Cartoon Icons

Cartoons have been a defining feature of The New Yorker since its first issue. Helen Hokinson and Charles Addams, two of its most prolific early cartoonists, had an enduring influence on the magazine and American visual culture. Over two decades, Hokinson contributed 68 covers and 1,800 cartoons, depicting New York society matrons from a wry yet affectionate perspective. The New Yorker published the first drawing in Addams’s charmingly macabre “Addams Family” series in 1938. The world of Addams’s creepy, kooky characters expanded to the small screen with a 1960s primetime television series and, more recently, the 2022 Netflix series Wednesday.