The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never Will See, in The New Yorker

The book description and customer reviews below offer a reasonably "objective" description of the rationale and contents of the book, so permit me to add a personal take on this fine collection.First, while I agree that many (perhaps half) of these cartoons are too "out there" to appear in the New Yorker, I would say (after having read the rag for over ten years) that many would be published if offered again (and Editor Mankoff happened to forget they were amongst the over 20,000/year that he rejects).I also agree that these are on the whole funnier than the ones that are printed in the average New Yorker edition.One of the Cartoonists nailed me, hard, on every cartoon - 5 out of 5 - extended laughs.I would say if you laugh at one (or two) cartoons per 'toonist, like I do, then you will not regret spending your hard-earned coin on The Rejection Collection.BY THE NUMBERS30 cartoonists are featured (plus Diffee, the editor).5 cartoons/cartoonist (Diffee offers two).2-page questionaire/cartoonistAverage laughs/cartoonist: 2, maybe 2-/12.(Of course this reflects what made ME laugh - your mileage . . . etc.)THE QUESTIONNAIRESOne reviewer thought the questionaires "reeked of self-importance". For my money the questionnaire was a big value-added feature. All these "guys" (including the women) are clever and I was entertained, not only by the content, but by the different ways they responded to and (in some cases) messed with the questionaire itself.Remember your friends and classmates who refused to color inside the lines? Some like these are in this book. I came away thinking I'd love to have lunch (or pound some brews) with many of these cartoonists.Some example questions/instructions:Where will you be in ten minutes? (best answer: "In a tub of scotch. Blended.)My first cartoon . . .Most cartoonists I know are . . .("significantly hairier than you think.....")Inside a box: Draw something in this space that will help us understand your childhood: (there were a few drawings evocative of a Catholic upbringing)NEW YORKER DVD PLUGMaybe the best reason to get this book is that it may cause you to revisit the DVD-ROM set of "The Complete New Yorker". For the uninitiated, this includes every page of every New Yorker magazine published from its inception in 1925 through January of 2005 (plus two February issues). The Complete New Yorker is perhaps the only thing in publishing that, even at its new price, is competitive in entertainment with garage sale paperbacks (in reading hours/cent) .The DVD's are accompanied by software, which offers a catalog/database which allows searches by category (for instance, Talk of the Town, Profiles, Current Cinema, and of course, Cartoons). This is combined with searches by Author (Cartoonist), Key Word, and Year.It was a simple matter to find out that Gahan Wilson has been selling cartoons to the New Yorker since the middle '70's, and to view/print each of these at leisure.So, get this book and the DVD set, and you will have literally tens of thousands of cartoons at your disposal. Need I say you will also get tens of thousands of articles, short stories, movie reviews, profiles, full-color ads (and so forth) spanning nine decades?

The publicity for this book wants us to make us think that the three main reasons why the New Yorker rejected these cartoons was because they were too silly, too risque, or too weird. Nope. Although these elements are present in some of the cartoons, the outstanding factor, present in a great many of them, is BAD TASTE. I will say the cover illustration does not hide this fact. (Look for yourself.) Of course, there is a market for these; witness Truly Tasteless Jokes and whatever may be on the Web.On the other hand, there are some funny ones that I would label on the borderline of taste (for example, some of their cartoons on the subject of death might not offend someone who has not recently had a friend or relative die). And there are some that I would have taken: the "bi Ken doll" with the larger number of accessories is an example. And the cartoons are generally on the same level of professionalism as regular New Yorker cartoons.Caveat emptor!

"Cream of the crap" is one description for this good-sized book of cartoons rejected by the NEW YORKER magazine. It isn't just a matter of not-quite-funny-enough, or of slightly poor taste -- some of these cartoons in most readers' opinions were plenty worthy for the pages of that august periodical, while others are just a little "off" and almost indescribably so. Long-term readers of the NEW YORKER, in particular, will enjoy seeing this book full of "losers" and sometimes wondering why they were weighed and found wanting. Used copies abound.

This book is a collection of the best rejected cartoons from the New Yorker magazine. Ho determined what was the best of the worst? The editor of the book, of course. And, having read the book, I must say the editor did a good job at choosing funny, yet irreverent cartoons. I found laughter to be common while reading the book, although I am sure that you will not find every cartoon to be funny. That is the nature of this type of book.In addition to the cartoons, each section is headed by a questionnaire that was sent to each cartoonist. Those alone are worth the price of the book, as they give you an interesting look into the minds that are creating these types of cartoons.Printed on high quality paper, and bound nicely, this book is a definite keeper for the library. If you love cartoons, particularly the single box style, you will love this book. Enjoy!

The format for the work of each cartoonist is a standard two-page questionnaire followed by five of his/her cartoons. I thought most of the cartoons were funny, more so than those in other cartoon collections, and generally inoffensive.There are some familiar faces here (e.g., Sam Gross and Gahan Wilson), but most of the cartoonists were new to me. There are none of those god-awful smug suburbanite cartoons that actually appear in the New Yawker.Unlike one other reviewer (D. Low), I found the answers to the questionnaires to be fascinating. Many were highly original, and provided insight into how the creative mind works.I have just ordered the follow-on volume  The Rejection Collection Vol. 2: The Cream of the Crap .

If a book makes me laugh out loud - at least once, then I rate it "I like it" = 4 stars. This book made me laugh out loud - once.There are some amusing cartoons for sure but for the most part its easy to see why they were rejected. Save your hard earned money for the second edition of The Rejection Collection which appears to have been compiled with more care and thought towards enducing laughter. The 2nd edition made me laugh outloud several times!

Not a bad, if short, collection of those cartoons rejected by the NY, even if (for obvious reasons) not every rejected cartoon can be included. The focus is often on the cartoonists as much as their output - which can be slightly annoying, if well intentioned, as it wastes pages best filled with drawings. Despite anticipations of bad taste however it is fair to say (or is it just me) that there is little to be really offended with here. This book is best purchased with the much more essential 'Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker Magazine'  The Complete Cartoons Of The New Yorker  which is a huge - and lately, quite cheap, if one searches - tome as I discovered . This slab of a book has a larger page count as you might expect and comes with CDs containing a draw-dropping survey. For completists then, this present volume is recommendable; others might wish to read at the library or just buy it if it can be for pennies.as a basket-filler. The Complete Cartoons Of The New Yorker

This is a hilarious book, but be warned - it is NOT politically correct (which is likely the reason these cartoons were not published). I bought this book along with a New Yorker book of cartoons on money, New York, and dogs to give as gifts for Christmas, and this one was by far-and-away the most humorous.

Not as good a selection of cartoons as I had hoped frankly

Enjoyed this, particularly as none of the cartoons in here passed muster for the New Yorker....and yet most are very funny and a bit dark. It's fun trying to figure out why they were rejected. Good book.

Funny, witty, irreverent cartoons, with interesting insight into the minds of the creators.