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Maira Kalman's got style. The New York-based artist has created witty covers for The New Yorker; a now-iconic umbrella sold at MoMA; and exuberant children's books, often featuring the soulful antics of a poet-dog philosopher named Max. So it's not surprising that sparks flew when Maira encountered "The Elements of Style," the classic primer on writing by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. What is surprising, though, is how strongly the design enthusiast took to the little book. First, she astonished everyone by producing an illustrated version of the composition guide. Now, to our enormous delight, she's created a movie version. Yes, a movie version. The little tome on when to use commas, and where to inject quotations, and how to strip sentences back to their essential parts has been translated artfully to the (very) small screen. So settle back and enjoy. We like to think E.B. White himself would have approved.

This is how it ends: Sitcom writer David Penn is trapped in a closet, tied to a chair, with "the sounds of a fake laugh track in his ears." He's got a black eye, he's wearing a T-shirt that says "I HATE MY GIRLFRIEND," and a man is pointing a gun at his head. Thus begins "Break a Leg," a funny web spoof of television and its adherents "brought to you by the acclaimed viewers of Arrested Development, Scrubs and The Office." Michael Scott would be so proud. How David gets into the storage room and why the wild-eyed man wants him dead remains to be seen. Tune in now as the talented group of filmmakers behind (and in front of) the camera finishes out the season—and winds their way back to David's final moments with the revolver, the rope, and the piped-in guffaws.

 

Several weeks ago, we featured Cube News 1, the online "newscast" that dispenses advice to office drones and cubicle slaves everywhere. Now, we touch base with Kim Waldauer, the show's anchor and creative force, to find out how it feels to vent about past bosses on the Web, who's writing her from China, and what's next for this broadcast comic...

Hey Kim, you've been running Cube News 1 for almost a year. Looking back, what surprises you about the experience?

That I would be having so much fun still! The problem now is that we still do Cube News 1 in our free time, and there is a growing demand for more frequent content; we'd like it to be something we dedicate all our time to. There are episodes sitting in my notebook that we just haven't gotten to yet.

How did you get started?

I started this after serving a five-year sentence in a cubicle, as a way for me to cope with some of the b.s. that comes with the job. I did some research and found out that the majority of people working in the U.S. work out of a cubicle, so I knew it had an audience.  Read the full profile...