New Yorker’s unfinished cover contest

The New Yorker’s most popular feature is its “Cartoon Caption Contest,” where readers provide captions for unfinished cartoons.

Now, it seems, the magazine has slyly provided its readers with another invitation: the “Unfinished Cover Contest.” The July 4 cover by George Booth features a dog in a window above a sea of flags. Like a standup comic leaving convenient spaces for hecklers to fill, Mr. Booth drew a blank for the left half of his picture, awaiting the pens of GurneyJourney readers.


Here’s my entry, called “Pendent Independent.” I’m not sure if this is an official contest yet, but it will become one if they get enough submissions.



I’m sending in mine today, and I encourage you to do so as well.


Here's a contribution called "The Debt Ceiling" by Larry Roibal. 

Digital submissions can be addressed to Françoise Mouly, cover art editor of the New Yorker, subject line “Unfinished Cover Contest” to Ms. Mouly's assistant Emily Kan (Emily_Kan@newyorker.com); 

or you can mail original modified covers to the following address:

The New Yorker
C/o Emily Kan
4 Times Square
New York, NY 10036

Email a JPEG to me, too (jgurneyart@yahoo.com), and I’ll post a few at the end of the month.

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Book
Wikipedia on George Booth 
Addendum: Finalists of the Contests 
New Yorker blog post about the contest