Still Reading It for the Cartoons: Changing Production Methods & Public Perception in Illustration

Cartoonists Emily Flake & Benjamin Schwartz in Conversation

We got together on December 5, 2019 to hear from cartoonists Emily Flake and Benjamin Schwartz, both regular contributors to The New Yorker, about the ways in which cartoons respond to modern sensibilities, and how technology has altered production and publishing processes for cartoonists. The talk was partnered with Swann Galleries’ biannual Illustration Art preview, and our illustration art director, Christine von der Linn, joined the conversation with Samantha Vuignier of Cartoon Collections (a licensing database for leading publications like The New Yorker, Esquire, National Lampoon and others).

About the Speakers

Emily Flake

Emily Flake began cartooning for The New Yorker in 2008 and has had more than a hundred cartoons published in the magazine since. Her cartoons, essays, and illustrations have also appeared in Mad, the New York Times, the New Statesman, the Wall Street Journal, the Globe and Mail, and in many other publications. She is the author of Mama Tried and her newest book, “That Was Awkward: The Art and Etiquette of the Awkward Hug,“ published by Viking in 2019.

Benjamin Schwartz

Benjamin Schwartz is an artist and educator whose cartoons have been regularly featured in The New Yorker since 2012. Before he became a cartoonist, he considered becoming a doctor, and then did become a doctor, and then stopped being a doctor. Still, he is an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he teaches art to medical students as part of the Narrative Medicine program. He sneaks his children’s names into each of his New Yorker cartoons.

Christine von der Linn

Christine von der Linn is the Senior Specialist at Swann Galleries for Illustration Art, where she has nurtured the department from dedicated annual sales beginning in 2013 to popular biannual events. Over the past year she led a tour and discussion of illustration art for the Appraiser’s Association of America, and recently curated a selection of the Sackner Collection of Concrete and Visual Poetry for auction, setting records for several book artists.

Samantha Vuignier

Samantha Vuignier is the Sales Director at Cartoon Collections. She has over 20 years experience in commercial image licensing at both Corbis and Conde Nast where she went from Photo Editor to Associate Director of The Conde Nast Archive. In this role Samantha was responsible for all file preparation for The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons, as well as file production on all cartoons for The New Yorker Store and The Cartoon Bank.

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