Comparison of Same-Artist Covers

While researching other New Yorker covers made by the artist Eric Drooker, I found one from September 12th 1994 that has a similar theme as the one I was assigned. The image shows thousands of people walking on stilts above New York City. All of the people are men wearing hats, suits, and carrying breifcases. It is similar to the October 25th 2010 cover because they both portray people above the city, and looking down on it in a sense. I think what Drooker displayed with both of these covers was people trying to climb to the top of NYC. The September issue shows it more in climbing the business ladder, and the October issue focuses more on breaking out of the clutter and confusion and rising above it.

The next thing I found wasn't a New Yorker cover he's done, but it is a piece of art he's done. His painting "The Maze" had a very similar theme as the two covers. It is a painting of New York city, but the buildings are interlocked to look like a maze, and a bird is flying above it. This is right in keeping with the theme of being above the city in some way. The bird must represent freedom, and the bird is free from the confusion of the city. Although the maze stretches on past the horizon and seems to not end, so the bird isn't necessarily free after all. This theme of entrappment is shown in the two covers as well because he shows the buildings in the background that are almost like a barrier.

My New Yorker Cover

New Yorker Cover Comparison

I think that the "beauty pageant"cover and the "twilight" cover are similar because they both describe what New York City is all about. The "beauty pageant" cover shows how New York represents differences, beauty, and a modern world apart from other states. The "twilight" cover represents the city in terms of romantic qualities, nightlife, and the city's many different sides. Beauty is represented in two different ways in these covers. In one it is shown with a beauty mark, and in the other is is shown by a romantic couple. While the "beauty pageant" cover is easier to analyze, the "twilight" cover takes longer to process. In essence, both of these covers describe New York itself and its best qualities.

New Yorker Cover "Twilight"

Notice and Focus:
-Repetition of yellow windows and similar structures on rooftops.
-Yellow towards the bottom and blue towards the top.
-There is a couple holding hands on a rooftop.
-The city is bright even though it's nighttime.
-Romantic theme?

The artist Eric Drooker was not only an artist, but also a novelist and a poet. This says something about the cover because the artwork most likely has a story behind it. I think that by making the bottom part of the cover yellow and fire-like, he is portraying that even though it is nighttime, the city is still alive and bright. The artwork shows a couple looking down onto the city yet secluded from it, which shows the two sides of the city.

New Yorker Cover Analysis Part 2

I found it interesting that in the book they look into the historical context of the time period the cover was published. I touched on this briefly in my analysis, but I didn't think to delve deeper into it. I also thought that it was interesting how they noticed that the three states they used other than New York ended in the letter 'a', which I had not noticed. This further illustrates the similarities between the three states, and differences from New York. The book categorizes the cover as a "dumb blonde joke" by showing how the darker woman with a beauty mark is set apart from the rest. I also touched on this, but in a different way in my analysis. The most interesting part to me was when the book talked about New York as a point for immigrants, and the cover could be focusing on ethnicity. This struck me because it is a very plausible interpretation that I had not explored. Comparing New York to the more southern/west coast states, New York is definitely more diverse due to immigration. This is an interesting way of looking at it, and also very different from my analysis.

New Yorker Cover Analysis

On the New Yorker cover shown, it depicts 4 women with sashes that have the names of states on them. The states are Georgia, Florida, New York, and California. The font color of the title "New Yorker" is the same color as the sashes on the women, and the writings in the corner. Other than the title the sashes, and the miscellaneous writing, there is no other color in the picture, the rest is black and white. The women with the states Georgia, Florida, and California all have long wavy blonde hair, and have large fake smiles. Their eyes are also big and doll-like with long eyelashes, and they are wearing one-piece bathing suits. The women wearing the New York sash is very different from the rest. She has dark hair that is put up in a bun, and she is not smiling. She looks more exotic than the rest with smaller, narrower eyes with dark makeup and a mole on her right cheek. She is also different because she is wearing a two-piece bathing suit.

I think the reason that the title, price, date, and sashes are the only pieces of the cover that are in color is because the maker wanted those pieces to pop. Obviously the title should pop, but the fact that the sashes pop too makes me think that that must be of vital importance to the integrity of the cover. I thought it was interesting that New York was the only state they used that wasn't a warmer climate state. The women other than the New York woman are depicted as typical traditional southern pageant girls with their modest bathing suits, blonde hair, and fake looking smiles. I think the point they were trying to make with this is that New York is a place that is less fake, more fashion forward, and more modern than others. This makes sense as a theme because this issue is from the year 2000 when a big focus was put on being modern.

Grammar Comics

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