Arnold Zwicky's Blog

The cover of the forthcoming New Yorker:

(#1)

Bert and Ernie view SCOTUS, in the light of this week’s DOMA and Prop 8 rulings.

From the New Yorker website:

“It’s amazing to witness how attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime,” said Jack Hunter, the artist behind next week’s cover, “Moment of Joy.” Hunter, who originally submitted his image, unsolicited, to a Tumblr, continued, “This is great for our kids, a moment we can all celebrate.”

The cover has elicited considerable hostility — some from those who condemn homosexuality, some specifically from opponents of same-sex marriage, but also some from people who take the cover to be an insult to Sesame Street and Jim Henson.

Meanwhile, the magazine has assembled a slideshow of nine covers with a same-sex theme. (The title of the site is “Gay Marriage on the New Yorker’s cover”, but not all the covers are about same-sex marriage.) Here’s the whole set:

1. 6/13/94 by Jacques de Loustal, with twogrooms at their wedding in front of their wedding cake with two miniature grooms on top of it:

(#2)

2. 6/17/96 by Barry Blitt, with a couple reenacting a famous World War II kiss:

(#3)

3. 1/27/03 by Harry Bliss, with football players huddling up together and a bit of grab-ass:

(#4)

4. 3/15/04 by Mark Ulriksen, with a man abnd a woman both trying on wedding gowns:

(#5)

5. 7/25/11 by Barry Blitt, with two brides, walking hand-in-hand, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge to get married in Manhattan:

(#6)

6. 5/21/12 by Bob Staake, a rainbow White House, posted in “More gay flag”.

7. 6/25/12 by Gayle Kabaker, a bridal couple, posted in “June brides”.

8. 5/13/13 by Chris Ware, on Mothers Day:

(#7)

9. 7/8/13, the Jack Hunter cover in #1 above.

Of the artists for the covers in #1 through #7, only Harry Bliss has appeared in this blog before, in “Famous models” of 12/11/12 (and on Language Log, here). But I posted on Language Log back in 2008 on a Barry Blitt cover (with Michelle and Barack Obama) that was the center of some controversy. Blitt has two covers in tlhe set above, so here are some words about him. From Wikipedia:

Barry Blitt (born April 30, 1958 in Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec) is a Canadian-born American artist.

Barry Blitt is a cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his New Yorker covers and as a regular contributor to the op-ed page of the New York Times. Blitt creates his works in traditional pen and ink, as well as watercolors.

He also illustrates children’s books.

On Blitt and Obama:

In spite of the controversy and condemnation by the Obama campaign, after taking office President Barack Obama chose one of Blitt’s New Yorker covers to hang in the White House. The Dec. 8, 2008 cover depicts the President picking the family dog at the same time as he is vetting candidates for his national security cabinet. Additionally, President Obama requested and received a signed New Yorker cover by the artist, which depicts the President walking on water.

(#8)

(#9)

From Vanity Fair, an illustration accompanying “Men Evolving Badly” (from Honest Abe to The Donald) by James Wolcott:

(#10)

This entry was posted on June 30, 2013 at 8:55 am and is filed under Art/lit/music/film, Gender and sexuality, Linguistics in the comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.