Cartoonist John Kane Dies

I was very sorry to hear about the death of New Yorker cartoonist John Kane. Here's my little remembrance of him:

For a short time a few years ago, I was going in regularly to show my cartoons to Bob Mankoff at The New Yorker. As it says in the linked article, I was also made to feel at home by the likes of Sid Harris and Sam Gross and by a guy, up in years like me, who I had really never heard of before . . . John Kane.

One Tuesday in the waiting room, John was passing around his copy of a hard-cover New Yorker collection of cartoons for everybody to autograph. He eventually passed it to me. I demurred, telling him that I was never actually published in The New Yorker. John's simple response was, “Oh, but you will be.”

I stubbornly didn't sign the book, but his gentle words have stayed with me, and I wish I could have told him how much I appreciated them.