, Bob Mankoff spends his life pursuing that elusive thing called creativity, and inspiring it in others. If you’ve ever wondered where great ideas come from or yearned to channel your creative energies or just wanted some pointers on how to get those artistic juices flowing — this book was written for you.

Along with some help from his well-known cartoonist friends, Mankoff takes you on an entertaining words-and-pictures journey through the art, craft, and zen of cartooning, along the way providing lots of personal anecdotes about his development as an artist, and about life at the world’s most urbane magazine. But you don’t have to be an aspiring cartoonist to appreciate The Naked Cartoonist. Mankoff’s wisdom, and his practical yet whimsical approach to the creative process, are designed to benefit anyone who has ever stared at a blank piece of paper or canvas and dreamed of transforming it into something truly original (and maybe even commercial).

What’s so funny? Mankoff knows best. He also knows how you can find your own personal voice and message, how you can learn from the masters of the past, how you can transform a current event into a comic tour-de-force…even how you can incorporate telling lies and taking naps into your daily work routine—and justify it.

Released: November 2002
Source: Amazon