In the April 16th New Yorker, this Lars Kenseth cartoon on the POP (phrasal overlap portmanteau) museum loan shark:
(#1) museum loan + loan shark
The artist is new to this blog, and pretty new to the magazine. From Michael Maslin’s Ink Spill column of 8/1/17, “Checking In: Lars Kenseth Talks About “Deodorant People” and His First New Yorker Cartoon”:
I won’t lie to you Spill visitors, the first time I saw a Lars Kenseth drawing in the New Yorker, I was both baffled and intrigued. No one draws like Mr. Kenseth. He is one of the newest of the newest wave of cartoonists who have broken into and onto the pages of Harold Ross’s now 92 year old weekly. Mr. Kenseth’s first drawing appeared last Fall and those that have followed have not lost their peculiarity. That’s a good thing.
Happily, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Kenseth this past Spring when he was east [Kenseth is a SoCal guy]. Meeting him was in a weird way like meeting his cartoon world; cartoonists who seem like their worlds fascinate me (two of the New Yorker cartoonists he mentioned in our discussion qualify as perfect examples: Sam Gross and Charles Addams).
With the recent publication of another Kenseth cartoon in the New Yorker it seemed like a good time to check in with him…
… MM: You have one of the most unusual styles of all contemporary New Yorker cartoonists. Can you talk about your style.
LK: Can I just say, I LOVE hearing people try to describe the characters I draw. I’ve heard everything from deodorant roll-on people to egg people to blobs to Weebles to gel caps to jellybeans to lozenges – it’s like the way every clan of survivors in The Walking Dead has a different name for “zombies”.
… MM: I think you may have made New Yorker cartoon history by including the words “New Yorker Cartoon” within the cartoon itself, and (unless I’m wrong), it was your first New Yorker cartoon. Can you talk about that cartoon, and about that “first” moment? Every cartoonist remembers that moment of the first OK. Can you share your memory?
(#2) A meta-cartoon, plus the Psychiatrist and Clown cartoon memes
LK: What a delightful shock that was, haha. I still have to pinch myself sometimes. As far as that first cartoon goes – I can’t believe I even sold that one. The whole “creepy clown” phenomenon was so odd – and not “New Yorker” at all. But, it’s a therapist’s office scene, so that’s the tether I suppose. It’s fitting that was my first one because some of my favorite New Yorker cartoons marry the surreal with the everyday. I’m reminded of that Charles Addams cartoon where a security guard locks eyes with a minotaur in the center of a labyrinthine museum. I need to sell a minotaur cartoon.
… Note: I asked Mr. Kenseth if he wouldn’t mind drawing a deodorant guy for the Spill. He happily obliged and sent what he called “a little self portrait”:
(#3)
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