ohmidog!

My favorite all time dog cartoon in the New Yorker didn’t have a dog in it at all.

In fact, it wasn’t even a dog cartoon. It was lampooning humanity.

A doctor is examining planet Earth and gives his sad diagnosis:

“I’m afraid you’re infested with humans.”

It so well seemed to sum up  our planet’s predicament — and my growing view at the time that dogs are a more trustworthy and pleasant species to be around –  that I kept in pinned to my cubicle wall for several years, right up until I, after clawing about, escaped the cubicle.

There have been dozens of witty dog cartoons in the New Yorker over the years — more than twice as many as there have been of cats, according to this graphic presented on The Cartoon Bureau , the blog of New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff:

“The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs,” with a foreword by Malcolm Gladwell, showcases 76 of them in a volume that would be a proud addition to any coffee table.

According to Mankoff, “The earliest dog cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker, in the 1920s, searched for the shared mental space between dogs and people by projecting personhood on the dogs, who are drawn realistically, and are still obviously real dogs.”

That hasn’t changed much.

Thus, in the cartoon world, you have talking dogs, dogs in business suits, and dogs badmouthing cats, such as in the cartoon to the left.

Dogs do none of those things.

That’s what makes the cartoons funny, and dogs so darn lovable.

You can order the book from Amazon here.