The Rejection Collection Vol. 2: The Cream of the Crap (Hardcover)

~ Matthew Diffee (Editor)
Key Phrases: desert island cartoons, salad assistant, confident ore, The New Yorker, Bea Arthur, Bob Mankoff (more...)

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Each week The New Yorker receives more than 500 submissions from its regular cartoonists, who are all vying for one of the 20 coveted spots in the magazine. So what happens to the 75 percent of cartoons that don't make the cut? Some go back in a drawer, others go up on the refrigerator or into the filing cabinet ... but the very best of all the rejects can be found right here in these pages.

The Rejection Collection Vol. 2: The Cream of the Crap is the ultimate scrap heap of creative misfires--from the lowbrow and the dirty to the politically incorrect and the weird, these rejects represent the best of the worst ... in the best possible sense of the word. Handpicked by editor Matthew Diffee, these hilarious cartoons are accompanied by handwritten questionnaires and photographed self-portraits, providing a rare glimpse into the minds of the artists behind the rejection.

With appendices that explore the top ten reasons why cartoons are rejected and examine the solitary nature of the job of cartooning--plus a special bonus section of questions asked of and answered by cartoon editor Robert Mankoff--this sequel to The Rejection Collection offers even deeper insight into the exercise in frustration, patience, and amusement that is being a New Yorker cartoonist.

Warped, wicked, and wildly funny, The Rejection Collection Vol. 2 will appeal to every New Yorker fan--and everyone with a taste for the absurd.

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A Cartoon from Matthew Diffee Here's a cartoon that's very different from the rest of mine. This one, unlike the others, has never been rejected by The New Yorker magazine. I did it especially for Amazon. Would it have been rejected if I had submitted it? I think I can safely say yes. That's not to say it isn't any good. It's just the mathematics involved. Like all the regular cartoonists in The New Yorker, 90 percent of my work gets rejected. Yep, it's sad, isn't it? We all do ten or more cartoons a week, pitch them to the magazine, and on a good week they'll take one of them. The rest disappear forever--at least they used to. Now we save our rejects up and put the best of them in The Rejection Collection. This is volume two, and just like the first one, it's full of cartoons that make the cartoonists laugh and the editors cringe. That's because, in most cases, these are wildly inappropriate for the pages of a sophisticated literary magazine. I think you'll see what I mean when you take a look. And if you ask me, just knowing that these gags were ever submitted to The New Yorker at all makes them a little bit funnier--maybe 6 percent. --Matthew Diffee

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Product Description

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416934014
• ISBN-13: 978-1416934011
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #200,214 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More cream of the crap, November 14, 2007

By	Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Barely a year after Matthew Diffee offered us "The Rejection Collection", (cartoons that never made it into the New Yorker) he's back with another load of hysterical rejects. After an engaging introduction describing the life of any given cartoonist, off we go into the nether world of cartoons that might have, could have or even should have been included in the magazine. Not to worry, this is like getting several free editions of the New Yorker, minus the editors' scissors.

Volume Two also includes a quirky questionnaire given to contributing cartoonists. What an odd lot! It's like the "Jeopardy!" interview portion of the game, but this time cartoonists are given more free time to reflect on topics like "what do you hate drawing?" or "have you mooned or been mooned more often in your life?" Hey, it beats having a real job anyday!

Diffee also gives ten reasons why certain cartoons are rejected...a plausible addition to this volume. (It may also be a guideline to those of us who have often contributed to the New Yorker's cartoon caption contest and found our own rejection many times over) All in all, it's the cartoons, themselves, which 'sell' "The Rejection Collection", Volume Two. It's nice to know that they've found a home in our home, if not in the magazine, itself. I highly recommend this latest contribution by author Diffee....published in time for the holidays, this would make a great present!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better Cartoons, Worse Questionnaire Than Vol. 1, January 11, 2008

By	Diego Banducci (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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If you've gotten to this page, there's a good chance you've either seen or bought the first volume, The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never Will See, in The New Yorker.

I thought the cartoonists' responses to the questionnaires in the first collection provided a fascinating look into the creative mind. In this volume, the questions seemed more convoluted and the answers more conventional.

The cartoons, however, struck me as being funnier in this volume. Two of my favorite cartoonists (Sam Gross and Gahan Wilson) are featured in both volumes.

If I could only buy one, I would buy the first volume, but both collections are enjoyable.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On my gift list this year, November 18, 2007

By	Dougherty (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

The other day I happened to hear the author interviewed on a local PBS radio airing of Fresh Air. The new collection was discussed and when the author described some of the examples in the book, I laughed so hard I almost choked. The people driving next to me must have wondered what on earth I was laughing about. The verbal descriptions of some of the cartoons created such visualizations I almost shudder to think what will happen when I view the entire content. For example, a description of Titantic action figures struck me so funny that, now as I type this review, I'm laughing again. That is effective cartooning - and I haven't seen the visual yet. Yup, still laughing ...sounds like the perfect gift for those pals who have everything else and could use a good laugh.