New Yorker Cover

     

Art Spiegelman's "Shooting Gallery"

 

    The New Yorker is a magazine that began their publications in 1925, presenting its readers with a variety of content from journalism, to fiction pieces, to poetry. The New Yorker seems to have a sort of target-audience of well educated folks that have interest in the political and social commentary the magazine often provides. The covers of The New Yorker are quite unique, and many of these illustrations provide more than just something to catch the eye of a person walking through a store, they give us something to talk about, as many touch on hot societal and cultural issues as the magazine's written commentary does.

    “Shooting Gallery” depicts a white male police officer in uniform at what looks to be a sort of carnival or fair. He stands at a booth for a game titled “shooting gallery” with prizes lined up on a shelf to his left. He has his gun drawn. Appearing as the background of the booth is a simple outline of a city. This background sits behind silhouettes of what appears to be an adult male talking on the phone, a child, and an elderly person, each silhouette has a target in the center. Appearing on the front of the counter of the booth is a sign reading “41 shots'' followed by a price of nineteen cents.

    The context around the time Spiegelman’s cover was published by The New Yorker is extremely important in order to understand the details of his work. At the time of publication, it was March of the year 1999, the United States was under the Clinton administration. This was about a month after the tragic death of Amadou Diallo at the hands of the NYPD, being shot at 40 times, and hit 19 times by the gunfire, hence the “41 shots 19 cents” sign across the front of the booth. Amadou’s death was no isolated incident though, other cases of brutality perpetrated by the NYPD around that time include Anthony Baez in 1994, and Abner Louima later in 1997. This context is not reserved just for this time period of the nineties under Clinton, police brutality has been a persistent issue for decades, and hundreds more cases of it have occurred since Diallo, Baez, and Louima, making this cover and its message extremely relevant to this day.

    Here, Art Spiegelman seems to be depicting the issue of police brutality and violence. The timing of publication shortly after the death of Amadou Diallo, as well as the “41 shots” and "19 cents" on the lower part of the booth, support this. The presentation of the action of the officer shooting as a “game” with a slight smile on his face is also very telling and could support the depiction of the issue coming from an officer’s point of view as well.