Each week about fifty New Yorker cartoonists submit ten ideas, yielding five hundred cartoons for no more than twenty spots in the magazine. Arguably the most brilliant single-panel-gag cartoonists in the world create a bunch of cartoons every week that never see the light of day.

These rejects were piling up in the dusty corners of studios all over the country. Sam Gross, who has been contributing since 1962, has more than 12,000 rejected cartoons. (Seriously. He's been numbering every single cartoon he's ever submitted to The New Yorker since the very beginning.) Enter editor Matthew Diffee. He tapped his fellow cartoonists, asking them to rescue these hilarious lost gems. From the artists' stacks of all-time favorite rejects, Diffee handpicked the standouts -- the cream of the crap -- and created The Rejection Collection, a place where good ideas go when they die. Too risqué, silly, or weird for The New Yorker, the cartoons in this book offer something no other collection has: They have never been seen in print until now.

With a foreword by New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff that explains the sound judgment, respectability, and scruples not found anywhere in these pages, and handwritten questionnaires that introduce the quirky character of each artist, The Rejection Collection will appeal to fans of The New Yorker...and to anyone with a slightly sick sense of humor.

The Rejection Collection is a must for any book lover's collection. The concept of this book is particularly appealing - a glimpse into a cartoon artist's mind and into the standards of the New Yorker. By reading The Rejection Collection, you will have the rare opportunity to see into the childhood of each artist and discover the unusual, often brilliant, thinking process of the cartoonist. I guarantee that you will laugh out laud with each page. My husband and I regularly give this book as a gift - and always receive an exuberant thank you.

I love NY'er cartoons. These aren't rejects--these were too outre, too funny, too rude, smart, outrageous, on point... Just be careful to read these on or near well-upholstered surfaces. You'll hurt yourself laughing so much collapsed on a hard wood floor.

While the cartoons in this book are still New Yorker style, I found most of them not funny or to the point but besides the point - if there was any.
It became very obvious to me why these got rejected, and I strongly recommend to purchase one of the collections of cartoons that were not rejected.

Truly funny and very creative.. and I loved the "questionnaires" filled out by each cartoonist. Looking forward to all future R.C's.

Definitely funny! And while admittedly edgier than The New Yorker (language, bodily functions, gore), it's not offensive.

Even better than the cartoons are the accompanying photos of featured cartoonists and their clever responses to a (probably intentionally lame) questionnaire.