Anyway, the New Yorker cartoon depicts two men sitting several stools apart in a bar. One of the men wears a conservative business suit and a no-nonsense expression. The other is shabbily dressed, unshaven, and looks as if he makes a habit of lingering too long at the tap: in other words, your typical writer. In the caption, the businessman is saying to the sad-sack scribe, "I doubt that a children's book about beer would sell."

Now, most readers would simply chuckle or smile at this little joke, turn the page and forget about it. Not I, I'm afraid. For better or for worse, I took it as a challenge. In an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Tom Robbins--who worked at the newspaper, on the copy desk, before the success of "Another Roadside Attraction" and other novels made a day job moot--the best-selling author reveals the inspiration for his upcoming novel, "B Is for Beer":

I got the idea from a cartoon  in The New Yorker. Don't sneer, ye purists, ye holders of lofty ideals. Marcel Proust, around 1913, took one glance at a cookie and was inspired to pen a 900-page tome that some experts rank high among the greatest novels ever written (and that despite the fact that the number of Americans who've actually read "Remembrance of Things Past" cover to cover would likely fit inside the cookie oven at any commercial bakery). When it comes to inspiration, a witty drawing has got to be as trustworthy as baked goods, unless, of course, one happens to have the munchies.

Anyway, the New Yorker cartoon depicts two men sitting several stools apart in a bar. One of the men wears a conservative business suit and a no-nonsense expression. The other is shabbily dressed, unshaven, and looks as if he makes a habit of lingering too long at the tap: in other words, your typical writer. In the caption, the businessman is saying to the sad-sack scribe, "I doubt that a children's book about beer would sell."

Now, most readers would simply chuckle or smile at this little joke, turn the page and forget about it. Not I, I'm afraid. For better or for worse, I took it as a challenge.

The book will be released in April, by Ecco; the cartoon is by Frank Cotham, and it ran in the January 22, 2007, issue of the magazine. I asked Mr. Cotham if he knew that his cartoon had been Mr. Robbins's inspiration, and what, if anything, this meant to him.

FRANK COTHAM: I had no idea--I've got to keep myself better informed. Of course, I am delighted and I want to be first in line when the book comes out.

THE BOOK BENCH: In the hopes of inspiring other genre-bending writers, can you suggest any other cartoonish nuggets in your oeuvre for their consideration?

COTHAM: A cartoon that I've always been kind of proud of is captioned, "Pull up past the armadillo." This one involved a businessman in his limo, his driver, and a dead armadillo. A guy asked me once what its real meaning was and I told him that I didn't know it had one, but I allowed that I might have missed it. So now I'm wondering if a writer might find something there.

Any writers out there up for the armadillo challenge?

(click here to see Cotham's cartoon)