Rating: 
Summary: You'll find your all-time favorite here.
Review: Actually, I can only review the introduction, since Mankoff sent it around by email to those of us who are cute.It's a pretty good introduction. And I can say that without fear of successful contradiction since I actually read most of the intros to books that I'm thinking about reading. And, truth to tell, the cartoons are the main reason I have gotten the New Yorker for, oh, about 30 years. Unless Mankoff intentionally chose the ~worst~ of the cartoons, it's gotta be merely wonderful. But then, I really *like* cartoons. Especially the New Yorker's.
Rating: 
Summary: Curiously lacking in social context
Review: Considering how literate and erudite the New Yorker tends to view itself, it's surprising that a collection of cartoons supposedly representing 75 years of social change are presented so randomly and without temporal identification. The purpose of most cartoons is to make contemporary social commentary in a humorous, visual format. The trouble is, when those cartoons are reproduced years (or decades) later, the cultural situations or mores they originally poked fun at can be meaningless to present-day readers. Early suburban life, the Organization Man of the 50s and 60s, big business, womens lib, the Me Generation of the 80s, etc., were all fertile fields for cartoonists of the time, but topical humor isn't always timeless and needs to be placed in some perspective if it's to be understood years later. Most astute readers of this book will be able to place the cartoons in general time periods from clues in the subject matter or the drawing style, but printing the original date of publication in the margins would have allowed this material to be appreciated as timely social commentary and not just a haphazard collection of stand-alone jokes.
Rating:
Summary: Un libro para iniciarse en las viñetas de New Yorker
Review: Este libro es muy adecuado para introducirse en el estupendo mundo de las viñetas del New Yorker. Me fue posible aquí descubrir un montón de autores esenciales para esa publicación y que son de una calidad excelente. Inteligencia y verdadero ingenio están muy extendidos en las páginas de este libro. Lo recomiendo vivamente.
Rating:
Summary: You'll find your all-time favorite here.
Review: Finally -- one book with many all-time favorite New Yorker cartoons!! This book has cartoons from "way back when" until the current time. Cartoons are a fascinating way to look at the history of the world and this book has the best of the best!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent collection
Review: I have long enjoyed Bob Mankoff's taste in cartoons, and was excited to find he was the editor behind this book. Through The Cartoon Bank (and now The New Yorker magazine), he has done a great job bringing cartoons to the public, and this book serves as another excellent result of his efforts. For fans of The New Yorker's cartoons, this book is a must buy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent collection
Review: I have long enjoyed Bob Mankoff's taste in cartoons, and was excited to find he was the editor behind this book. Through The Cartoon Bank (and now The New Yorker magazine), he has done a great job bringing cartoons to the public, and this book serves as another excellent result of his efforts. For fans of The New Yorker's cartoons, this book is a must buy.
Rating: 
Summary: The New Yorker 75th Anniversary Cartoon Collection Is Biased
Review: I just read this book cover to cover. I found it a vanity-piece for the editor and was disappointed by the selection and presentation of the cartoons. The introduction is precious and information-free. On the preciousness, who expects or wants to read the cartoon editor's version of humorous writing? On the content, I wanted to know how the cartoons were chosen and how he chose to distribute them through the book. Also, some of the cartoons were smudgy and hard to read --- it would have been interesting for the intro to discuss the shape the various originals were in. I was amazed to find that the editor included as many of his own cartoons in the anthology as he did of Charles Addams'. Even if he considers his own work at the level of Addams', it would be more graceful to leave the announcement of this fact to someone else. His parents, perhaps. Finally, I would have really enjoyed seeing the cartoons grouped in some manner, by genre or by decade for example. Seeing either the evolution of topics or the universality of topics would have been interesting. I suspect that such a sorting would have made the past few years of New Yorker cartoons look topical and transient --- as I have found them in the magazine itself.
Rating:
Summary: Eclectic Collection and Layout of Many Famous Cartoons
Review: I was introduced to the recent books of New Yorker cartoons by The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons, which I liked. Imagine my excitement when I saw this massive volume of 707 cartoons by Peter Arno, Charles Addams, Roz Chast, Mary Petty, William Steig, Jack Zeigler and others. When I opened the book, I was in for another surprise. The book didn't live up to its potential, which is why I graded it down one star. First, the introduction was a weak stab at humor that didn't work for me about encouraging the reader to skip the introduction and go to the cartoons. I did learn from the introduction that Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor of The New Yorker, chose these cartoons after reviewing 60,000 cartoons and consulting with the cartoonists, editors of The New Yorker, and readers of the magazine. That research provided the opportunity to insert some of the comments that were made either into the introduction or onto the pages with the cartoons. Neither was done. You can safely skip the introduction, and you will like the book better. Second, the material could have used some organization. The time periods, subjects, and styles seemed haphazard to me in their order. That robbed the material of some of its strength. The layouts were of 1 to 3 cartoons per page in random fashion. It has a feeling like a scrapbook would. On the other hand, you'll never find all of these cartoons any place else. Here are a few of my many favorites: Man in pajamas in a hotel room: "Front desk? There are no little candies on my pillow." Pilgrim speaking to a Native American: "We're here to escape religious persecution. What are you here for?" One couple in a living room to another couple: "The work being done on your marriage -- are you having it done, or are you doing it yourselves? Couple looking at a sunset: "Too much purple." "Now, if you'll just sign right here . . . you'll be making the biggest mistake of your life!" The book repeats many of the best cartoons from the various subject series (money, business, lawyers, and doctors) that are separately published by The New Yorker. The book would make a good gift except that the reproduction of the cartoons is not as sharp as it should be. It seems to have been caused by the digitalization process. Perhaps that's another cartoon for us: "Technology is always a source of progress." The real strength of the cartoons is to remind us about our stalled thinking: Wanting the world to conform to our ideas about it, rather than perceiving reality and the other person's point of view. The captions take some line or concept that we all use at one time or another, and put them into an unfamiliar setting or turn them around a little. If you treat this as a potential source of self-improvement rather than humor, this will be a five-star book for you. Sit down with someone you care about and discuss the lessons that you both draw from the humor. That will give you the added benefit of becoming closer, as well as wiser. If the book doesn't make you laugh, think about why! Why is the humor stalled?
Rating:
Summary: Eclectic Collection and Layout of Many Famous Cartoons
Review: I was introduced to the recent books of New Yorker cartoons by The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons, which I liked. Imagine my excitement when I saw this massive volume of 707 cartoons by Peter Arno, Charles Addams, Roz Chast, Mary Petty, William Steig, Jack Zeigler and others.
When I opened the book, I was in for another surprise. The book didn't live up to its potential, which is why I graded it down one star. First, the introduction was a weak stab at humor that didn't work for me about encouraging the reader to skip the introduction and go to the cartoons. I did learn from the introduction that Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor of The New Yorker, chose these cartoons after reviewing 60,000 cartoons and consulting with the cartoonists, editors of The New Yorker, and readers of the magazine. That research provided the opportunity to insert some of the comments that were made either into the introduction or onto the pages with the cartoons. Neither was done. You can safely skip the introduction, and you will like the book better. Second, the material could have used some organization. The time periods, subjects, and styles seemed haphazard to me in their order. That robbed the material of some of its strength. The layouts were of 1 to 3 cartoons per page in random fashion. It has a feeling like a scrapbook would. On the other hand, you'll never find all of these cartoons any place else. Here are a few of my many favorites: Man in pajamas in a hotel room: "Front desk? There are no little candies on my pillow." Pilgrim speaking to a Native American: "We're here to escape religious persecution. What are you here for?" One couple in a living room to another couple: "The work being done on your marriage -- are you having it done, or are you doing it yourselves? Couple looking at a sunset: "Too much purple." "Now, if you'll just sign right here . . . you'll be making the biggest mistake of your life!" The book repeats many of the best cartoons from the various subject series (money, business, lawyers, and doctors) that are separately published by The New Yorker. The book would make a good gift except that the reproduction of the cartoons is not as sharp as it should be. It seems to have been caused by the digitalization process. Perhaps that's another cartoon for us: "Technology is always a source of progress." The real strength of the cartoons is to remind us about our stalled thinking: Wanting the world to conform to our ideas about it, rather than perceiving reality and the other person's point of view. The captions take some line or concept that we all use at one time or another, and put them into an unfamiliar setting or turn them around a little. If you treat this as a potential source of self-improvement rather than humor, this will be a five-star book for you. Sit down with someone you care about and discuss the lessons that you both draw from the humor. That will give you the added benefit of becoming closer, as well as wiser. If the book doesn't make you laugh, think about why! Why is the humor stalled?
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly shallow
Review: My public library had a wondrous New Yorker cartoon collection in the 1980s. Each page was enjoyable, and there were gems throughout. Thanks to Mr. Mankoff's editorial decisions, my respect for the clever, observant, and hilarious world of New Yorker cartoons is gone. It was sad to trudge through this new collection and put it down after page 121. I only laughed 4 times, and didn't have the energy to process yet another wordy attempt at humor by Roz Chast.
I kept hoping for some sign of sharpness and talent to appear. The unchronological mish-mash of styles and topics was jarring, as the 1950s office/domestic arena of humor simply does not mesh with the 1970s and 1990s focus on puncturing pretension. The reader is forced to repeatedly cross the line between innocent nostalgia and excruciating staleness. The book's extremely poor printing of Chas. Addams' work was puzzling. The tiresome, annoying, and intentionally unreadable introduction gave the answer; All the artwork was digitized in the hope of improving quality. The freshness and impact of hand-drawn lines and brushed tones is best translated through photographic line-art and halftone processes. Vitality is lost with present day digital techniques.
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