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How About Never - Is Never Good For You?: My Life in Cartoons    by Bob Mankoff Amazon.com order for
How About Never - Is Never Good For You?
by Bob Mankoff
Order:  USA  Can
Picador, 2015 (2014)
Hardcover, Softcover, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

Those who enjoy reading The New Yorker magazine find it enjoyable because it is one of the few publications left that features weekly cartoons. It isn't unusual to discover favorite cartoons from the magazine stuck to refrigerator doors, pinned on office bulletin boards, or framed and gracing walls or desks in the workplace.

If you have ever wondered about how one becomes one of the select cartoonists who work for The New Yorker or how the individual cartoons are chosen each week, Bob Mankoff's How About Never – Is Never Good For You?: My Life in Cartoons will answer these questions.

As the cartoons editor of the magazine, Mankoff has worked his way up through the ranks and this glimpse behind the scenes not only chronicles his career but also explains the process from how one's work gets published and then how that person becomes a regular whose work appears each month.

As one would hope, this memoir offers not only examples of the author's cartoons but also of other magazine cartoonists. You'll even discover some interesting insights about the publication's weekly cartoon caption contest, although don't expect that will guarantee a prize winning result.

Writing with humor and candor, Mankoff shares his experiences and underscores how fortunate he has been to land in his current position. Not only does he occasionally still create cartoons for the publication but, along with the editor, he decides what actually gets published.

No matter if you just enjoy the cartoons each week or are an aspiring cartoonist, this book will open your eyes to how demanding the process is. With fewer publications publishing cartoons, the market has become much smaller and the competition more fierce. Cartooning is not an occupation for the faint of heart.

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