For the first cover of the New Year, Harry Bliss, a cartoonist at heart, chose to riff on the Puck Building, one of the great surviving structures of New York’s old publishing district. Located in SoHo, it was constructed in 1885, as a printing facility. Lithographic stones and some of the flywheels that powered the presses are still on view at the store on the ground and basement levels. While the building has weathered the decades well, the transformations it has undergone have been replete with irony. The current owner is Kushner Companies, which was until recently run by Jared Kushner; a brochure to market its newly constructed luxury penthouses describes the magazine Puck (which was published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and gave the building its name) like so: “This is . . . a magazine that changed the nation. It elected and defeated presidents. It infuriated the corrupt. It outraged the orthodox. It vexed the monopolists. And it made just about everyone laugh out loud.” In a similarly ironic twist, the same address was also the original home of Spy, a satirical publication founded by Graydon Carter and Kurt Andersen, in the eighties. In almost every issue, Spy targeted Donald Trump as the brash embodiment of a crass age, famously labelling him “a short-fingered vulgarian.” We recently talked to Bliss about his cover image and the inspiration behind it.
Do you look up at the buildings or down at the people when you walk around town?
It’s a good question because, while it’s important to look in front of you, it’s also difficult for me not to look up at the architecture. So many buildings around town are magnificent and continue to be an inspiration for many of my New Yorker covers.
Did you happen on the Puck Building during your walks, or did you seek it out? If so, why?
My first introduction to the Puck Building was when I was engaged to a terrific woman and we had planned to have our wedding and reception there. That was a while back, when there was space available for parties. Sadly, we split up, and the wedding never happened. (I probably have spent more money on engagement rings than on student loans.)
Where does your interest in old humor publications come from? Did you ever see Puck or Spy magazines?
Honestly, I’ve never seen either of the magazines. I went to a painting academy in the eighties and was deeply involved in academy-style painting, so humor publications were not on my radar. By the time I became interested in humor, Spy was no more. My humor magazines before and after the academy were Mad and, later, National Lampoon.
You live in New Hampshire. Isn’t it far colder there than in New York City?
You’re right! My studio is in New Hampshire, and right now, as I write this, it is fifteen degrees outside. There’s nothing quite like waking up at five in the morning to take your dog outside to pee in ten-degree weather. You New Yorkers have it easy!
“Independence Day.”
“Spring Vision.”
“Fashion District.”
Sourse: newyorker.com
