Today on the site:
R.C. Harvey profiles Helen Hockinson:
Parker and Hokinson shared an admiration for the redoubtable editor of The New Yorker. “We set great store by the judgment of Harold Ross,” Parker wrote, adding Hoky’s opinion: “When he pencils ‘Not funny’ in the margin of a drawing and I look at it later, I generally realize to my horror that it isn’t,” she said.
Although her relationship with the magazine and its editor was, for the most part, “extremely happy,” as Parker reported, there was an occasion of unhappiness when she discovered that Peter Arno was being paid more for his cartoons than she was for hers. This discrepancy doubtless arose because of Ross’s labyrinthian pay scale that resulted in higher pay for full-page cartoons—and Arno was diligent in opting for full-page ideas every time. But Hoky, put out by the perceived inequity, refused to send in any more drawings until the playing field was leveled. Ross promptly did the right thing.
Hokinson kept her pocket-sized sketchpad with her at all times, and once, at least, after her celebrity as the creator of the Hokinson Woman was established, her habit of drawing wherever she was gave her a chuckle. She was sketching at a flower show when she overheard a broad-beamed woman saying to her friends, “Watch out. I understand Helen Hokinson comes here for material.” Hoky, who was at that very moment unobtrusively drawing the speaker, giggled to herself but didn’t miss a stroke of the pencil.
Elsewhere:
That enormo Comic-Con over on the other coast generated some news. Tom Spurgeon kept a good running commentary. The Beat already has some panel summaries.
The New Yorker on Rube Goldberg.
And Harlan Ellison profiled by New York magazine.
