Francoise Mouly has been the art editor of The New Yorker since 1993, responsible for over 1,000 covers including the 9/11 black-on-black cover and the controversial Obama fist-bump cover. She is also the editorial director of Toon Books, publisher of kids’ books by comic-strip artists. Mouly, featured in this month’s U-M Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series, took some time to talk with us about The New Yorker, narrative art, and her latest Toon Books release: Hansel and Gretel, retold by author Neil Gaiman and illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti. 

When you step inside Allen Gregory’s showroom you get an overwhelming sense you are being watched, the sense that you are the one on display, and that is exactly his aim. “It’s not in the antlers,” Gregory says, “it’s in the eyes.”

EXT. FRONT PORCH. MORNING.

It’s November 1, 2012. Kellyann Wargo, University of Michigan senior, settles into a camping chair. A bust-open jack-o-lantern trashbag stuffed with leaves sits beside a folding chair upon which stands the fixings for mimosas and a martini glass. A girl wearing a sexy hotdog dress walks by holding a clutch, looking ashamed. 

INT. MERCEDES SUV. MORNING. 

It’s February 15, 2015. Kellyann Wargo, creator and host of VH1’s new series Walk of Shame Shuttle, drives through Coral Gables, Miami. Her passenger, a University of Miami junior, wearing sunglasses, visibly hungover, tells her about the previous night.  

I had the pleasure of speaking with Roy Wood Jr. in anticipation of his shows at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase this weekend. Wood, lauded by Entertainment Weekly for his “charismatic crankiness” has been in comedy for over a decade and has honed his craft on the radio, on TV, and on the stage. We chatted about his career, the job roles of a comedian, Japanese prank videos, Bill Cosby jokes, and the weather.