For many aficionados of the New Yorker magazine, the drawings of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams, and Saul Steinberg epitomize its sophisticated wit and disarming humor. In The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams, and Saul Steinberg, the first full-scale scholarly study of the subject, Iain Topliss considers the work of each artist, traces the development of his art, and recalls the cultural and social context in which it was created.Topliss delves into the nature of humor and the elements that make successful cartoons funny, paying special attention to matters of style and technique. He draws particular attention to the ways in which these four artists mocked the status quo without alienating the magazine's readers. Indeed, argues Topliss, the New Yorker's cartoons helped define American consciousness in the mid-twentieth century. Illustrated with more than fifty drawings from the artists published in the magazine between 1925 and 1975, The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams, and Saul Steinberg recognizes the achievements of these talented artists and their distinctive contribution to American culture.