What's So Funny About Red?

Taking a break from the news today. I thought I’d share a personal favorite drawing. It is, after all, scarf season in the northeast!

When I first began working for The New Yorker in the 1980s, they didn’t publish color cartoons. But when Tina Brown became Senior Editor in 1992, she wanted to have color cartoons— she made a lot of changes to the magazine, and caused quite a stir. This was one such stir, it made cartoonists very nervous (Ms. Brown’s tenure is a subject for another post) ! For the first few such drawings she published, she bought one of mine and asked me to add color to it.

Here it is:

Harold Ross, co-founder and the first editor of The New Yorker one said, “What’s so funny about red?” He felt cartoons did not need color. The thing about New Yorker cartoons is, they don’t really need color—unless the idea depends on color, or a spot of color. Sometimes it’s important for the humor; this particular cartoon that she published didn’t need to be in color, but I was very happy to oblige!

A few years back, I interviewed the social media team at The New Yorker for a talk I was going to give at SXSW. We discussed how they use cartoons on social media, how the art form performs in that space and why. What I learned was the black, white and grayness of the art form is what makes it so distinctive. It’ the brand, really.

All drawings in this post were done on paper with watercolor, before I got an iPad. I love both medium. I love watercolor, and look for an opportunity to use it. I was never classically trained in how to use the medium (those artists amaze me), I’ve just made it up on my own. It’s fun to see your characters pop to life a little bit with the addition of color.

But I also love black and white and grey, and you can say a lot with grey tones in a drawing. Used well, grey can appear as color.

Below are more color cartoons that the magazine didn’t buy, excited to share with you on my ocassional feature, Deeper Seeing, for paid subscrbers. And the thing is, not one really needs the color, I don’t think…..

Tell me if you agree!

Thanks for being here, I hope you enjoy...