Caricature Books

This book was way cool! I have been a fan of Steven's art for a few years now and all of his work is great. Devilboy is a really cool character he's my hero for now... And the story about the old woman in the shoe is great. I recommend this book to anyone who has a great twisted sense of humor. You will definatley enjoy it!

This book was great! I have been a fan of Steven's art for a few years now and really like his work. I have shown the book to a few close friends and they are looking forward getting their own copy. Check out [publisher's website] for other cool stuff like T-Shirts.

I first stumbled across Steven's work on the internet while just messing around. The man is an incredible artist, and even better, he is sick in the head. I always loved the simple, strange child like style of Silverstein, but it never went quite far enough. Steven Vincent takes us over the edge and straight into the ground with a sickening splat. Illustrations that by themselves alone just make you laugh because you are either worried by them that much, or you are as sick as Vincent himself. His stories and rhymes will amuse anyone with a decent sense of humor, and will pleasantly offend anyone without one. All my friends I've shown his books to would gladly buy their own copies ... .

I have been a fan of Steven Vincents since he first started his website. I have everything he has published besides publishing several of his cartoons in my own magazine Hacker's Source: Gateway to Independent Horror.

This is one of his best. If you want lots of laughs and you have a great sense of humor you will also love this. When Steven told me he was selling here I had to come and share my love of his work with others who are not familiar with him. You will be 100 percent glad you ordered this and will come back looking for more.

Very enjoyable, loving, entertaining and a definate for cat lovers. I just need to know where I can purchase the book?
Please email me that information. Thank you.

My brother and I fell on the ground laughing hysterically at the illustrations and captions--although this was 9 years ago
we still get a good laugh out of it. We almost got kicked out of the bookstore for disturbing the others.

As a life-long cat LOVER, I was suprised to find myself laughing hysterically at nearly every page in this book. The pictures and the light-hearted text are too cute and silly to be taken as malicious. The best advice - wait.

I got this book up at a used book store, I love it! It's hilarious, and I have to keep telling my mom not to let our siamese cat see it. It's one of my 3 books I always have on hand, and I read it all the time. My fave exits are turkey and microwave. Makes a good coffee table book, and a good gift, cat-lover or cat-hater. Just DON'T get any ideas! Have fun!

Liza Donnelly has written a great book, a book I have been waiting for. I'm embarrassed to say it's been out a while and I've just discovered it... but Funny Ladies is well researched, well-written, funny and enlightening. The history of women cartoonists at the New Yorker follows the history of women in the 20th century, and reading this book is and eye-opener on both levels. I was thrilled to learn more about cartoonists I'd heard of and discover ones I had not. And learning more about the founders of the New Yorker, Harold Ross and Jane Grant, plus the role cartoon editors there have played over time, is enlightening.

A great book, great read, great find.

Thanks to the cartoonist/author. There are precious few of us, and I'm so happy you preserved this portion of our history.

"The New Yorker" is universally considered to be the best magazine and it regularly runs cartoons. Unlike many other cartoons noted for their in-your-face approach, the message of the cartoons in "The New Yorker" is generally very subtle. Many great cartoonists have had their work featured in the magazine, and some of them were women. This is their story.
It is one that in general is concurrent with what happened in the rest of society. In the early years, there were few career opportunities open to women and their work was evaluated in different ways. The twenties were a time of advancement, but the hard reality of the depression in the thirties had an overall negative effect on the status of women. Once the Second World War began, women were needed in every capacity, so their stock once again rose, only to fall back down after the war and into the reactionary fifties. Finally, the overall advancements in the role of women in the sixties and seventies destroyed all barriers to women cartoonists.
Through it all, the pioneers struggled with their drawings and captions, using them to make important statements about the world that existed around them. It was a world that they struggled against, yet eventually emerged triumphant through the success of those of their gender that succeeded them. As much as anything, this book is a chronicle of the emergence of women from the "pedestal of assumed inferiority" to one where their work is appreciated, respected and expected.

This is not a cartoon collection, it's a history - but it does include cartoons by every one of the cartoonists mentioned. It slightly before the founding of The New Yorker, with how the magazine came to be, and how Ross's independent wife (her name was Jane Grant, and she didn't change it when she got married) was an influence on what he expected the readership of the magazine to be, and who he would accept as writers and illustrators.

Some of the highlights: learning more about Helen Hokinson, much of whose stuff is still funny; the sad fate of Mary Petty. There was a little too much about Donnelly herself in there, but I guess I can understand the impulse. This really did bring out some of the developments in the glass ceiling for particular kinds of women artists.

When one thinks about WW2, and women filling jobs that used to be men's, one thinks of Rosie the Riveter - until I read this book, it had not occurred to me that women also filled the men's jobs as cartoonists at The New Yorker! The section on the war era includes some of the funniest cartoons.

Of course Roz Chast is included in here - quite possibly my favorite contemporary cartoonist. I greatly enjoyed the details about how she got into cartooning, and seeing how changes in her own stages of life have made it into her cartoons.

I think the book as a whole is the same sort of mix as the magazine - interesting articles, punctuated by cartoons. So if you like the magazine, you should enjoy the book!

FUNNY LADIES: THE NEW YORKER'S GREATEST WOMEN CARTOONISTS AND THEIR CARTOONS could easily have been featured in our 'Cartoons and Graphic Novels' section, but is reviewed here for its ability to appeal beyond the usual confines of the cartoonist fan's world. Over the decades a growing core of female artists has been creating New Yorker cartoons weekly: Liza Donnelly, herself a New Yorker cartoonist for over twenty years, provides a history of women's humor and its evolution, pairing an anthology of cartoons with a survey of the genre in a wonderful, vivid overview.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

My eight year old daughter loves this book and I love it as well. But it is too frustrating for my six year old son.

I bought it because my son like to draw but needed a few ideas that were easy to do on his own as opposed to copying. The books format allows kids (and adults) to really do some cute things with pictures.

I use this whole series in my Art Class to Elementary children. They love this extra activity. It builds their confidence that they can draw identifible things. They even take multiple instructions and create a whole picture. I ripped the book apart and laminated the pages into easy to use cards. Works great!

Very pleased with this How to Draw Book. Our Grandchildren--ages 5 and 7--- sat down and immediately started drawing people from the book. I was amazed! Easy directions for them to understand.

This is a great bare-bones book on how to draw cartoon cats in all kinds of interesting poses. I love it. One caveat: the actual content is basically identical to the book, Kids Draw Cartoon Cats, Kittens, Lions and Tigers. Kids Draw Cats, Kittens, Lions and Tigers (Kids Draw) I ordered both, thinking they would be different. They are not.

Either book should give you some fun, however. I could wish that the book was longer with more pictures, but that is nitpicking.

Good cartoon books on drawing specifically cats are hard to find, and this is one of the best. I am currently working on a script with 4 different cat types, and this book has them all, including the tiger! Althouth basic drawing techniques could be improved (he jumps to the finished product quickly), it is still a great teaching tool and a lot of fun.

I am 12 years old and I love to draw.And this book helped me to do better.I always thought you could draw by just drawing right off the bat and in this book, I found that you had to start off with shapes and guide lines.Now I can draw much better now that I know the proper way to draw.I also had a problem, when drawing animals that stood on all fours.It would always be very difficult for me to draw their legs so that they looked good and this book helped me with that too.I was going to buy "How to Draw Cartoon Dogs, Puppies, and Wolves" but I found it was out of print.I saw a used one here on Amazon but it was $..., and I don't have that kind of money...

This book really improved my cartooning. I spent many hours with this book and have really improved my drawing. The "Modeling Cats After People" section gave me some great insights into expressing personality.

My kids loved it as well. They especially loved the "Cat Characters and Costumes" section. I highly recommend this book.

What makes "Janet and Me" so beautiful is that it combines all of the complex and conflicting elements that are such an important part of being the caregiver to the person who is the love of your life: the tenderness, the fear, the rage, and the anger at a heartless medical system that turns a deaf ear when people are at their most vulnerable. This is, without a doubt, one of THE most touching books about love, loss, caregiving and true friendship that I have ever read. I can't recommend any book more highly! (A shortened version of "Janet and Me" is also contained in the wonderful book on caregiving, "An Uncertain Inheritance," which is also sold on Amazon.com.)

Julia Schopick
www.HonestMedicine.com

This book describes in both narrative form and cartoons the story of Stan Mack's relationship with his long-time partner, Janet, and how he coped with her illness and subsequent death from cancer. Two primary themes emerged, with the first theme focusing on their love and commitment to each other. You finish the book thinking that they were lucky to have had each other in their lives. Stan's tender and total caregiving of Janet during the terminal phase of her illness was particularly impressive. The second theme concerned the reactions of the medical establishment to terminal disease, and the discomfort medical professionals have in confronting the fact that they will not always be able to cure their patients. One of the most heartrending parts of the book is toward the end, when Stan and Janet try repeatedly, in vain, to contact her physician (who had been wonderfully supportive at the beginning of her treatment) to ask whether her chemotherapy should be discontinued and what could be done instead. It was only when Stan started hospice care that Janet started receiving the home help and other sources of support that she needed to improve the quality of her remaining days.

Indeed, one of the features of this book that cancer patients and their families might find most helpful is that Mack provides a more realistic picture of the day-to-day aspects of caring for a terminally ill loved one. You get the sense that he wants to prevent others the trial-and-error efforts he had to go through to figure out what worked best. A related moral is that persistence is needed in dealing with insurance companies and the medical establishment. Lastly, his is a precautionary tale of the legal difficulties facing unmarried partners. Janet's will, naming Stan as executor, was challenged by her relatives, resulting in a legal battle that took over a year to resolve.

This last paragraph probably makes the book sound like it is cut and dried and concerned only with practical and logistical details. That is not at all the case. It is, first and foremost, a story of love and loss, and you will almost certainly be unable to read this book without being moved to tears by the depth of Mack's love and pain. But perhaps the greatest strength of this book is that Mack points out that, in real life, love and loss doesn't proceed like you see on bad made-for-TV specials, or "Love Story," where the heroine drifts off to sleep after a very short and essentially painless illness. In real life, love and loss are embedded in a host of not-so-pleasant details like "what kind of bedpan is best for the advanced cancer patient?" (answer: full-size bedside commode) and "how can I get her to take her pain medicine if she can no longer swallow?" The beauty of this book is that Mack shows so compellingly how love can shine through and conquer all those messy details.

I could barely put it down. It was painful to read, but worth every minute of the pain. Stan Mack is a person anyone would want to have around in a crisis. He is a rock, exhausted but understanding.
I met Janet Bode briefly twice. She approached me because, as she said, "I recognize your hairstyle!" I was bald at the time, having also undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer. We ended up having a long talk, and I was devastated a year and a half later to run into her again, and see that she was bald again. She was beautiful, not just cute.
This is a wonderful book. I am giving a copy to a friend of mine who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

This book is a unique, honest, and bravely told story of powerful emotions, true love, beautiful friendship, and perseverance. The author conveys the wide-ranging emotions of Janet, himself, and those around him without dodging a single one--no matter how hard-hitting, no matter how far out in left field. It's all here--the sadness of course, but also the anger, the humor, the desperation, the sarcasm. It's incredibly real and raw. The illustrations and "comic" style, rather than creating a lighter feel, enrich the story and make it even more accessbile to the reader. At the end, you feel you really know Stan and Janet and you really like them. It left me with a renewed faith in love, friendship, and the power of real human connections.

How did Mr. Cochran know my lab? This book is PERFECT for any dog lover, but especially lab lovers. I highly recommend it as a gift to someone or for yourself. I'll treasure my copy forever, just as I do my labs!

Do you own a Lab, or know someone that does? If so than you have to read this little book! The little cartoons Bruce Cockran comes up with for lab behavior are so typical that it it is just plain funny. From shedding to stealing your spot on the couch, there is a cartoon for every Labrador trait!

This book is the perfect gift for a Lab owner, it will bring a laugh to anyone who has one of these funny dogs!

Mr. Cochran has another hit to his credit. I'm definately going to get ALL of his books. He really gets into the mind of labs and their owners with this one. I'm on labs #13 and #14 now, and they're as memorable as my first. I've bought several of these for friends, and they've loved them too. Bravo Cochran!

If you have a lab, you will love this little book. It made me laugh, totally the typical traits of lovable, wonderful labs.

Although short, this brilliant little book is replete with merciless venom, skillfully directed towards literary celebrities who indeed deserve it, and with a visual skill worthy of comparison with the great caricaturists of the past like Hogarth or Daumier. So far as I can judge, everything he says is literally true. He does not show his targets 'warts and all', but rather as warts, period. Altogether this makes for an exhilarating romp through the depths of human credulity, cupidity and perversity. Totally delightful!

More fun than is probably legal, Literary Lives is Edward Sorel at his very best. The writing is robust, irreverant and spicy; the drawing ferociously alive. I read this in the dentist's chair, on a fast train, in a darkened room and in other unnameable places. I love it, my dentist loves it and my friends love it. A marvelous vista and a delicious read.

Brilliant comic strip biographies of ten
famous writers. All the funnier because
everything that's said is true.

Edward Sorel has always annoyed me because most of his stuff is political, and his politics are predictable. (I never liked Jules Feiffer, for the same reason.) But Sorel's inimitable line and color--ah! This is a guy whose aim is to produce the appearance of doodle-book spontaneity, and he's willing to redraw something a hundred times to get that effect.

So I love his art but hate his potted, derivative opinions. But this is a different kettle of beans.

Turns out he's got a very original wit, once you get him away from politics. His low-down anger and meanness skewer Ayn Rand, Sartre, Proust, Jung, Lillian Hellman and others, with a viciousness I've never seen displayed in by a--how you say?--purely typographical critic.

The seeming randomness of the selection itself borders on genius. Making fun of Sartre and Hellman--okay, fish in a barrel, right? But Proust, Tolstoy, Yeats, Jung? It's like satire planned by a nutritionist.

Most of these little illustrated bios were first printed in The Atlantic Monthly, where I saw one or two. Stitching a number of them together like this enhances rather than dilutes the effect of each one. You get the definite sense of a clear point-of-view, rather than a one-off ha-ha at the expense of a someone far grander than the lowly cartoonist.

I suppose he's getting on in years now, Sorel; he was doing political caricatures in Esquire when I was a little girl in the 60s. But I hope this Stracheyesque satire is the herald of a new career phrase, rather than just a small but gorgeous valedictory.

(POSTSCRIPT: I was trying to damn with faint praise when I wrote this, I think. Actually I'm a huge Sorel fan and chagrined to know he read my condescending words. I know he read them because he sent me a postcard of thanks (oof!) to my New York address. I am not fit to fill his inkwell. Thanks, Ed...and I'll let my foregoing embarrassment stand as mute testimony to my capacity for blather. Speaking of which, I've been looking over the old Esquire stuff, and it holds up very well.)

This is a fun book, with cute pictures, and a wry sense of humor seen throughout. Buy this as a gift for the guy who is coming out...or for the guy who is long out....or just for anyone who enjoys gay humor.

I found this book on holiday in San Francisco, and loved it so much I brought back to the UK for a friend. It's a great book with good drawings.

I got this book when I babysitted my friend's pets. I loved that book! It is so cute and farout! Many friends of mine LOVED it and wanted to buy them! Seem that Amazon is only place that I could be able to find this little book. I tried many stores, no luck!

This is a little 6" X 6" case-bound book that I bought for myself and now plan on giving as gifts to all my friends. Every gay household should have one on display. What with all the erotic colored drawings that reminded me of Tom of Finland's work, this is a sexy little book. Each letter of the alphabet from A-Z holds the key to hot and funny scenes of gay sex. Maurice Vellekoop is a wonderful artist and has written very funny lines here. I really enjoyed this book. My advise is to get your copy now before you forget & or it goes out of print.

Almost anyone familiar with publishing will enjoy this book. It may be a little too painful if you are still a midlist author.

This group of 104 cartoons features works by Charles Barsotti, Roz Chast, J.B. Handelsman, Ed Koren, Victoria Roberts, and Jack Ziegler. The cartoons capture the wittiest New Yorker views, and leave you with a wry taste in your mouth. Selected by Bob Mankoff (cartoon editor of The New Yorker since 1997), this collection is one of the best that has been produced recently from the past offerings of that venerable publication. If you like authors, books, and reading, you'll love this book!

I graded down the book because of the inexplicable lack of an introduction. What better subject for one than literary cartoons? The books in the series which featured such introductions are clearly more interesting than the ones that don't.

It was hard for me to pick a few cartoons to feature for you. I was tempted to include all but a few.

Author humor

(1) Man leaving home wearing suit and carrying a brief case: 'Wait a minute. Where am I going? I'm a writer.'

(2) James Joyce's refrigerator to-do list: 'Forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.'

(3) Raven says to Poe: 'Nevermore. And you can quote me.'

Publisher humor

(1) Editor to Dickens: 'I wish you would make up your mind, Mr. Dickens. Was it the best of times or the worst of times? It could scarecely have been both.'

(2) 'It doesn't work as a novel. But we're willing to publish it as a desk calendar.'

(3) 'Chicken Vindaloo for the Hindu Soul is but the tip of the iceberg in our initial strategy of global expansion.'

Book Seller Humor

(1) 'Let me get you another copy. Someone left a slice of salami in this one.'

(2) Book shelves organized by length of attention span.

(3) Book shelves organized by size of author advance.

Reader humor

(1) 'I do want to solve all my problems, but I'll wait till it comes out in soft cover.'

(2) 'Lately, I've been reading Jane Austen -- just to clear my palate.'

(3) Fan to author: 'I really enjoyed your hype.'

Media humor

(1) Talk show host holding enormous tome, addressing author: 'If you were to boil your book down to a few words, what would be its message?'

(2) 'Oprah is definite, Barnes and Noble is giving you front windows and Norman Mailer has agreed to a feud.'

The others are just as good or better. These are just samples to whet your appetite.

After you have read, chuckled, and enjoyed these wonderful cartoons, consider why we find these cartoons to be funny. Is it because books have become a commodity, rather than works of important ideas and art? Is that really so funny? What should we do about that? If you find these questions provocative, read The Business of Books.

I purchased this book for my favorite english professor in college and took a glance in it myself and fell in love with it! You do not have to be a professor to get this--the humor is for all!

No matter how jaded, how cynical, how hard-boiled you may think yourself to be, at least one of these cartoons from the archives of The New Yorker will make you smile! Mr. Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker since 1997, has put together a classic assortment of 104 drawings from the archives. "The New Yorker Book of Literary Cartoons" captures the cachet of the City, while poking fun at writers, editors, publishers, booksellers, and, most of all, at books, and those who read them. From the bookstore browsing Bibliophile Bikers Club to Mme Sartre's empty mailbox ("Sacré bleu! Again with the nothingness, and on my birthday yet!") to the hilarious note magnetized on "James Joyce's Refrigerator," one will find sterling examples of the wonderful satirical wit which has graced the pages of this magazine for 75 years. Buy this book for yourself! (Highly recommended for writer's block.) Better yet, buy this book for your editor or for your bookworm friends!