Thanks for this great memorial. You’ve captured him perfectly. Sam is my uncle and part of my life since before I can remember. Missing him 💔 and grateful for your tribute.
That''s a tough one. Putting aside the fact that Sam Gross was pretty much a one-off, I can't think of anyone at The Nib that even does single one-panel gag cartoons. There are a ton of fantastic cartoonists and writers at The Nib, it's just a different thing all together. A different world, a different time. The New Yorker isn't the goal, it's writing a graphic novel. I'm not saying the art of the single panel joke is dead, but it would take me 12 panels crammed with 20 jokes to get anywhere near what a Sam Gross accomplished with a man, a cat with a whip, and a seven word sentence.
That's a bit of what I was alluding to in the piece--that Sam's art was really shaped by a culture that doesn't exist anymore. One where print was a vital aspect of the national conversation; that there were so many paying readers (and advertisers) a tremendous profusion of publications could exist (from The Realist to The National Review); and that gag cartooning, with its weird rules and forced economy, was the coin of the realm. When I talk to guys who were amazing gag cartoonists in the late 1950s, when they were in college at The Yale Record, they tell me they began working at it at five. I know for me I began writing print humor at around ten, magazine and newspaper humor. Nobody now would do that; almost nobody THEN did it.
I wonder what a talent like Sam would create today, in places like The Nib?
Thanks for this great memorial. You’ve captured him perfectly. Sam is my uncle and part of my life since before I can remember. Missing him 💔 and grateful for your tribute.
Oh, what a lucky one, to have an Uncle like that!
Very sorry for your loss; I'm sure he loved you dearly, Deb.
Thank you, Michael
That''s a tough one. Putting aside the fact that Sam Gross was pretty much a one-off, I can't think of anyone at The Nib that even does single one-panel gag cartoons. There are a ton of fantastic cartoonists and writers at The Nib, it's just a different thing all together. A different world, a different time. The New Yorker isn't the goal, it's writing a graphic novel. I'm not saying the art of the single panel joke is dead, but it would take me 12 panels crammed with 20 jokes to get anywhere near what a Sam Gross accomplished with a man, a cat with a whip, and a seven word sentence.
Mark, thank you; and all that makes sense.
That's a bit of what I was alluding to in the piece--that Sam's art was really shaped by a culture that doesn't exist anymore. One where print was a vital aspect of the national conversation; that there were so many paying readers (and advertisers) a tremendous profusion of publications could exist (from The Realist to The National Review); and that gag cartooning, with its weird rules and forced economy, was the coin of the realm. When I talk to guys who were amazing gag cartoonists in the late 1950s, when they were in college at The Yale Record, they tell me they began working at it at five. I know for me I began writing print humor at around ten, magazine and newspaper humor. Nobody now would do that; almost nobody THEN did it.
I wonder what a talent like Sam would create today, in places like The Nib?
So eloquently put. Sam was an American individual, never to be tamed, and always hilarious. Our best and brightest, even with gingerbread sex
Jim, now the Gingerbread Sex mantle has been put down, you must pick it up!
(Thank you. Coming from as great a writer as you, that means a lot.)
Beautiful remembrance of The Master. Thank you, Michael.
Your work reminds me of Sam's, Nick.
No pressure. :-)
That's so sweet. Thank you for the anxiety/boner, Chief.
Thank you, Michael. To Sam, and doing the work. 🍺
You're another one who does the work, Geoffrey.
You and A are never far from my thoughts, I'm just overcommitted and, one assumes, eventually will be committed. :-)
And why will *you* be committed? For doing the work. (Running a humor magazine will do that to a man.)
Miss you and thinking about you, too!
An excellent obit, Mike. You captured Sam perfectly.
Ed, thank you. It only took six solid hours and a bowlful of cheap candy. But Sam was/is worth it.
Wow. What a great memorial Michael. This is just lovely. Thank you, thank yiu, thank you.
Thank you, John. I know Sam's work meant a lot to you (and all of us).
Lovely.
Condolences to you, and well, everyone I guess.
Yes, all of us. Thank you, Mark.
Is there anybody currently toiling at The Nib that gives off Sam-vibes?