The Passing of a Cartoon Great

Plus How I Fixed Sports

Edward Koren: 1935-2023

It’s with real sadness I share the passing of one of my favorite cartoonists and a real gentleman. I had a difficult time picking which of his cartoons to share, (he published about 1,100 in The New Yorker) but this is from a group he emailed me years ago for the book, The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons by the World’s Greatest Cartoonists. We recently did a remote panel together at the Norman Rockwell Museum during Covid and I was just reading his elegant note on what a good time he had. Last year I went to see his important polar project about global warming at the Peabody Essex Museum. Michael Maslin did a write-up on it for his essential Inkspill.

Ed’s work, like himself, had an ease and grace about it. The writing was succinct and seemingly effortless. The drawing was musical and full of life and vigor. The end result was unlike any other cartoonist’s work. And above all else, Mr. Koren was brilliantly funny.

The following appears in this week’s New Yorker.

Initially it was a longer piece so I included a couple of the cut panels below.

(Yes, I heard from many who wanted to comment, applaud or chastise these rules, including a soccer journalist who called this ludicrous and that my attitude toward soccer is antiquated.)

Here are a couple of submission updates as I know many readers like to follow this.

PRO magazine (Portable Restroom Operator) is afraid my submissions were not up to their standards. They did not return back my sketches and I have been asking what they did with them.

And finally Apathy magazine has still not gotten back to me about my cartoons I sent four years ago.

Promoting different cartoon and humor people:

A Taste of London: The Restaurants and Pubs Behind a Global Culinary Capital is bestseller John Donohue’s (A Man With a Pan, The New Yorker) latest book. He is having a FREE book event in New York City on Tuesday May 2nd. John will be in conversation with travel writer Marcia DeSanctis. Includes music and complimentary cocktails and treats. Go here to get full details and to Rsvp.

Scott Dikkers (The Onion) has a popular humor newsletter called No Dikkering Around and also conducts acclaimed humor workshops. Learn more by subscribing to his newsletter.

Ellen Liebenthal is the head of the Manhattan chapter of The National Cartoonists Society. She has a new book out called, Color Me Cryptid - A Cryptozoology Coloring Book.

If you are serious about writing, must reads are the Hot Sheet and Electric Speed newsletters. One is free and one is paid but has a free trial. Both by publishing guru, Jane Friedman.

Three Questions. This month’s guest is Jason Chatfield. is an Australian cartoonist and stand-up comedian, based in New York City. He produces the iconic comic strip Ginger Meggs is the President of the National Cartoonists’ Society. Along with Scott Dooley, he has a new book coming out that is perfect for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day called, You’re not a real parent until….

Bob Eckstein: Jason, thanks for putting up with this nonsense. Let’s get past the elephant in the room…Are you getting funnier?

Jason Chatfield: If by ‘funnier’ you mean ‘older and in more pain’ then, yes. The schadenfreude of watching me waddle on stage has made me exponentially funnier. (Anyone know a good knee guy?)

BE: Many “pros” feel that social media and other outlets drown out their work. It is like everyone is a comic or cartoonist. Is this a good thing and has it made you better?

JC: Did I mention I’m in more pain? That includes what social media has done to my brain. I do not think social media has made me better, no. I can’t think of a more cataclysmically damaging thing for comedy than social media. Simultaneously, I can’t think of a better tool for a comedian to find their audience, book tours, share crowd work clips, and build a personal brand around their voice than social media. It’s a real see-saw. I know comics I started out with in New York who are now TikTok celebrities, selling out theatres across the country from one app alone. I also know others who sink more time into entertaining an infinity of followers online than actually writing material and getting up on stage for an IRL [in real life] audience. I feel like comedy is splintering into people who are really good on stage, and people who are really good online. The Venn diagram of those who can do both is very slim.

BE: What is the best tip you can give someone who is trying to get funnier?

JC: Write every day. Get up every night. There’s no shortcut to getting good. Except maybe paying someone else to write every day. But even then, you’ve got to be able to sell the material and develop your voice. So, yes. There are no real shortcuts to getting good at performing live on stage. Oh, and also get yourself into some real pickles, and draw from real life. Don’t try and come up with something from scratch: more often than not, the world will give you more material than you could ever generate alone in a room.

And as a bonus: Most times, it’s stuff that only ever happened to you, and is told from your unique perspective. There’s less chance of overlapping with other comics’ material if you stick to what’s unique to your experience of the world.

BE: What was the last time you laughed hard?

JC: When my last knee guy gave me the medical bill.

Seriously, I need a good knee guy.

The second last time was at the Comedy Cellar last Wednesday. I cried laughing at a comedian with whom I share no political or ethical values whatsoever, but his joke was so absurdly funny I compulsively burst into paroxysms. I rarely laugh at other comedians these days. The best you’ll get from most comics when they see a great joke is a blank face, a nod and them muttering, “F_ck. That’s good.”

BE: Who do you think is the funniest person in the world at this time? And thanks for doing four questions…

JC: Elon Musk. What an absolute clown car of a human. His day-to-day is like one of those YouTube videos of malfunctioning robots.What do you make of Scott Adam’s racist rants? How do we encourage a safe haven of free speech in humor when there are those who’s words or art represent hate?

Drumroll….this issue The Felix goes to Lars Kenseth.

You can learn more about Lars from his recent appearance on the Cartoon Pad podcast found here. And here is his website and his cartoons on CartoonStock.

To order online at Bookshop, CLICK HERE.

And with that, this ends another issue of The Bob. I do appreciate anyone sharing the newsletter and helping me get the word out. And thank you for all the very nice feedback I’ve gotten from the newsletter so far, it’s greatly appreciated.