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Bob Mankoff: From The New Yorker to Esquire & Beyond

Introduction to Bob Mankoff. 1:20 min. Interview: Raymond Elman. Music: Bensound.com. Camera: Lee Skye. Editor: Nikita Grant. Recorded: 11/18/2018, Miami Book Fair.

BOB MANKOFF (b. 1944) is a cartoonist, editor, and author.

Mankoff grew up in Queens, New York, and attended the High School of Music and Art (also attended by 98-year-old Mad magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee – inventor of the “Fold-In” – see the ArtSpeak video interview with Jaffee), followed by Syracuse University.

Mankoff submitted over 500 cartoons to The New Yorker before they finally published one in 1977.

After making cartoons for The New Yorker magazine for 20 years, Mankoff became the magazine’s cartoon editor, succeeding Lee Lorenz. Mankoff held the position from 1997 to 2017.

In 1992, Mankoff founded the online Cartoon Bank, a licensing platform for New Yorker cartoons and art, with more than 85,000 cartoons available for sale. He credits his administration of the Cartoon Bank as an important factor for why he was chosen to replace Lorenz as cartoon editor.

Mankoff left The New Yorker and joined Esquire magazine in 2017, where he is reviving the magazine’s legacy of satire and humor.

The videos below are organized by topic and run between 60 seconds and 5 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES: 4:14 min.

Why did you leave your position as Cartoon Editor at The New Yorker magazine?

CRITICAL THINKING: 1:53 min.

Do you think President Trump has a sense of humor?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 1:40 min.

When did you first know you could draw? Do you remember your first cartoon?

DEVELOP A VOICE: 1:22 min.

Where did you study art?

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: 2:46 min.

What was your process for improving your skills as a cartoonist?

CRITICAL THINKING: 2:00 min.

It’s difficult to be good at both drawing and humor, two skills that aren’t necessarily complimentary.

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART: 1:26 min.

Jerry Robinson led a big push to have original cartoons exhibited in galleries and command high prices. Where does that movement stand today?

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: 1:04 min.

Describe a challenging situation you faced with a successful outcome.

Bob Mankoff’s Cartoon Collections

By Christina Hester

Following a long career as cartoonist and cartoon editor for The New Yorker magazine, the holiest temple of the cartoon world, Bob Mankoff jumped ship to resuscitate Esquire magazine’s cartoon presence, and launch his own online platform to store and license cartoons for many talented cartoonists. Mankoff’s new database, Cartoon Collections, builds on his experience with The Cartoon Bank, which he created to store, market, and license cartoons for The New Yorker. Cartoon Collections not only licenses cartoons from The New Yorker, but also from 10 other leading publications, including Esquire, the Wall Street Journal, Weekly Humorist and the American Bystander. On the Cartoon Collection website, it proclaims that the goal of the database is, “. . . to preserve the art of cartooning, promote top-notch cartoons from a wide variety of magazines and publications, make cartoons available to the public for use in their projects, and provide a place for new cartoonists to showcase their work and earn an income from the art they’ve created.” In addition, Mankoff is currently the cartoon editor for Air Mail, the weekly online newsletter created by Graydon Carter, who recently retired from a very long and successful run as editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair.