The Naked Cartoonist: A New Way to Enhance Your Creativity (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Hi, I'm Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor of The New Yorker magazine..." (more)
Key Phrases: dental records, The New Yorker, Grim Reaper, Jack Ziegler (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cartoon editor of the New Yorker since 1997, Mankoff has a license to be silly. This combination memoir, how-to, abridged history, manifesto and IQ test (Inanity Quotient) on the art and pseudo-science of gag panel cartooning puts that license to the test-with fine results. Much like Scott McCloud did in Understanding Comics, which examined the nature of narrative comics, Mankoff breaks down the creative process of the gag panel, offering a succession of thoughtful (dreams are "analogous to what cartoonists do when they're awake") and generally amusing insights into the craft. There's also a more or less coherent argument about the role of the subconscious mind in cartooning, in which he uses Magritte, a baseball, a tomato and Andy Warhol's soup can to explain it all for us. Still, his explanations aren't nearly as much fun as the cartoons themselves, by Mankoff and by fellow New Yorker cartoonists Roz Chast, Mort Gerberg, Jack Zeigler and others. Mankoff can be overly cute, but mostly offers smart, practical and funny ideas about how to make funny cartoons for a living. In fact, Mankoff argues that magazine cartoonists are the most creative people in the world: "If a scientist comes up with one new idea a year, he's a genius. If a cartoonist comes up with only one new idea a day, he's looking for other work." Mankoff offers such minutely and intensely considered examinations of the mechanics of cartooning that for all we know he may be right.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Learn how to be a more creative thinker in this one-of-a-kind book from the cartoon editor of The New Yorker. Through insider knowledge, inspirational wisdom, and useful examples, the man who chooses those cartoons (and contributes many of the funniest ones himself) answers the question, "How can I be more creative and funnier?", and others in the first book to use cartooning as a means of exploring the creative process.

"Everything I need to know in life I learned from cartoons," says the opinionated, eccentric and devastatingly funny Bob Mankoff in this entertaining journey through the art, craft and Zen of cartooning. With the help of many other well-known cartoonists, Mankoff discusses, dissects and depicts such topics as:

- How to develop your creativity and your natural talents - How to find your own particular voice and message

- How to learn from the cartoon masters of the past and present

- What a cartoon is (and what it is not)

- What makes a good cartoon work

- How to market cartoons-and more.

Featuring lots of art-drawings, photos, panel cartoons and doodles-on every extravagant page, this breezy yet info-packed book also includes lots of Bob's personal anecdotes about his development as an artist and smart aleck, and about life at the world's most urbane magazine.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers; First Edition edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762896663
• ISBN-13: 978-1579122362
• ASIN: 1579122361
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #340,298 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Goes Ha Ha Ha Ha Plop?, November 6, 2002

By	Shaun Hawkins (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

Me, laughing my head off as I read this book. But this book also filled my head before I laughed it off. I thought it would be a hilarious collection of some of the best New Yorker cartoons, and it is, but it's also a complicated theory of creativity, humor, and art. The author keeps things light, but there are some serious points made as he investigates the links between cartooning, dreaming, surrealism, and so on.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Here for the Holidays, December 4, 2002

By	Dennis Coles (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

As a longtime reader of the New Yorker -- and, more importantly, a longtime reader of its cartoons -- I was happy to see that the cartoon editor of the magazine had written a book. To be honest, I expected more about the inside dealings of the magazine: the idiosyncracies of famous cartoonists, the backstage intrigue that led to my favorite cartoons. That's not exaactly what this book is. It's more a solo performance by Robert Mankoff, who writes at great length about his own internal creative process. This was offputting at first, but by the end of the first chapter, I was hooked. He has an engaging voice and a real talent for illustrating his ideas (as you would expect), so the result is a pretty wonderful guidebook to human creativity and humor.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget the text. Enjoy the cartoons, June 1, 2003

By	Robert Derenthal "bucherwurm" (California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Robert Mankoff, the Cartoon Editor of the NY Times has written the book purportedly as a learning guide for prospective cartoonists. Well, I don't want to be a cartoonist, but I do love cartoons, especially those found in the New Yorker. In leafing through the book I began having doubts that the text of the book would provide much help for a fledgling cartoonist. After awhile you simply become oblivious to the written material and hone in on the many delightful cartoons. As the book says there are 400 of them in this volume, and, to me, that justified the purchase price.

This book is certainly as good as any of the other books that form part of the New Yorker cartoon book library, and if you are a devotee of pictorial humor do pick up a copy.