A Decade of Arnold Roth

In late 2001 we decided we needed a year-end issue. We had launched The Daily Deal in September 1999, but when December rolled around we had only three months of material; and in 2000 we opted for eggnog and mistletoe. But in 2001 we felt our moment had come. Times were portentous: The dot-com bubble had burst, and Sept. 11 had occurred a few months earlier. We had brilliant things to say. We also sought something memorable in terms of art to accompany that genius; a little edgy; light, funny even, but not stupid. Who could capture a year as extreme as 2001? "Arnie Roth," uttered The Deal's art director then (and now), Larry Gendron.

And so it was. Nine years later, on the edge of 2011, we're still using the inimitable Roth to capture the year on what is now -- beginning in 2002 -- the front page of The Deal magazine. Roth is now 81 -- he was born in 1929, which somehow seems appropriate -- and he is still going strong. Long a staple of slick magazines (Punch, Playboy, Sports Illustrated) and of books (his covers for John Updike's "Bech" series are classics), the sax-playing Roth continues to draw for The New Yorker and others. And for us, of course. This year we decided to offer readers Arnie's entire take on a decade that, frankly, looks a lot more fun filtered through his consciousness than it was living it day by day. There they are, the heroes and miscreants; the Wall Streeters, the politicians, the bloviators and the bilious; the highs, the lows, the sublime and the absurd. It all begins with the ruins of the World Trade Center (a tiny Rothian figure tooting his horn atop the rubble) in 2001 and ends with -- well, you can check out the cover. The rest of that benighted decade is right here. Blow that horn, Arnie. Blow that horn.

Robert Teitelman is editor in chief of The Deal.