The New Yorker’s 1st Basketball Cartoon and 1st Basketball Cover

With basketball fever gripping Gotham City, I thought it was time to take stock of New Yorker basketball 1sts (cartoon and cover). According to the magazine’s database, the very first New Yorker basketball cartoon appeared in the issue of December 23, 1933. The artist: Robert Day.

Robt. Day’s A-Z Entry:

Robert Day (photo from This Week anthology, 1954) Born, 1900, San Bernardino, California. Died, February, 1985, Gravette, Arkansas. New Yorker work: 1931 -1976. Collection: All Out For the Sack Race! (Random House, 1945).

And according to the database, the first basketball themed cover appeared March 10, 1951. Cover artist: the great Abe Birnbaum:

Abe Birnbaum’s A-Z Entry:

Abe Birnbaum Born, New York City, 1899. Died June 19, 1966, New York City. New Yorker work: 1929 -1974. Mr. Birnbaum began at the New Yorker as a cartoonist, contributing a handful before switching to cover work, of which he produced 141. He also provided spot drawings and illustrations. According to Mr. Birnbaum’s New York Times obit, his work was exhibited at The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Carnegie Institute.

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MAD‘s Addams & Peter Arno Parodies

Thanks to a Facebook post by the EC Fan-Addict Club, this 1955 MAD Magazine parody of Charles Addams famous Family came to my attention. When I sought out the entire magazine online (MAD No.26 1955), I found this great site that allows us to see every page of back issues. What I found, when paging through, was a Peter Arno parody sitting right next to the Addams parody. Both drawings were executed by MAD artist, Will Elder.

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The other day I was thinking about Edward Sorel‘s famous New Yorker cover featuring a punker riding in a hansom cab — you know, the one that received a huge amount of attention because it marked the beginning of Tina Brown’s short reign as New Yorker editor.

Sorel’s cover got me to wonder about other New Yorker covers featuring a hansom cab. I would’ve guessed there’ve been at least a half dozen over the years, but I found — having just revisited The Complete Book of Covers From The New Yorker: 1925-1989 (Knopf, 1989) — the number is two. Now if we started counting covers featuring horses, well…that would be a much much bigger number.

It’s possible there was a stray hansom cab cover, post 1989, but I doubt it (please advise if you know of one).

Below are the two known (to me) New Yorker hansom cab covers. The first one was also used as the cover of The New Yorker’s Fifth Album of Drawings (Harper & Brothers, 1932).

In one of those interesting interesections, my copy, sans dust jacket,  of the Fifth Album was given to me by Edward Sorel. The Album’s dust jacket was later given to me by Chris Wheeler, thus completing the set of dust-jacketed New Yorker Albums in the Spill library.

Julian De Miskey’s April 2, 1932 cover:

And this one from Robert Kraus, December 2, 1961:

Hansom cabs, cartoons-wise: it would take a lot (a whole lot) of searching to discover how many there’ve been. The magazine’s database turned up just one, and the hit was incorrect (the lone result was for a Ralph Barton drawing in the July 10, 1925 issue. The Barton drawing is there, but there’s not a hansom cab in sight). However(!), looking through that July 10, 1925 issue, I did find this:

Simon Fieldhouse’s Latest 3D Portrait Sculpture: Peter Arno

Next up in artist Simon Fieldhouse‘s New Yorker series: Peter Arno. See the sculpture in various settings here.

And here are his other New Yorker 3D sculptures:

Eustace Tilley

Harold Ross

Saul Steinberg

To see all of his 3D sculptures, go here.

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Frank Cotham Returns As Guest On Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast

Frank Cotham, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 1993, returns to the CCCP in this episode (#248 for those keeping track). Listen here.

photo: clockwise, from top left…Frank Cotham, then the co-hosts Paul  Nesja, Vin Coca, Nicole Chrolavicius, Beth Lawler. 

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Paul Karasik Presents…

From The Vineyard Gazette, April 23, 2026, “Film Noir Takes Center Stage” — this piece on films and Mr. Karasik, who began contributing to The New Yorker  in 1999.  Visit his website here.

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