Before I start work on a project for a client, I like to open one of the New Yorker cartoon books to get myself in a good mood and set the stage. Other cartoons just don't do the job for me. They don't have the edge and basic feel of sharp truth to them.
This book is just fun and nice to have around when you want to laugh at yourself and your job and those people you run into every day of your working life.
It's very nicely presented and a great pleasure.
Susanna K. Hutcheson
Owner and Creative Director
Powerwriting.com LLC
Having said this, I must admit that as an avid reader, I wished for a "story" to lend more substance to the issues addressed by the "cartoons". In this respect, the recently published American satire, "Management by Vice" by C.B. Don is the book for lovers of both media. It artfully blends great "cartoon" illustrations (of the same calibre as in The New Yorker) with short, witty verses, all combined within hilarious, easy-to-read episodes that lampoon life in high-tech R&D. If you crave The New Yorker's apropos, biting humor, I think you'll love the wickedly satirical, "Management by Vice" as well!!
I became interested in this book after reading the excellent The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons. I like this one even better.
The introduction by David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, is worth of the price of the book alone. He describes a ritual whereby the cartoonists arrive to share their work, and how the editors all feel envious and intimidated by the cartoonists. The reasons for the envy? The editors know that the readers usually turn to the cartoons first, the cartoon humor is often more effortless than the essays and poetry in The New Yorker, and the cartoonists first realized that business was a great subject for the magazine.
The cartoons themselves were all selected by Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker.
Perhaps business is inherently funnier than most other subjects, but these cartoons were unusually rewarding to review.
Here are some of my favorites:
"It's up to you now, Miller. The only thing that can save us is an accounting breakthrough."
"Pendleton, as of noon today your services will no longer be required. Meanwhile, keep up the good work."
There is a wordless cartoon of a natty older fellow in a suit sitting at the top of a tall step ladder looking glum. (I guess this is, it's lonely at the top.)
"No, thursday's out. How about never -- is never good for you?"
Four men are fishing in a stream, while one holds a cell phone and is speaking, "Fenwick, Benton & Perkins. How may I direct your call?"
Another wordless cartoon -- The Bill Gates Wealth Clock which provides up-to-the minute numbers on a billboard.
"Sir, the following paradigm shifts occurred while you were out."
"You drive yourself too hard. You really must learn to take time to stop and smell the profits."
One walrus says to the other eyeing a group of penguins, "Here come the suits."
As you can see the common thread is taking our fascination with getting what we want in business and poking some fun at it with an absurd situation.
This book would make a great gift for anyone who is or has been in business, and certainly for any reader of The New Yorker!
Be sure to think about the cartoons and discuss them with others when they reveal some important examples of stalled thinking (like the one about downsizing) that need to be changed.
Keep your laughs up above your profits in the meantime!