This is from Issue #3 of The American Bystander. I love this page so much.
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The backstory is that in June 2016 our Senior Editor, Alan Goldberg, had a friend (the novelist Donna Macini) who knew Billy. IIRC some months earlier my dear friend and Bystander Michael Thornton had forwarded me some of Billy's poems and I had thought he would be a great fit in with the magazine. We made the connection through Donna, and Billy was kind enough to send us some unpublished work.
Getting George to do the illustration was wonderful; he was always such a delightful man and talent. He was anxious to draw for us, as The New Yorker had gone through one of its periodic "no more old people, we just want NEW people" conniptions and he wasn't appearing as much as he wanted to. So after selecting Billy's poem, I sent it along to George, who first did a rough and then this final with, I believe, pen and ink and highlighter.
It was a perfect match; both George and Billy were very pleased with the result (as was I and, I hope, our readers).
The backstory is that in June 2016 our Senior Editor, Alan Goldberg, had a friend (the novelist Donna Macini) who knew Billy. IIRC some months earlier my dear friend and Bystander Michael Thornton had forwarded me some of Billy's poems and I had thought he would be a great fit in with the magazine. We made the connection through Donna, and Billy was kind enough to send us some unpublished work.
Getting George to do the illustration was wonderful; he was always such a delightful man and talent. He was anxious to draw for us, as The New Yorker had gone through one of its periodic "no more old people, we just want NEW people" conniptions and he wasn't appearing as much as he wanted to. So after selecting Billy's poem, I sent it along to George, who first did a rough and then this final with, I believe, pen and ink and highlighter.
It was a perfect match; both George and Billy were very pleased with the result (as was I and, I hope, our readers).
Mighty fine.