It’s that time of year, when you start looking around for the perfect present to give each of the people on your list. To that end, I’d like to suggest that A WEALTH OF PIGEONS might be the ideal gift book for the 2020 holidays. After a year like the one we’ve had, a little humor might go a long way toward helping everyone feel a bit better.

Steve Martin (yes, the “wild and crazy guy”) opens this collection of cartoons with a story about how it came to be. The author of several other books, Martin also has contributed short humorous pieces for the New Yorker, but, as he relates in the opening, he had lost his taste for that type of writing. He had never really thought about cartoons in any kind of serious way, but was in awe of cartoonists’ ability to be consistently funny, even on deadline, and found that he had an idea for a dog-related cartoon (but alas, no drawing ability of his own). When he met the New Yorker’s art editor, Francoise Mouly, at a cocktail party, she suggested putting him in touch with cartoonist and cover artist Harry Bliss to see if they could bring Martin’s concept to visual life. And the rest, as they say, is history.

"Whether you’re already fans of one or both of these creators, or just looking for any opportunity to chuckle at the end of this year, A WEALTH OF PIGEONS might be just the thing you’re looking for."

Bliss and Martin’s collaboration resulted in a collection of more than 100 single-panel cartoons, with Martin providing the concepts and captions and Bliss contributing the droll artwork. Many of these cartoons would feel right at home in the pages of the New Yorker or on a page-a-day desk calendar. Dogs feature heavily, sometimes anthropomorphic, sometimes canine and sometimes in between. In one cartoon, a dog’s owner advises his canine companion to “Just start slowly, and remember to ask her about herself.” The object of the dog’s interest? A plump squirrel. Elsewhere, a woman peeks her head around the corner of the kitchen door to ask her husband, “Did you just say ‘Feed the dog early’?” The inert dog in the corner of the panel is lying next to a book simply titled “Ventriloquism.”

Like many a New Yorker cartoon, several of the comics collected here offer gentle gibes at contemporary life. In one, a real estate agent shows a New York City loft apartment with stunning views to a young couple: “It’s a hundred and ninety-five million. Now, I know what you’re thinking. ‘Okay, what’s the catch?’” In another cartoon, a little old lady does needlepoint next to her farm stand selling square tomatoes and blue pumpkins, among other items. In the background? A Monsanto plant, spewing out exhaust. That --- and a couple of other cartoons gesturing at climate change --- is about as close as the collection gets to politics, which is one more reason this might be a great gift for 2020.

Other themes arise --- modern art, deserted islands, dining out --- but I don’t want to give too much away here! The single-panel comics are interspersed with a framing story --- also told primarily through cartoons and comic strips --- about how Martin and Bliss worked together on this project, complete with trips by Martin to visit Bliss in Vermont and by Bliss to visit Martin in New York City. Whether you’re already fans of one or both of these creators, or just looking for any opportunity to chuckle at the end of this year, A WEALTH OF PIGEONS might be just the thing you’re looking for.