Over the 40+ years Jack drew cartoons for the New Yorker, he also attempted several covers. While two were purchased to run as covers, only one actually made it, in 1978:
The piece below was originally purchased in the early 90s as a cover, but ended up running as full-page interior color art in 1993:
Alas! Many chase the elusive New Yorker cover credit. Covers are a sizeable pay increase over interior cartoons, not to mention the ego boost that comes from seeing your work grace newsstands across the country.
Here are a few more unpublished cover attempts from the archives that I particularly liked:
Last month I was thrilled when editor Michael Gerber from The American Bystander (you can get a copy here) asked to use a cover I had shared at the memorial as the cover for their 5th issue. With just some minor tweaks, you can see how beautifully it worked:
