"The New Yorker" Cartoon-Off Discussion

[Adhemar]

Randall mentions on his blog that he did an interview with the New Yorker.

He forgets to mention that the interview includes a cartoon-off.

Randall’s entries are definitely xkcd’ish.
So even though they are not officially part of xkcd, they merit an individual xkcd comic thread.
Mods, go on and delete (or move) this thread if you disagree.

Randall’s cartoons:

The contender is to draw The Internet, as envisioned by the elderly


The contender is to draw String Theory


The contender is to draw 1999


The contender is to draw Your favorite animal eating your favorite food


Link: Cartoon-Off: xkcd, at the New Yorker
Title text/Alt text: None
Comment: “String theory” is my favourite, as it has the highest level of xkcd’ish subject matter and humour. The “cat o’ nine tails” whip has enough strings in it to merit a string theory discussion.
Verdict: Randall beat Farley Katz’ ass.
I wonder who’s technically copyright owner: the New Yorker or Randall, and what license applies.

[armorsmith42]

Once drawn by Randall, they would be subject to his copyright automatically.
Since he didn't licence them under creative commons, I infer that they are still copyrighted material.
This would make both you and the New Yorker violators of his copyright who will never be sued because Randall is not an asshat.

[fishyfish777]

Once drawn by Randall, they would be subject to his copyright automatically.
Since he didn't licence them under creative commons, I infer that they are still copyrighted material.
This would make both you and the New Yorker violators of his copyright who will never be sued because Randall is not an asshat.

LOLWUT Who gives a crap, it's just drawings.

[GodShapedBullet]

I think Randall won at each category besides the favorite animal eating your favorite food comic. I like the "pulled a Palin" thing, but I think the concept Farley Katz presented is really great for the category.

Munroe: 3
Katz: 1

Thanks a lot for sharing this, Adhemar. I had no idea the New Yorker did stuff like this and I had no idea Randall Munroe did this. The interview is pretty funny too.

[arbivark]

I'm glad to see this thread is already here.
Boingboing had a post about a quirky restaurant which linked to an article in the new yorker, where i stumbled on the cartoon-off.

[Klotz]

I actually laughed so hard at these.

[Irrational]

I like the 1999 one, and I love the string theory one.

[mootinator]

Once drawn by Randall, they would be subject to his copyright automatically.
Since he didn't licence them under creative commons, I infer that they are still copyrighted material.
This would make both you and the New Yorker violators of his copyright who will never be sued because Randall is not an asshat.

No. Normally when you enter a contest or submit materials to a magazine you're giving them either implied or express permission to publish your work. Some publishers requires you to transfer your rights to them as a condition of entry/submission. Usually they want at least the right of first publication.

[RealGrouchy]

Epic wins by Randall, some of Katz's were also pretty funny. I laughed hard at each one, though I missed the title text.

Three in a row was too much, though--reminds me of the "funniest joke in the world" campaign against the Germans in the war. I imagine many lives have been saved by the Monday-Wednesday-Thursday spacing of xkcd comics.

- RG>

[JoshuaZ]

String theory is brilliant. In 4 space a 2-d object can still be knotted. So a properly designed sheet could be used. But I don't think it could embed in three dimensions. Haven't studied higher dimensional knot theory in a while.

[This_is_a_username]

the 1999 one is awesome. Your favorite animal eating your favorite food is funny as hell too.

[TV4Fun]

I don't read a lot of new yorker, so what is the new yorker cartoon with the dog being referenced there?

[ConMan]

I don't read a lot of new yorker, so what is the new yorker cartoon with the dog being referenced there?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog

[Elipongo]

I'm a longtime lurker, but I just had to register just to add to this thread. I fixed up Randall's Wikipedia article last month and I've been keeping an eye on it every once in a while. This morning I noticed that the article's traffic spiked on Thursday http://stats.grok.se/en/200810/Randall_Munroe, and I was understandably puzzled. I worked my way through Google news search and found the cartoon-off. All I can say is freakin' sweet! Funny, until I read the caption I thought Katz's first entry was Randall's- it's kind of his style. Cute how the young people and perverts overlap. I also like how Katz's cow is crying. Randall's hat-tip to The New Yorker's "On the Internet Nobody Knows You're a Dog" cartoon is just great!

[Jebobek]

Epic wins by Randall, some of Katz's were also pretty funny. I laughed hard at each one, though I missed the title text.

Three in a row was too much, though--reminds me of the "funniest joke in the world" campaign against the Germans in the war. I imagine many lives have been saved by the Monday-Wednesday-Thursday spacing of xkcd comics.

- RG>

It was a good thing most of our soldiers did not know German when they were reading it off! The last one reminded me of "I don't know what you're talking about, so heres <insert animal here> with a <insert silly hat-substitute here>." So I laughed at that one too.

[bluegenetic]

LOL The 1999 was the best!!

[mache-b123]

Someday we'll see "the Siliconer" where all the guys who today work independently get their best shots.

Meanwhile... I know they laugh about my ideas, but in 9 years I'll take a lot of fun of them spreading cartoons of them by their obsolete iPhones TB, muahahahaha!

[Alder]

Heh...that cheered me up today. Liked 1999 best I think.

And of course, I then had to read the article, and hadn't realised that you can now hear your comments on Youtube! Bwahahaha!

[iamevn]

Did this actually appear in the print New Yorker?