Somewhere between 1994 and 1999, someone had clipped some photographic
art from either the New York Times Magazine or The New Yorker
magazine.  The photos had a beautiful woman and a dressed skeleton in
various situations.  One had the woman holding a cigarette while the
skeleton lit it.  Some images featured a strong wind in them.  Some
were (tastefully) intimate.  I would love to know the artist and the
titles of the works -- where/how to get them would be nice but could
be in a follow-up.
Thanks!

Hello devdave:

Thanks for the fascinating question! 

Turns out the photos you are interested in are entitled "In Memory of
the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort," and are by the famous fashion
photographer Richard Avedon.

This took some digging, but I was able to find the following sources
for this information.

A Blushing Girl and the Old Lady from Dubuque, or “We’re not in
Manhattan any more, Toto.”
URL: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~cann0010/tny_chapters_html/5_BlushingGirl.html
Quote: "When Richard Avedon’s morbid and (for some) shocking fashion
spread appeared, featuring beautiful models in outrageous clothes and
highly suggestive, some would say lewd, positions with skeletons, ('In
Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort,' November 6, 1999), I had my
work cut out.  I dug out everything I could about Avedon, educating
myself in the long history of his prominence and innovation in the
world of fashion and celebrity photography, learning of the kinetic,
narrative impulse behind his photographs, as Avedon took his
photography to undreamed of spaces."

Tina's Time
URL: http://www.salon.com/june97/tina3970625.html
Quote: "...the following week's issue featured an Avedon photograph of
a half-dressed Nadja Auermann getting bonked in a doorway by a
skeleton -- and he's not likely to be at rest anytime soon."

Gospel of Urbanity 
URL: http://www.cjr.org/year/00/1/newyorker.asp
Quote: "Newhouse therefore recruited Tina Brown, the British editor of
Vanity Fair, to stand the Ross-Shawn formula on its head. She aimed to
'market' the magazine, treating The New Yorker’s readers as consumers.
She was impatient with its prissy, old-fashioned notions of good
taste, preferring 'hotter' items. According to Some Times in America,
Alexander Chancellor’s lazy but engaging account of his hapless year
editing 'The Talk of the Town,' Brown wanted 'scoops, gossip, whatever
would get people talking.' She favored provocative pieces on "fashion,
money, power, sex, and celebrity," here printing a story about
satanism, there a photograph of a model apparently copulating with a
skeleton. To quote Seabrook’s characteristic antithesis, she banished
cant from the magazine’s pages 'and printed cunt in them for the first
time.'"

Richard Avedon: Chronology
URL: http://www.richardavedon.com/chronology/index.html
Quote: "'In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort', a fashion
portfolio photographed and created for The New Yorker, November 6,
1995 issue, in collaboration with Doon Arbus."

Since 1992, Richard Avedon has been a staff photographer for The New
Yorker magazine. More about his illustrious career can be found at:

Richard Avedon
URL: http://www.richardavedon.com/index.html


I tried to find how you could get these photographs, but without luck.
The only publications he's put out since then are listed at the top
of:

Richard Avedon: Publications
URL: http://www.richardavedon.com/publications/index.html

but, I don't feel confident that this particular series is in there. 


I hope this information helps with your research.                  
                  
If you need any clarification of the information I have provided,
please ask using the clarification feature and provide me with
additional details as to what you are looking for. As well, please
allow me to provide you with clarification(s) *before* you rate this
answer.
                  
Thank you.                   
                  
websearcher-ga                   
                  
                  
Search Strategy (on Google):                   

skeleton photograph "new yorker"
"richard avedon" "new yorker"
"Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort"

I was quite taken with the images as well -- so much so that I made
digital versions with the mediocre scanner I had at the time.  Years
later, I uploaded copies of those scans here:

http://www.theparsons.com/photos/public/index.php?AlbumID=10032

I probably still have that issue of The New Yorker in storage
somewhere, but I'd really like to see the collection that was
"painstakingly reproduced as a limited edition IRIS portfolio in 1997
& 1998 from the original transparencies" (see
http://www.cone-editions.com/workshops-moreinfo.html).

-Jeff

P.S. There's at least one other site on the web that made copies of the images:

http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/boardwalk/455/bonercomfort.html