The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games [Spiral-bound]

Puzzability (Author), Will Shortz (Introduction), Robert Mankoff (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006 | Series: New Yorker

The millions of New Yorker cartoon fans (and puzzlers, too) will exult in this ingenious, first-ever collection of puzzles and games that feature the magazine’s cartoons as clues.

Designed to offer a challenge to puzzlers of all levels, this collection of 100 crosswords, acrostics, caption scrambles, observation puzzles, and more is absolutely unique—it’s the first-ever puzzle collection to feature New Yorker cartoons. Presented in an extremely user-friendly oversized spiral format, the book provides hours and hours of interactive entertainment— just bring your own pencil and brain power!

The puzzles themselves are ingenious—new and different kinds of brain-teasers that use the cartoons of The New Yorker in a fresh way, encouraging the agile reader to think like a New Yorker cartoonist. The introduction is a conversation between two masters: the cartoon editor of the New Yorker and the puzzle editor of The New York Times, and it sheds fascinating light on the connection between cartoons and puzzles.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Mankoff is the cartoon editor of The New Yorker and the founder and president of the Cartoon Bank. He is an accomplished cartoonist, the author of The Naked Cartoonist, and the editor of The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games (both from Black Dog & Leventhal), as well as many cartoon collections. He lives in Hastings, New York.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 144 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579125530
• ISBN-13: 978-1579125530
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 10.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,047,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Ingenious Melding of New Yorker Cartoons and Clever Puzzles, May 3, 2006

By 

Puzzle and Origami Enthusiast (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games (Spiral-bound)

The folks at Puzzability used to be contributors to Games Magazine in its heyday when they published visual puzzles that were both amusing and innovative. Now, they've taken this same approach and applied it to the vast archive of cartoons from the New Yorker. While I was skeptical at first whether the puzzle aspect of this book would be gratuitous, I was won over quickly as I paged through the contents. The puzzle authors have clearly done their homework, finding ways to turn the New Yorker's cartoons into genuine, interesting challenges.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting cartoon and puzzle combo, September 26, 2006

By 

Eileen Rieback (Coral Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games (Spiral-bound)

Is this a book of New Yorker cartoons or a puzzle book? Well, it's a little of both, and the result is a novel way to laugh and exercise your brain at the same time. Most of the 83 puzzles consist of cartoons that are missing words, captions, or picture components. By figuring out the missing elements and sometimes combining them with acrostics, crossword puzzles, or other word grids, the cartoon humor is revealed.

For the most part, the puzzles are of only moderate difficulty, although there are a few difficult ones (at least for me) that involve matching a cartoon with the decade in which it was created or matching cartoons from early and late in a cartoonist's career. Frequent puzzle solvers will recognize many of the familiar puzzle types from Games Magazine and other media that Puzzability publishes in. The foreword to the book contains a casual and loosely coupled conversation between New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff and New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz.

This is an entertaining book that you'll hate to throw away when it's been completed because of all the witty cartoons it contains. Enjoy!

Eileen Rieback

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, witty fun, June 22, 2006

By 

Judy Weightman (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games (Spiral-bound)

The folks at Puzzability -- Mike Shenk, Amy Goldstein, and Robert Leighton, all "Games" magazine alums and world-class puzzle constructors -- have done an outstanding job of putting together classic "New Yorker" cartoons with an entertaining selection of different kinds of word puzzles. Sometimes you'll work from the cartoon to the puzzle, and sometimes from the puzzle to the cartoon, but you'll end each page with both a smile and a feeling of solving satisfaction. The puzzles are extremely well crafted -- hard enough to be fun and challenging, but well this side of frustrating -- and really enhance the impact of the cartoons.

Strongly recommended.