The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker (Book & CD)

If you have read the New Yorker Magazine then you really will need no prodding in purchasing this fine set...for those of you who have never experienced New Yorker cartoons, I have two words for you...CHARLES ADDAMS....Charles Addams, the creator of the ADDAMS FAMILY, has many of his finest cartoons housed within this book and CDs....His brand of macabre humor served as the foundation, which Larson, Wilson, Kliban, and the rest, built their careers upon....this intro to Charles Addams work is only one of the many highlights in this set as you will find many other artists of high quality here, some of whom share Addams' dark style....this set, along with THE COMPLETE FAR SIDE, by Larson are the rosetta stones of illustrative humor... One note: Because there were so many cartoons (well over 60,000) you do not have them all present in the book, so only a rather large sampling is contained within...the CD's are where you will find the complete cartoons...but as it states in the book's forward, the tactile look and feel of handling the pages of cartoons is much better than reading them on a pc monitor which is why the book was produced and not just sold as a CD ROM only set...I could not agree more.... strongly recommended!

This magnificent twenty-odd pounds of compliation publishes in paper form several thousand of the best, wittiest and most culturally-defining cartoons from nine decades worth of The New Yorker. As if that isn't enough, it also includes on CD ALL--that's every single one, folks--cartoons EVER published in the magazine. Charles Addams is here in all his demented glory, as are half a hundred other artists. From the follies of 1920's Flappers to the inane antics of the prosperous Clinton years, this book pulls no punches as it delivers some of the most excellent satire and sight gags known to humankind. Absolutely worth the price! One for the ages. A reconstruction of 20th century fads, politics, daily life and popular culture. I bought this as a selfish Christmas gift for a relative, knowing he'd let me borrow it. Two birds with one stone, you could say, and you might want to take a hint. I could go on and on but this work instantly speaks for itself!

I finally picked this book up yesterday (10/2007) at a local Barnes and Noble. First of all, everything you've read about the CDs is true; the resolution is so poor that the point of many of the cartoons is lost. Don't buy the book for the CDs.
Second, the cartoons included are great, there are interesting essays about many of the artists and even repeated cartoon concepts, like the "slipper dog." It's a great read.
Third, because the book was so (relatively) inexpensive ($19.95) and hugely heavy and large (it weighs over 9 lbs.) I have decided I might actually do something I would have considered unthinkable: to take the book apart and separate it into two or three pieces that I can actually read sitting in a chair. I've collected, read and loved books all my life and believe me, this is not something I'm considering lightly...

This is pretty much the definition of the phrase, "Be careful what you ask for..." OK, the massive coffee table book of New Yorker cartoons is one thing -- and a good thing at that. But the two CD's with every cartoon ever published in the New Yorker are just evil.

Drop the CD into your computer, pick any year from 1925 to 2004 -- and suddenly you're browsing around 900 cartoons from that year! Hours pass easily as you click through literally many tens of thousands of New Yorker cartoons.

The cartoons are in Acrobat (pdf) format, and you need Acrobat version 6 or later, which will require some people to upgrade. The disk is readable by PC's and Mac's ( OS X or later, only because there's no version 6 for Mac OS 9.x or lower.) The Acrobat interface also allows you to search by cartoonist name, which is a huge boon.

This is a world class gift -- and my advice is to not take the chance someone will forget to buy it for you. I'm giving four and already have one for myself...

IF you want this book almost exclusively for reading the cartoons - on paper - by all means buy it. They are delightful, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. The cartoons are a terrific history lesson of the culture of the New Yorker reader. For example, while FDR was being re-elected three times by historic margins, the New Yorker reader identified with wealthy characters who couldn't stand his egalitarian economics. Fascinating and funny besides.

IF you are largely looking forward to the CD-ROM's, DON'T buy this book under any circumstances. As reported elsewhere, the cartoons are so poorly reproduced that signs - often essential to the laugh - are completely illegible. Also, sometimes Adobe Reader will obscure cartoons under a gray "filter". The filter doesn't disappear until the magnification reaches 200%, by which time the poor quality is far worse. Also, at 200%, the cartoon is often so large that you can't see the whole thing on your screen. Mind-boggling.

How could "The New Yorker" jeopardize their reputation with these shoddy CD's? I understand their concerns about people re-publishing good copies, but as it stands, these CD's are extremely frustrating and guaranteed to annoy and disappoint. I have had more satisfying experiences with CD-ROM's that came free on a Cheerios box.

The straight benefit out of this work is the sheer number of occasions most anyone finds oneself laughing at/enjoying New Yorker cartoons regardless one's tastes! The added benefit comes from having all the cartoons in PDF version as well--alas their resolution is already inadequate for the newer computer screens. Besides the book's comprehensive index by authors, the software makes all cartoons searchable by all sorts of keywords--great capability when sleuthing for something, be it an author, an idea/theme, or a word. There is also a derivative benefit to be drawn by those students of social history, through the lens of high(er) class humor. I cannot say enough about this latter benefit for one's imagination is the limit. Countless will be the journeys to this work--get a second copy ;-)

There is also a word of caution. Depending on one's style, one should pace oneself carefully through this work. Gulping vs. sipping, chewing vs. swallowing, and such, are all styles of going through this work one ought to considwer rather carefully, on each encounter, for this is one of the few things this package cannot achieve: to pace one through.

Happy Anniversary to New Yorker, and, to its institutionalized pillar, New Yorker Cartoons!

Nota Bene: Pair this work with "Covering the New Yorker," for an all-round experience!

Hours of entertainment await you when you open this ultra thick and heavy book, the coffee table book that could serve as a coffee table itself. Not only do you get hundreds of cartoons printed within the book, along with essays on the many artists and on certain subjects that seem to endlessly recur, but you also get two CDs with every single cartoon ever printed in The New Yorker, from the beginning up until about February of 2004. These CDs are so intoxicating that you can easily spend hours just flipping from one cartoon to the other, or exploring the works of different cartoonists, or examining themes and subjects as their treatments have changed over the years, or anything. The CD indices can be a little difficult to navigate and can be frustrating if you are looking for a certain cartoon you remember from years earlier, but don't quite remember the exact wording of the tag line or the exact makeup of the drawing, but that just leads you to find even more cartoons you like so well, you eventually forget what you were looking for in the first place!

Buy this book and keep it in a place of honor on a (strong) table or shelf to which you have easy access (and is near your computer), because you'll be constantly wanting to go back and page through it!

I must have received a newer edition than that of most of the reviewers. They say the TWO cd's are low res and unreadable, well i have only ONE cd and the resolution is fine. Granted, you can't copy and paste these and i can't find the search tool to allow me to browse by subject or cartoonist as they claim but the sheer amount of cartoons is daunting. Being able to feel the social issues of the time period through these captioned drawings is just fascinating and gives you a unique feel to history, at times the captions that make no sense to me are my favorite, as i can see that they are timely and reflective of their time. Not dissapointed at all!

I agree with the reviewers who point out that the cd/dvd-version cartoons are occasionally under-pixeled. BUT, more than half at least are just fine like that, so there's 40,000 cartoons to enjoy. Why not see that as simply a very big bonus?

The real deal here is 2,000 well-printed cartoons from some of America's most consistently trenchant cartoonists over the last eight decades. For twenty bucks, that seems pretty fair.

Over a thousand cartoons from Arno, Addams and Wilson alone? That right there is worth the ticket price. These guys are geniuses, and while no one will love everything here, anyone who is literate and possessed of a sense of humor will find many moments of sheer pleasure.

Those who find these cartoons too "high-brow", semi-oxymoronicism aside, will get by with their daily dose of Garfield and Family Circus. Lovers of the truly wry will be happy to enjoy this massive tome instead.

The book itself is beautiful, and nice articles to accompany the cartoons.

And I'm very pleased that they used the cross-platform Adobe Acrobat format! I was afraid that some little proprietary crashy app would put a tiny 640x480 window in the middle of my screen, and was relieved to find that my existing Acrobat viewer would display it all just fine. (I remember how disappointed I was in the complete Mad Magazine on CD-ROM which required its own funny little viewer app.)

They could have used a little better resolution in the scans, but I guess they didn't want to compete with the cartoon bank business. It's certianly "good enough" but don't try printing the cartoons too large

Absolutely Amazing !!!

I always meant to subscribe to the New Yorker, mostly for the Cartoons, but never did. Now I can make up for all those years of deprivation. The book itself is wonderful. The CD's are very easy to use and make viewing the tens of thousands of cartoons a pleasure; their resolution is excellent and the navigation system is superb.

Looking thru cartoons of many years past is a real education. What fun to find that most of them are still hilarious. My kids couldn't put it down. We all loved it. You will too!!!

While this collection would make a fantastic gift, make sure you order a copy for yourself too. There are countless hours of laughter, joy, and entertainment here.

Absolutely Amazing !!!

I always meant to subscribe to the New Yorker, mostly for the Cartoons, but never did. Now I can make up for all those years of deprivation. The book itself is wonderful. The CD's are very easy to use and make viewing the tens of thousands of cartoons a pleasure; their resolution is excellent and the navigation system is superb.

Looking thru cartoons of many years past is a real education. What fun to find that most of them are still hilarious. My kids couldn't put it down. We all loved it. You will too!!!

While this collection would make a fantastic gift, make sure you order a copy for yourself too. There are countless hours of laughter, joy, and entertainment here.

What a great book. I've always thought there was a doctoral dissertation lurking in cartoons on the pages of the New Yorker, and now I'm sure of it. Look at the difference in style and content across the decades, look at the cartoons that were funny in 1950 and see what is still funny now and what has become outdated, look at the vast changes in cartooning!

But most of all, just look at all of these thousands, no, tens of thousands of cartoons and have a good time. The book is gold, with its 2,004 cartoons, and the essays about the decades and the artists are very well done, but if the book is gold, then there's platinum in the CDs.

One thing - if you're a Mac user, as I am, be aware that you really need OSX to make this work (a detail some purchase sites don't mention).

I just bought this book(the hard cover version) and think it's brilliant. The book itself is quite large but it's packed with cartoons from 8 decades. I like the fact that you have a real solid book. I've read some of the reviews about people complaining about the size of the book but unless you don't intend to read it while you're on the toilet, it is perfect for reading on a table or even your lap.
The quality of the CDs are good as well. I don't know what everybody is complaining about. The book WITHOUT the CDs is worth much more than what I paid for. Having 2 CDs with over 68000(!!!) additional cartoons included make it the best book I ever bought.

I personally love The New Yorker cartoons, and they're the first things I read when I get the magazine. Therefore, the prospect of being able to have every cartoon ever published was very exciting. The best part of this collection is that you can navigate to whatever cartoons you want to see, or you can simply browse through ones you have never seen before and discover a veritable treasure trove. One thing that I noticed was that many themes recur throughout the years and that some things that were relevant 50 years ago are still relevant now. Even in terms of politics and the way other countries feel towards America. Whoever rated this very low doesn't know what they're talking about. Sure the book is big, but if you wanted to read the cartoons in bed you could easily sit there with a laptop and peruse the cd-roms. Also, to those who said that the cartoons were low resolution, I noticed that in Adobe Acrobat where the cd opens, they give you the option to zoom in, therefore enabling you to read the caption. I observed this within minutes of opening the cd on my computer for the first time. I don't know whether other people just don't have this or were too impatient to realize it was there. In any case, I highly recommend this book to whoever likes New Yorker cartoons, or enjoys witty humor.

I lament, along with other reviewers the terrible horrible very bad image quality of the CDs. The problem is NOT a question of space on the CDs - just the opposite. If you save a typical cartoon to your computer, you will find that it makes a huge file - more than one megabyte. But if you scan the same perfect-quality cartoon from the book at a reasonable resolution, say 100 dots per inch, you will get a fine image at perhaps one-tenth of the size or less of the terrible image off the CD. A curious consequence is that instead of two CDs, they could have packaged a complete single CD with far better images.

As a college instructor, I bought the book in part for classroom use, and that requires displaying cartoons on an overhead projector. The projected image quality is so bad that the cartoons are unusable.

The New Yorker seems to be non-communicative about this fiasco - my email to Robert Mankoff went unanswered.

I hoped that the Complete New Yorker - the entire contents of all of the magazines, including the cartoons, would solve the problem, but the reviews for that product are not promising. Such sadness - such attitude!

On the other hand, the book is 5-star wonderful - fine quality reproductions, and a unique way to enjoy studying history. If the CD were up to snuff, this set would be 5 stars. I rate the package 1 star to warn prospective buyers like me, who want or need the CDs.

The New Yorker has always been at the forefront of the times. This is especially true of their cartoons. Both irreverent and always topical, they bring joy no matter how many times you view them. This collection is a must for those who love satire.

This is an absolutely superb book for reasons that other book lovers have stated.

I must attack the people at this site who are giving this book low ratings for its CD's. Hey computer people! This is a book with real paper with print on them. Put down your computers, forget the CD's, and learn to love the feeling of real paper and heft in your hands. You modern nerds and techies are so pathetic. Forget your technology, slow down, and learn to enjoy life.

Have enjoyed the New Yorker since I was old enough to turn the pages. This book is a "real history of our times" in addition to being a pleasure to read. Depressions, wars, politics, and general attitudes are shown with all their "warts and wrinkles". This is a wonderful book, but read it sitting at your desk, or kitchen table, or some other sturdy base. Take several days to go through it, (at the very least), since cartoon meltdown is a real possibily if taken all at once. Aside from the "reading logistics" it's a great book.

The book is outstanding (hence one star) but the New Yorker is engaging in a form of fraud for claiming that the CDs contain all the cartoons ever published. In actual fact the CDs are of such low resolution that MANY of the cartoons cannot be interpreted because the caption or even the entire drawing is illegible. If a drawing is too illegible to interpret it is the same as not being included. I love the cartoons of the New Yorker and it was incredibly frustrating browsing the CDs and repeatedly finding cartoons that simply cannot be read. Enlarging them doesn't help. You WILL get a headache. The publisher should retract their claim and remove the illegible cartoons from the CDs. And shame on them for foisting this on those of us who truly love their cartoons.

Hysterical.

Example:

A very old man laying in bed, someone quietly sitting next to him holding his hand; presumably the old man is dying. The old man says, "I wish I had bought more crap."

I'm still laughing.

Great Xmas gift. I am giving it.

Mankoff's "The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker" is, first of all, for fans of The New Yorker magazine and its weekly feast of cartoons. Yet even for those who don't read the magazine, this book offers a wonderful compliation of cartoons going back to the 1920's all the way through the 2004. It comes with two CDs that are searchable by author and topic. This is a must-have for those who enjoy the sophisticated and topical cartoons of those gifted artists published by The New Yorker.

This is the best collection of cartoons I have ever seen, with the possible exception of an old Ziggy book I have. Ha ha ha. I am joking about Ziggy. This is the best collection of cartoons I have ever seen. From Charles Adams to Roz Chast to Bruce Eric Kaplan, all my favorite New Yorker cartoons are in here, along with others I didn't even know about until now. This is like the Oxford English Dictionary of funny little panels. Also, to the reader below who says that his CDs do not work, I think the problem is that he does not know how to use the software. In other words, he is defective, not the book.

This book/CD project had great potential but was spoiled for me by its deceptive advertising and packaging. Obviously a computer which reads CDs would be necesssary but nowhere in the advertising or the book and its packaging is mention made of the software (operating system and reader) necessary to view the CDs. You have to make a purchase and open the package and try the CDs before you learn that. I work with CDs on my preferred computer but had to borrow another in order to view these CDs...and then, like one of the other reviewers, was disappointed in the quality.

This book, and the accompanying cd roms, represents an artistic and social treasure. The book itself is a handsome coffee table buster, but the cds contain every cartoon the magazine has ever published, searchable by date, author, and keyword. In the world of cartoons, this is the OED, Encyclopedia Britannica, and Roget's all in one.

While I confess to prefering the simple charms of comics like Marmaduke, you can never have too many cartoons of talking dogs at cocktail parties or on psychiatrists' couches. For, as early 21st century humanity struggles to redefine itself in relation to a rapidly changing and increasingly volatile world, the talking dogs remain a comforting constant -- thinking they're people, to our eternal bemusement.

As a youngster in grade school more than sixty years ago, I discovered The New Yorker. My parents permitted/encouraged reading of almost anything, so I rather grew up with the magazine (we were not affluent, so I don't know what my source was, but I had frequent access to the magazine). I learned from the articles and reviews, but I loved the cartoons. Still do. Now I have them all. Delightful.

I had been apprehensive about this purchase after reading the reviews rubbishing the quality of the resolution on the DVD. I was surprised to find however, that the resolution of the cartoons is fine. Occasionally I will have trouble reading the finer print, but with 72,000 of them, it doesn't really matter.

This is a wondeful hard back book with insightful comments plus two CD's containing every cartoon published in this venerable magazine. It's entertaining, educational and thought provoking; also a great coffee table discussion builder for all ages, nationalities and beliefs.

It was fascinating to look at how cartoons have evolved over the decades. Great fun and great to appreciate how life was way back then, to realize it hasn't changed all that much! A good 'coffee table' book which many people enjoy poring over.

Fantastic cartoons, but the CDs have such low resolution images, that they are unviewable. I bought this collection to see all of Saul Steinberg's cartoons, and I am unfortunately limited to what was printed.

While I really enjoyed the format of the book, being seperated by decade, I find that too many of the cartoons suffer from being tied too closely to the events of the week the magazine was actually published. So, without the touchstone of knowing what references are being aluded too...many of the cartoons don't come across as well as they did the week they were originally published.

I also found the constant idea that all New Yorkers are cool, hip and connected...while those of us unfortunate not to live there are the eternal country bumpkin...Ideas like this can grow tired in a collection this large

While I still find the absurdity of the 60's and 70's cartoons engaging and funny today and frankly the best of the lot. I find many of the cartoons from the Tina Brown years and beyond to posess more negative attitude than humor. The nowness of today became more inportant than just being funny.

Its a good collection but is really all too much. I defy anyone to read all 60,000....because then you certainly wouldn't find cartoons funny. Can anyone say EDITOR!

Pleased with the book, but not with two having been sent to my California son rather than just the one I gifted. As well, having two charges for the one ordered book on my Visa card. Kindly help to remove one of themn. Thank you

The New Yorker: some people love it; others find it pathetically lifeless, dated, out of touch, pandering to upper middle-class wanna-bes, required subscription for class-conscious dentist waiting rooms, elitist, the last refuge for Eastern writer types who still write about Manhattan WASPS as if their downtown culture mattered to (or interested) anyone but themselves, etc. What you get here, you get a lot of, at least. You get every cartoon published in the New Yorker since the first isssue. That is more than 60,000 cartoons - in book form and on a Windows/Mac compatible CD (the cartoons are in PDF format. Resolution may not always be that great but each one was viewable and readable to this reviewer). Problem is, these are New Yorker style humor cartoons. I found myself zipping from cartoon to cartoon trying to find funny ones. Plenty of mild observations and one liners that wouldn't exactly bring a party to its knees with laughter. Plenty of rich/poor jokes. Plenty of upper class "problems". Plenty of fashion/style complaints. Very, very few laughs. You have to wonder if the editors actually thought these were funny or if they only thought that they would flatter the mindset of the demographic that they hoped would subscribe to the New Yorker because they thought they wanted to be the type who subscribed to the New Yorker. I think the latter.

Here, in Florida, I met a writer for the NY who was vacationing. He was one of their latest young finds and had sold several stories to the New Yorker. He was drinking very heavily around the pool one day. I asked him - rudely, I admit - if he was the type who filled that magazine with stories about the "depressed, self-absorbed rich kids of wealthy, priviledged, and shallow Manhattanites". Without any hesitation, he replied, "Of course, I do. That's the kind of S--- that they want! That's right up their alley!"

I can just imagine some cartoonist carefully following the NY cartoon formula in order to sell his cartoons to them. After all, that's the type of s--- that they want!