From first idea to immortality in The New Yorker

The cartoon editor of The New Yorker, Bob Mankoff, now offers a blog that looks at the history of this institution of wit.

Featured this week is Michael Maslin, who first began submitting to the magazine at age sixteen. Seven years later, he had his first success. They took a cartoon he submitted and gave the idea in it to somebody else.  

In the hands of Whitney Darrow, Jr. it became this: 

The charm is undeniable, and it's also to be found in Maslin's story of his first cartoon, which led to another 700 or so.