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Inked

Inked

176 pages
Published:   October 19, 2021
Non-Fiction  /  Art & Architecture
Hardcover:   9781773102290    $24.95

From inspiration to conception and all the trials in-between.

Inked is a collection of cartoons from one of the New Yorker’s most beloved cartoonists.

Filled with more than 150 of Dator’s single-panel cartoons, this lively, quick-witted book betrays a deadpan sense of humour.

But Inked is more than a book of cartoons. Dator also dives into the creative process, offering bonus commentary on how ideas have come to fruition, how one idea has led to another, and the various attempts to get an idea right. Along the way, he shows how a spark of imagination has turned into a laugh-out-loud moment with only a single image and caption, and how other attempts have found themselves on the cutting-room floor.
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Author

Joe Dator has been a cartoonist for the New Yorker since 2006 and has also contributed cartoons to MAD Magazine and Esquire. He is a recipient of the National Cartoonists Society’s Silver Reuben Award and has been featured on CBS's 60 Minutes. Dator has presented humorous lectures on everything from Japanese movie monsters to fictitious comedy albums and is the co-host of the Comedy Film Funnel podcast. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

“Joe Dator makes me laugh. Everybody loves to look behind the scenes and his new book shows the secrets, inspirations, heartaches, and triumphs of a life in cartoons. Christopher Guest and I have a collection of original cartoons, and we love our Joe Dator!” — Jamie Lee Curtis

“If you peek under the sofa cushion or into the mind of a cartoonist, mostly you will find crumbs, a couple of cheap ballpoint pens, some candy wrappers, a remote you lost in 1998, and a few greasy pennies. But every once in a while, you will find something that is really, really funny, like an anteater or a pair of jodhpurs. Joe Dator’s wonderful book illuminates the idea-path to an actual cartoon. It’s hilarious, too.” — Roz Chast, #1 New York Times bestselling cartoonist and author

“I enjoyed this look at how Joe’s particular brand of sausage is made, but it didn’t do much to quell my deep-seated resentment at just how damn good he is. If I see a gag and hiss, “I wish I’d thought of that,” chances are pretty good it’s one of his. It’s enraging. Go to hell, Joe.” — Emily Flake, New Yorker cartoonist and author of That Was Awkward

“What a strange, brutal world Joe Dator inhabits! Who needs it? Why do he and other gag cartoonists put themselves through such pain and frustration, week after week, late-night-hour after late-night-hour? I guess because they have to. And thank goodness for that. Better them than me. I loved this book.” — Mike Sacks, author of Stinker Lets Loose!

“Joe Dator's Inked is full of cartoons that make me laugh. What’s more, he tells you how you, too, can be a top cartoonist, sort of, but not really. Which also makes me laugh.” — Ron Hauge, writer and producer of The Simpsons

“Joe Dator likens pitching New Yorker cartoons to getting fired every week and applying for the same job again the following week. We are thankful for his perpetual nightmare — one that includes squirrels with nut allergies, palindromic dinosaurs, and breakfast plates arranged as happy faces. This welcome collection of his cartoons and rough sketches had me laughing so hard I snorted Pepsi out my nostrils (and I was drinking milk at the time).” — Barry Blitt, Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker cartoonist

“A successful cartoonist is astute, sarcastic, irreverent, and stupefyingly silly. Joe Dator is an observer, a postulator who pushes the envelope. I am honoured to be one of his colleagues in this creative, curious, and often complicated industry. I like his art, I like his humour, and I wonder where in the world he gets his ideas.” — Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better or for Worse

“Joe Dator has written a cartoon book like no other. ... full of quirks and quarks of racy, punny satirical and hilarious gags showing the common idiosyncrasies of everyday life.” — New York Journal of Books

“Sardonic and clever. It’s the kind of humour that makes you snort before you laugh, and it's compelling, too.” — The Star

“Joe Dator has written a cartoon book like no other. ... full of quirks and quarks of racy, punny satirical and hilarious gags showing the common idiosyncrasies of everyday life.” — New York Journal of Books

“Witty, insightful commentary and delightful cartoons make Inked a joy to read.” — Foreword Reviews

“Joe Dator put out a book this year that made me want to throw away my ink bottle and become a bus driver. He is easily one of the funniest, most inventive, industrious and prolific New Yorker cartoonists working today. Any time I see it out in the wild, I make sure to move it to the front of the shelf for maximum exposure.” — Chatfield