{"id":110254,"date":"2017-04-24T18:34:15","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T22:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=110254"},"modified":"2017-04-24T21:11:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T01:11:35","slug":"bob-bats-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/24\/bob-bats-100\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Bats .100"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9 The New Yorker<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our\u00a0complete digital archive is now available.\u00a0Subscribers can read every piece\u2014every story and poem, every essay, portfolio, and interview\u2014<\/em>from\u00a0The Paris Review\u2019s sixty-four-year history.\u00a0Subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and you can start reading our\u00a0back issues\u00a0right away. You can also sign up for\u00a0a free ten-day trial period<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A couple of years before The New Yorker<\/i>\u2019s longtime art editor, and brief cartoon editor, Lee Lorenz left\u00a0the magazine, George Plimpton asked for\u00a0his help assembling a portfolio of cartoons\u2014and\u00a0descriptions of the thought processes behind them\u2014for The Paris Review<\/i>\u2019s unofficial humor issue (no. 136<\/a>, Fall 1995<\/a>). Among the younger cartoonists Lorenz suggested for \u201cThe Birth of a Notion: Cartoonists Have Their Say<\/a>\u201d was a fellow named Bob Mankoff, who contributed the cartoon above. Two years after the issue was published, Mankoff was made\u00a0the cartoon editor of The New Yorker<\/em>, a position from which he\u2019ll\u00a0soon be stepping down. Below, is Mankoff\u2019s take on\u00a0the practice\u00a0of cartooning:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Every week I draw about ten cartoons (the batch) to be submitted to The New Yorker<\/em> for their Tuesday afternoon art meeting. If one of the batch is selected for publication by the powers that be, it\u2019s a good week (A batting average of .100 in the cartoon field will put you in the \u201cCartoon Hall of Fame.\u201d)<\/p>\n

One never knows when a good idea will appear. And this time it happened after I had drawn my quota and was hurrying through my morning ablutions. I was in the shower when the phrase \u201cI\u2019m terrible with names\u201d just popped into my head along with the notion that if someone says this while introducing himself, rather than someone else, it would be funny. The New Yorker<\/em> bought that idea while rejecting the other ten.<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jeffery Gleaves is digital director of <\/em>The Paris Review.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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