Ali vs Frasier, King Kong vs Godzilla! These are some of the great matchups of our times.
In the world of cartooning, we've got a few of our own: Marvel vs DC, Mad vs Cracked, and let's not forget The New Yorker vs Saturday Evening Post.
The New Yorker was founded in 1925 by Harold Ross and his wife, Jane Grant, a New York Times reporter.
The Saturday Evening Post was founded in 1728 by Benjamin Franklin.
On the one hand, New Yorker cartoons are edgy, and generally based on life in the Big Apple, as shown by Mick Stevens in the following.
On the other hand, Saturday Evening Post cartoons are traditionally somewhat edgy, but more typically family-oriented and geared towards working class Americans as shown by Vic Herman in this classic cartoon.
Gotta give the New Yorker credit for taking chances, even though the cartoons often fall flat. Their cynical, biting, often cruel brand of cartoons are not for the average American, but for a select breed of black clothes wearing, latte sipping, hybrid vehicle driving, Al Gore loving, small glasses wearing, university grads who dig that Magazine.
I give the Saturday Evening Post equal credit for appealing to middle American, family loving, often religious folk who enjoy a healthy laugh now and again.
So, whose cartoons are funnier? There's no doubt that the New Yorker has the greater talent, artistically speaking. They tend to stick with a stable of carefully chosen cartoonists and rarely let new talent in.
The Post, on the other hand, has a very democratic selection process and tends to choose cartoons based solely on their humor value. For that reason, it's cartoons tend to be more hit than miss, which is not always the case with the New Yorker.
Two halves of the same coin, I just hope that both mags continue the long cartoon tradition well into the future...
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