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Our Featured Cartoon
"I Am Happy" (2010?)
It is not my practice to post cartoons by other artists (Jim's annual birthday cartoon notwithstanding, which by the way, Jim, that's only three weeks away now, let's not leave it 'til the last minute like always), or photos (except for that incredible school photo of Boyd's hairdo circa 1978) but I am violting policy in this case because I believe that this may well be the best cartoon ever drawn. It has never been published and I feel it should be disseminated as widely as possible. If its anonymous author wishes to come forward I will gladly give him or her full credit (or remove the drawing from the site, if s/he wants to make a whole Thing out of it.) Otherwise history will know him simply as The Master of Clinton Hill.
A few weeks ago my half-sisters and I were having dinner in a restaurant in New York, and when the check came it was brought to us slipped inside a spiral-bound notebook, in which patrons were supposed to write their impressions of the restaurant. However, some people had deviated from the official format and simply written random comments or made little drawings. And on one page we found this. I think I saw it first; after staring at it for a few seconds, I crumpled, laughing and shaking my head no. "What?" they said. I feebly held it out. The drawing was passed around the table, devastating each of us in turn as we beheld it, like a spiritual death-ray slowly swiveling around the table.We had had a bottle of wine. In the end we were all clutching our heads, wiping tears from our eyes, begging to see the drawing one more time and then begging for it to be taken from us. I am happy. It was killing us. I kept moaning, "No. No. O please. No." Claire took this photo of it. (I like the poor lighting; it looks like a sacred image in the innermost sanctum of some obscure sect, to be revealed by quavering torchlight only those who are privy to the Mysteries.) It was nice to learn that, among our other genetic similarities, all three of us are the kinds of people who immediately grasp the painful hilarity and the terrible truth of this drawing, who not only relate to it personally but feel it resonate deep in our souls.
I am happy.
