James Gurney, an author, illustrator, and creator of Dinotopia, from Rhinebeck, New York, saw the blank space on George Booth’s July 4, 2011, cover and felt inspired. “I’m a fan of Booth and have always loved his drawings, but for an artist, a patch of white paper is like a red flag to a bull,” Gurney told me by phone. To the left of the dog peering out a window at a canopy of American flags, Gurney drew a second window, this one with a cat hanging from the sill.
Doctoring magazine covers is a hobby of sorts for Gurney. “When a magazine lands on the breakfast table, I reach for the Sharpies—lots of mustaches on Mona Lisas in the house,” he said. Gurney suspected that he wasn’t the only person who did this, so, in the spirit of the Cartoon Caption Contest, Gurney decided to launch the “unfinished-cover contest,” encouraging other artists to submit their scrawls. “Five minutes after I put up the call, I started to get responses,” Gurney said. “Think of the possibilities: you could run more half-finished covers or you could run art reviews that are half-finished. I, for one, would be happy to finish columns for Peter Schjeldahl.”
“I don’t get it,” Schjeldahl responded. “What self-respecting writers or artists wouldn’t hate the idea of anybody messing with their work? I sure do.”
Booth, on the other hand, said he was “delighted” by the contest. “I think it’s just lovely that we stirred them up. It’s good to get reactions, and it doesn’t bother me. They can do whatever they want.”
See the slide show below of how James Gurney and a selection of other artists “finished” Booth’s image.
