The Cartoon & Poem Supplement
The Cartoon & Poem Supplement
"He’s gone off on a jazzy riff before,"
Best pair of poems in quite a while! So come on in, all.
Poems:
“Girlfriends” by Kim Addonizio: This smoky ode to the lives lived by friends is as visceral as a late-night text message, but full of sly formal elegance – that rhyme of “touch” and “so much” marking a midway turn, which recurs again at the volta; plus other, less showy touches – children who “casually moved away / too far or never left home or were never /born”, contact to “spill some urgent news or blunder” – easy to assume that heavy emotion necessitates a looser grip on form, but Addonizio shows it doesn’t. Also her daughter is great in You’re the Worst.
“Onions” by Peter Balakian: In keeping with the subject, this is more translucent than Balakian usually tends; he meditates on the pungent bulbs as historically embedded, pulling up soils and stories. The language is impeccable, the emotion sneaks up. Balakian has had, slowly, a series of vegetable poems in the magazine; they’re as good together (ratatouille?) as they are on their own.
Cartoons:
Here's where to find the cartoons, with credits, in order.
Cover: Huge Swarte fan, and this is thoroughly winning. Great color story, great composition. Maybe the treatment is a little light?
Pg. 9: Wonderful struggling pickle. Captionless bias in full effect.
Pg. 15: Men? Bad? At housework??!
Pg. 16: Half an idea: Are the remote workers like young lovers? Or antelopes? Or they’re just frolicking together because… otherwise the joke wouldn’t read?
Pg. 23: An unrewarding puzzler. The neighbor’s rabbits are going to eat your carrots, and this will be like the movie Scarface?
Pg. 24: I like the idea of replacing “hair” with “guard” but it ought to be visual somehow. This is super overwritten and doesn’t make sense with the story of Rapunzel, whose whole deal is that she hasn’t had prior romances.
Pg. 28: MPJ today stands for My Prix-fixe? Juicy!
Pg. 30: A very long way to go for pretty much nothing.
Pg. 35: Hmm. Information is within an encyclopedia; that doesn’t mean an encyclopedia is synonymous with the idea of information. So this doesn’t quite parse.
Pg. 37: Great caption, great horn man. Anxiety is a good way to make zaniness land. Best of the Week.
Pg. 41: What if… skunks workplace?!
Pg. 45: All Chefs Are Bureaucrats?
Pg. 49: Title doesn’t add much.
Pg. 55: Did they intend to pick this for the caption contest, perhaps?
Pg. 56: This is just how seagulls think! Where is the subversion of expectations?
76 Years Ago Today
Cartoon Setting Stats:
Current issue:
1 Home/Family
1 Workplace (general)
2 Workplace (specific)
0 Parties/Third Spaces
6 Zany/Talking Animals
4 Other
Archival Issue (1949):
0 Home/Family
0 Workplace (general)
3 Workplace (specific)
5 Parties/Third Spaces
1 Zany/Talking Animals
1 Other
Extreme density of talking animals in 2025; extreme density of non-work adult get-togethers in 1949. (Two cartoons set at fairs!) This probably says something about… something! (Summer then and now?) Neither issue had many funny panels, in any case, so…
aboard about