Six Cartoonists on Critical Failure, One Panel at a Time
Barbara Smaller, Edward Koren, Mick Stevens, and More
If given the choice between a great sales or great reviews, what would you choose? It’s illogical but I know most authors would rather take the praise instead of the prize. This is truly funny because we live in a time when everyone in the country is a critic and there is no other group more sensitive or takes reviews worse than writers & poets. Even the beloved classic, The Old Man and the Sea, got a one-star review online (“Worst book ever.”). My first review was a full-page dismantling of me in The New York Times Book Review (It was so bad and vindictive my editor sent me condolence flowers and friends asked me if the reviewer was an ex).
No question, it’s hard to keep a sense of humor about bad reviews but lucky for us some the world’s greatest cartoonists have. The following drawings are from a new collection of cartoons to help us keep everything in perspective called, Everyone’s A Critic: The Ultimate Cartoon Book by the World’s Greatest Cartoonists.
Barbara Smaller
Edward Koren
Michael Maslin
Mick Stevens
P. C. Vey
William Haefeli
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Excerpted from Everyone’s a Critic: The Ultimate Cartoon Book by Bob Eckstein. Copyright © Bob Eckstein 2019. Reprinted with permission from Princeton Architectural Press.
