Widely considered to be the pantheon of single-panel cartooning, The New Yorker cartoonists' styles are richly varied, and their personal stories are surprising. Gehr's book features fascinating biographical profiles of such artists as Gahan Wilson, Sam Gross, Roz Chast, Lee Lorenz, and Edward Koren. Along with a dozen such profiles, Gehr provides a brief history of The New Yorker cartoon itself, touching on the lives and work of earlier illustrating wits, including Charles Addams, James Thurber, and William Steig.

Foreword : View of the New Yorker from Portland, Oregon / by Matt Groening -- Introduction : How to read a New Yorker cartoon -- The editor with a horn : Lee Lorenz -- Sex, death, and frogs' legs : Sam Gross -- The exurban everymom : Roz Chast -- King of the scrapyard : George Booth -- The beastly beatitudes of Edward Koren -- The Kansas City curmudgeon: Charles Barsotti -- The beatnik biker : Arnie Levin -- The coupled cosmos of Victoria Roberts -- Auteur d'Horreur : Gahan Wilson -- The belated middle American : Jack Ziegler -- Neckless : the short, sharp world of Zachary Kanin -- The doctor of dots : Robert Mankoff.