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Chris Ware’s “Bedtime”

“As a procrastination tactic, I sometimes ask my fifteen-year-old daughter what the comic strip or drawing I’m working on should be about—not only because it gets me away from my drawing table but because, like most kids of her generation, she pays attention to the world. So, while sketching the cover of this Health Issue, I asked her.

“ ‘Make sure it’s about how most doctors have children and families of their own,’ she said.

Chris Ware’s heartbreaking cover for the New Yorker‘s Health Issue arrives in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic.

I was reminded of his 2009(!) cover for the New Yorker‘s from Halloween edition in which parents all look at their phones while their kids trick-or-treat. It’s an interesting contrast…