Tequila Mockingbird: A Book of Animal Cartoons

by Leo Cullum and Christopher Sweet

The popular New Yorker cartoonist introduces a colorful menagerie of 125 hilarious animal cartoons that capture the all-too-human dilemmas of such creatures as black widow spiders, bears, birds, fish, snakes, sharks, monkeys, birds, and many others.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810948478
• ISBN13: 9780810948471
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.4" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

great book

This book will make you laugh. A nice easy read. Great to have where someone might need to read just a little at a time. Hospitals and bathrooms come to mind. This was a great book for the money !!

Buy Two Copies - One for Yourself and One for a Good Friend

Readers of THE NEW YORKER or even individuals who occasionally just peruse the magazine's wonderful cartoons will be familiar with the talent of Leo Cullum, who has had over five hundred of his cartoons published there since 1977. This marvelous collection of his animal cartoons from the pages of that magazine provides the reader with 124 separate opportunities (including the cartoons on the front and back cover) to smile, chuckle, laugh out loud and occasionaly sympathize and commiserate with the animals portrayed. As the author states in his introduction, "animals are masters of metaphor...[and] the area of the cartoonist [is] to take an animal's personal cliche and blow it out of all reasonable proportion" or to cause us to see it in a new light. Of course we have the chicken crossing the road and the early bird ordering the worm, but we also have the unexpected grazing buffalo on his cellphone confiding that "I love the convenience, but the roaming charges are killing me". It's impossible for me to pick a favorite from among this universally good collection, but I will mention a few others to provide some further flavor. While difficult to choose among the several which include political commentary, my favorite is probably the lion looking with regret at his paw and exclaiming to his mate - "He damaged a nerve when he pulled ther thorn out. I'd have a surefire malpractice suit if I hadn't eaten him." There are also several that simply include marvelous wordplay, such as the cowpoke explaining to his sidekick as he stands over the hogtied calf while brandishing his branding iron, "this part is easy. The tough part is instilling brand loyalty". But is is hard to top the title cartoon on the front cover, the TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD dressed in Mexican garb and enjoying his drink at Jose & Rosa's Cantina. As I hope it is clear, this book is highly recommended whether you are an avid reader of THE NEW YORKER or just one of the multitude of us who engage in anthropomorphism with regard to our coinhabitants of the animal kingdom. Warning: this book does not include any of Cullom's cartoons involving dogs; those are in the companion volume SCOTCH AND TOILET WATER (review 10/18/2004), which captures the essence of dogdom and which dog lovers will enjoy but is not quite as highly rated due to the more uneven quality of that collection. in summary, as the title of this review advises, this is a book to share with others. If you need a gift that will bring a smile to the face of the recipient, this is a wonderful choice. But you'll want a copy for yourself after perusing it, so you might as well just purchase two now. Tucker Andersen

It's a Cartoon Jungle Out There and Leo's the King

I was thrilled to discover this new volume of animal cartoons by New Yorker cartoonist Leo Cullum! Like Scotch & Toilet Water?: A Book of Dog Cartoons, Tequila Mockingbird is further evidence that Cullum's first name is so appropriate. It's a cartoon jungle out there, and Leo's the king. A wonderful 128 page volume, the book is stuffed with wonderful animal cartoons from Smokey the Bear on the witness stand testifying that "Absolutely! Where there's smoke there's fire," to a businessman commenting to his suit clad simian counterpart "You've had enough 'monkey see,' Edwards. We want some 'monkey do.'" By far my favorite though is one in which a doctor with his stethoscope on a giant raven's back is asking the bird to "quoth." Its cartoons like that that continue to challenge me to write better. Please pick this up in hardcover (my mother-in-law and I agree that the only real books are hardcovers) as soon as your cartoon book budget will allow. And if you don't currently have a cartoon book budget, then shame on you.

Witty fun

You know who you are -- those of you out there who pick up "The New Yorker" only to read the cartoons. There have been priceless collections through the years, from James Thurber to volumes such as "The New Yorker Book of Dog Cartoons", and so on. Leo Cullum fits into that group of cartoonists for the thinking person, inspiring everything from a wry grin to a burst of laughter. Typical is the mouse on the psychiatrist's couch who says, "Do people go 'eek!' when you enter a room?" or the cow in the lone ranger mask who proclaims that he is mystery meat. A fine group of cartoons, as is his other collection, "Scotch and Toilet Water" (picture a dog at a bar...).