Wednesday Spill: First & Last…Richard Cline

First And Last…Richard Cline

Another in a series of quick looks at an artist’s very first New Yorker cartoon and their last. The Spill does not do a "First & Last" for a cartoonist until at least 20 years has passed since their last appearance in The New Yorker.

Richard Cline burst on The New Yorker scene in the early 1980s. I loved his carefree line, and his fascination (for the most part) with New York’s downtown scene. The New Yorker loved it too. The magazine published 395 Cline cartoons in his 20 year run.

–Photo: From a New Yorker cartoon exhibition at Parsons School of Design, NYC, in February of 1984. L-R: Bob Mankoff, Mick Stevens, Richard Cline, Jack Ziegler, and Liza Donnelly. Photo by Anne Hall Elser.

Here’s Richard Cline’s first New Yorker drawing, not downtown Manhattan yet, but circling. Published in the issue of July 6, 1981.

His last New Yorker drawing, published July 23 2001, gives you a pretty good idea of Cline’s interest and style.

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Richard Cline’s A-Z Entry

Richard Cline (photo NYC, 1984) New Yorker work: 1981 – 2001.

Note: There has never been a Richard Cline solo cartoon collection. There is no online Cline presence (i.e., no website devoted to his work). You can find just one of his New Yorker drawings here on Conde Nast’s commercial art site. 1 of his drawings is included in The New Yorker Cartoon Album: 1975-1985; 8 of his drawings appear in The New Yorker 75th Anniversary Cartoon Collection; 8 of his drawings appear in 2004’s The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker.