Today is Small Business Saturday

A small reminder from the smallest business I know, me

Cartoon courtesy of Jane Friedman’s The Hot Sheet

Just some recent drawings of bookstores in my area…

In upper Manhattan, the brand new Fountain Bookshop on 803 West 187th St. For hours and details go to HERE.

Shakespeare & Co., has three Manhattan locations: two on the Upper West Side and one in the Upper East Side. Check here to find the closet to you.

Bronx River Books in in Scarsdale at 37 Spencer Place. Their website is HERE.

Courtesy of The New Yorker

Sunday I have the following OpEd in The New York Daily News. which is related to a line of one of the most important small businesses, local newspapers.

Good-bye Newspapers

No Local News Is Not Good News

One of the biggest reasons for such division in this country is the extinction of local news…not Taylor Swift or pickleball. I promise I have no interest in rehashing why the lack of local news has resulted in this country not knowing each other or that news deserts give select mega news sources an inordinate amount of influence. Op-eds across the country covered this issue but it was during at a time when everyone was too wrapped up in playing Wordle. Most of those Op-eds may have gotten too in the weeds so I’d like to try a different approach, my personal story, but I assure you this will probably be the last time I will appear in a newspaper as they are all in trouble (You can Google that. You know, on the internet, the reason so few newspapers are left.).

Newspapers and magazines have been my whole life (Yes, I decided to lump in magazines in this eulogy, too. They have nothing to do with this country being at each other’s throats, but heck, they’re in the same sinking ship.). I would be illiterate today if I didn’t start reading Sports Illustrated in grade school. The nuns made a special exception for me after my mother went up to school and convinced them to let me bring the magazine in class. It kept me from getting into trouble and preoccupied my extraordinary (my word not theirs) mind. I continued to bring my weekly issues into class until SI decided to do annual swimsuit issues. There’s nothing creepier than a third grader studying Cheryl Tiegs in Religion Class (Google her).

But I wanted to see more artwork, not more photography. Through my love of the magazine, I idolized the great illustrators like Bernie Fuchs and Robert Cunningham and decided I wanted to one day work for Sports Illustrated myself as an artist. Being in a magazine was glamorous. Even owning them, depending on the title, could be cache or an icebreaker, water-cooler fodder when we used to all meet in a building to work. I remember a time when newspapers and magazines would be seen on subways or splayed on living room tables to look smart for company.

It wasn’t long before that printing press became a major part of our lives. Just a few centuries ago (1436)—a blip in our history. Spaghetti has been around three times longer (5^th century). But with more people getting their news now online, no doubt spaghetti is going to outlast papers (and at this rate probably paper and pens.). This is because social media has a scary knack to generate anxiety and rage. Anxiety and rage are all the rage in America now, while newspapers are actually calming. They demand we slow down.

Magazines on the other hand used to be old-school addictive eye candy, perfect for the ADHD this country has had since our forefathers landed on these shores and asked where the gift shop was. Getting a new magazine in the mailbox was exhilarating—at a time when sensory stimulation was at a premium. I cherished them, worked for them, and now I dearly miss them.

And I did come full-circle and work for Sports Illustrated. That dream came to an end with the passing of the great New York Yankee, Mickey Mantle. One week I was assigned to do my first cover of Sports Illustrated but the evening before The Mick went to the great dugout in the sky, and I was bumped off the cover. The magazine would never run another illustrated cover and they just recently announced they were folding, joining so many in the great magazines and newspapers in the print graveyard. I worked for many of these deceased titles like Details, Entertainment Weekly, Mademoiselle, Martha Stewart’s Living, Maximum Golf, Metropolitan Home, Nickelodeon magazine, Playboy, SPORT, Tennis, Working Woman…they all went under while I was working for them. It made me wonder if it indeed had something to do with me.

I tried to keep my sense of humor about all this, and pivot to cartoons—focusing mostly on humor writing. I approached every humor magazine I could find and was hired to work for each of them. And each of them, MAD magazine, National Lampoon, and SPY magazine, all went belly up during my employment there.

All of it, newspapers, magazines, heck, even pamphlets, drove the narrative of my day. I lived the first half of my life reading newspapers and magazines, reliant on them for forming who I am today, informing how I thought. They were also, literally, pun intended, a lifeline in so many ways.

There was no better example than The Village Voice. Every Tuesday new issues arrived in red plastic boxes throughout the city on corners, advising all young New Yorkers where to eat, sleep, work or sometimes, find love or more importantly, tell us where our favorite bands were playing. I would eventually work for The Voice as an illustrator and writer, and did so for years, but ultimately, they perished. As far as I am concerned, with the loss of The Village Voice, was the end of the art and music scene in Manhattan. The lack of community and urgency the paper brought to the streets has never been replaced.

The same can be said for The New York Daily News. I’m not speaking out of school, when I say it’s a ghost ship now. But back in the day I loved The Daily News when reporters and star journalists were who we followed, not someone twerking on TikTok. Jimmy Breslin and sports reporters Mike Lupica and before that, the best sports reporter ever, Dick Young. Sports were just as much about the editorials and beat reporters as the scores. I dreamed of one day being like sports cartoonist, Bill Gallo. We (kids who loved sports) couldn’t wait to see what his latest drawing would be. I would eventually work for the paper as, for a short time, as the legendary editorial cartoonist Bill Bramhall’s stand-in, doing cartoons in this very space. Bill is one reason readers should continue reading the Daily News.

The three big newspapers in New York City gave the Big Apple its personality. The publications had far more power than they do now. The New York Times, the affectionately named Gray Lady, I predict, will be the last man standing, if not for any other reason, all their competition is disappearing (The New York Post is basically down to just headlines). I still work at The Times, occasionally, something I am very proud of, but it breaks my heart to see everyone I once worked for or alongside, all gone. All I can say now is at least I had the privilege to work for all three. Before it’s too late I ask you to get your hands dirty. Put down that device or smart phone you’re reading this on and if it’s not too late read your local paper, while you still can.

I split my time living in Pennsylvania and in New York City, but I never felt more distant to everyone. None of us know our neighbors as well as we used to (that’s right, I’m now just speaking for everyone). The first daily newspaper in this country was The Pennsylvania Evening Post and it helped bring this country together during the American Revolution. On July 6^th, 1776, it published on its front page the United States Declaration of Independence. Thank you, newspapers.

If anyone wants a signed bookplate and bookmark for their new museum book, just let me know and send me your mailing address. I can also personalize it, if you plan to give it as a gift.

The book is featured on the cover and on 9 pages of the new November edition of Reader’s Digest.

Finally, last call for any special holiday orders of a gift set of the all three cartoon books from my Ultimate Cartoons series and a copy of my new museum book, Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums. Each will be personally signed and inscribed to whoever you want to give each to. I can ship them to you or directly to another individual. The cost for the four books is $70 and that includes the cost of shipping and handling plus I will upgrade you to a lifetime free subscription to The Bob. The four books alone would normally be $90 + $15 to ship. I am limiting this special to only the first 10 orders and only orders in the USA.

 

Thanks!