In addition to being the most reprinted New Yorker cartoon in history, a black-and-white doodle showing a dog using the internet is now the most expensive single-panel cartoon ever sold at auction. Peter Steiner's 1993 cartoon featuring the line "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog," was sold to an anonymous bidder for $175,000 at auction earlier this month. The high price is likely due to what Smithsonian terms the cartoon's "universal appeal." Yet Steiner had no idea his drawing would become so popular. He submitted it to the New Yorker as part of a group of cartoons and was "delighted, but a little bit baffled" when it was selected for publication, he explains in a video from Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. As Steiner told Gizmodo last month, "I thought it was a little bit lame."
It took a while to catch on. As Artnet News points out, "most computers still accessed the internet via dial-up, and the quickest form of communication for most people was fax." However, Bill Gates paid $200 to include the cartoon in his 1995 book, The Road Ahead, about the personal computer revolution, per Smithsonian. Five years later, the New York Times dedicated an article to the cartoon's ability to capture the "spirit of the internet." "Most people had never even used the internet in 1993," former New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff told Gizmodo. "But I think part of its success comes from the fact that we're all living in the world that that cartoon foreshadowed." For Steiner, the image of two dogs discussing the ability to disguise oneself on the internet means something a little different.
"I realized the cartoon is autobiographical and that it's about being an imposter or feeling like an imposter," he says in the video. "It wasn't about the internet at all." Steiner goes on to explain that he's battled imposter syndrome, which left him feeling "like a bit of a fraud," across "several checkered careers." He's not alone. About 70% of people will experience imposter syndrome at some point, according to research cited by Forbes. In a report earlier this year, the New Yorker noted the concept has "truly exploded" in the social media age and "achieved a level of cultural saturation that [its conceivers] never imagined." The buyer's reason for purchasing the cartoon is unclear, though the individual had wanted to own it ever since its publication, the auction house said. (More auction stories.)
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