My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #979

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #979 from the issue of February 16 & 23, 2026, a family goes on an outing in a car that is lifted by balloons. The woman who is in the front passenger seat speaks. The drawing is by Farley Katz.

"Go back down. We forgot party favors."

These captions wouldn't float:

"That settles it. No more party stores."
"All the gas stations have the wrong kind of air."
"So we can't move without wind?"
"Great, but we still have no place to park."
"The kids want to try some of the helium."
"I told you the balloons were for the kids."
"Why should we play The 5th Dimension?"
"Finally, we can't hear the neighbors."

05208

My Entries in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for Winter 2026

Moment magazine's Cartoon Caption Contest for the Winter 2026 issue anticipates spring. One elderly, Orthodox man's shtreimel has a bird's nest up top and a younger man wearing a similar hat comments. According to the good folks at Wikipedia, a shtreimel "is a fur hat worn by some Ashkenazi Jewish men, mainly members of Hasidic Judaism, on Shabbat and Jewish holidays and other festive occasions." The drawing is by cartoonist Benjamin Schwartz, a keen observer of people, hats, and nature. My captions appear below.

"Shmuel, your shtreimel shows it to be shpring."
"Humane, yes, but it doesn't count as a mitzvah."
"Where can I get some feygl for MY shtreimel, Feivel?"
"We never use the hat check but if we do we leave a tip."

A mitzvah is a commandment, but commonly it's used to mean a good deed. Feygl, in Yiddish, are birds. No Orthodox man would ever check his hat. What was I thinking?

05207

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, No. 496/1130

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller  of London offers a rare copy of the 1907 edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Arthur Rackham. It is copy no. 496 of the limited edition of 1130, signed by Rackham who added a small drawing of the Mad Hatter in profile.

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks listing accessed February 20, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Alices-Adventures-Wonderland-RACKHAM-Arthur-illus/32394452246/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

https://wise.com/us/currency-converter/usd-to-gbp-rate

05206

Jean-Michel Folon's L'artiste With an Original Drawing

Bookseller Pascal Coudert of Paris offers a copy of L'artiste (F.I.D.H., 1991) with text by Raymond Devos and illustrations by Jean-Michel Folon. Folon has added a very simple original drawing of an artist's hand in multicolored pencil. What a beautiful copy of the book!

Jean-Michel Folon
AbeBooks listing accessed February 19, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Artiste-DESSIN-SIGN%C3%A9-DRAWING-HANDSIGNED-Artist/32393084979/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Jean-Michel Folon
AbeBooks item description

05205

Sam Cobean: A Golf Shot

A work of original New Yorker art by Sam Cobean was sold yesterday at Heritage Auctions:

Sam Cobean
Original art
The New Yorker, June 11, 1949, p. 20

A word about golf rules might be helpful here. Tree roots are a part of the golf course so if one's golf ball lands there, one plays it as it lies. In golf terms, there is no free relief.

On February 16, the presale bidding stood at $575, or $718.75 with the buyer's premium.

This is a very strong Cobean cartoon and a good golf cartoon to boot. The market bid it up accordingly. The lot was sold to an internet bidder for twice what the price had been on the 16th.

Sam Cobean
Heritage Auctions listing of February 18, 2026

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/sam-cobean-the-new-yorker-single-panel-gag-cartoon-illustration-original-art-conde-nast-publ-1952-/a/322607-48051.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515#

Sam Cobean
Heritage Auctions item description

Heritage erroneously gives the date of the cartoon's publication in The New Yorker as June 7, 1952. This is off by some three years. A Leslie Starke cartoon in the same Heritage sale appeared in that issue instead. Whoops.

Cobean's golf drawing in reproduction looks very much like his original art.

Sam Cobean
The New Yorker, June 11, 1949, p. 20

Sam Cobean
Original art
The New Yorker, June 11, 1949, p. 20

With cartoons by Sam Cobean and Alan Dunn

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1949-06-11/flipbook/020/

* * *

On the page opposite, The New Yorker has placed a drawing with much shading to balance out Cobean's lines. Alan Dunn has some fun showing us an unforeseen attitude toward labor among one of the elite in Communist Russia—one who is permitted to travel abroad.

"What a deal out there, what a deal! Houseboys! Coolies! Anything
you want, just snap your fingers."
Alan Dunn
The New Yorker, June 11, 1949, p. 21

Note:  Sam Cobean's art doesn't get seen on this blog nearly enough, so readers who would like to share their hidden Cobean treasures here should, well, play it as it lies.

05204

John Held, Jr.: Map of New York Night Clubs

In the Prohibition Era, researching John Held, Jr.'s, Map of New York Night Clubs must have been a labor of love. The map, we are told, resulted "from actual survey by and under the direction of Lip Stick." The New Yorker's nightlife reporter Lois Long, who wrote under the name Lipstick, therefore must greatly have assisted Held in this endeavor. She was married to New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno—no stranger himself to the speakeasy scene—from 1927 to 1931, the latter being the year in which this Manhattan map appeared in The Works of John Held, Jr.

https://oldmapgallery.com/products/nyc-ny-john-held-jrs-map-of-new-york-night-clubs

The above image is from the Old Map Gallery, which dates it c. 1930 and does not have a copy for sale. There is a copy on eBay which has been removed from Held's 1931 book.

John Held, Jr.
eBay listing accessed February 16, 2026

https://www.ebay.com/itm/296676830498?_skw=john+held+jr+Manhattan&itmmeta=01KHMQAY09T5W3CVTJXMPS0TCM&hash=item4513512d22:g:jAsAAOSwl-Fm2z44&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA0GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xCbv2SXqTeqY%2Brwr%2FRAZ%2BHsSjtM2RJQ7x6%2F20atiH560vAn5i1SNQq6UJ0fGz8m%2Fh7j%2FQoZAtIOdVFteCzXrCWDiEzloWKCbhvlAy4T0Wme1lQGL2IRG4GUx8ZrbjPCPjLgP6mz4MiUkxXreYOn10BiiVO35fPXxfGuvfQOsz6skglK9GoL02VBj0LAk4OzBlhzvaR252DhBAkywYiLmr08br727w4yVAWJuPnV88VNe5Z84mTENVdGWoIoGe3eEH8%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6jgq5eNZw

John Held, Jr.
eBay item description

05203

A Letter From Jean-Jacques Sempé to Angelo Rinaldi

A letter from the year 2000 consists of a mailing envelope and its contents: a signed and inscribed postcard as well as a signed and inscribed note with a drawing of three men seated in a restaurant. The group of papers is offered for sale by AbeBooks seller L'Ancienne Librairie and is priced at $1,672.78 US. No doubt that considerable cost is because the sender, Jean-Jacques Sempé, was the extremely popular cartoonist based in Paris. In addition, the recipient of the mailing, Angelo Rinaldi, was the French writer and literary critic who passed away in May of 2025. The envelope is addressed to Rinaldi care of his publisher L'Express and it appears to be appropriately stamped and postmarked.

The French listing has been rendered in English by Google Translate:

Jean-Jacques Sempé
AbeBooks listing accessed February 15, 2026, translated by Google

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Dessin-originale-sign%C3%A9-carte-postale-autographe/32390746684/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Jean-Jacques Sempé
AbeBooks item description, translated by Google

Note:  Any reader who was fortunate enough to be one of Sempé's correspondents is invited to share his missives on this blog.

05202

Edward Koren: A Bucket for a Giant Frog

Some original illustrations make no sense without the context of their original purpose. One can enjoy, surely, Edward Koren's undated illustration of a man in a checkered suit presenting the contents of a bucket to a giant frog and still not understand what it signifies. Heritage Auctions, which sold this artwork in 2016, said the man in the picture was feeding the frog. He could also plausibly be offering hydration or a chance to wash up. Whatever the case, we are unlikely to know without seeing how the illustration was used in print. It does look a bit like a TV Guide drawing, but really it could have appeared almost anywhere.

Edward Koren
Heritage Auctions listing of October 9, 2016

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/edward-koren-man-feeding-a-giant-frog-illustration-original-art-undated-/a/121641-12080.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115#

Edward Koren
Heritage Auctions item description

Note:  Any reader who can shed some light on the intended use of this illustration and where it may have been published is encouraged to come forward.

05201

Blog Post No. 5200: A Charles Addams Movie Theater Scream

Original Charles Addams art published in The New Yorker issue of February 8, 1947 shows a theater full of moviegoers and their shared reaction to a big screen scream.

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Seventy years after publication, the artwork to this classic cartoon was sold at Swann Auction Galleries in the Illustration Art sale:

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries listing of December 14, 2017

https://www.swanngalleries.com/auction-lot/the-new-yorker-cartoons-charles-addams.-movie_2424b90934

Swann, it will be noted, did not provide the publication date in The New Yorker, or even the year. They did document the drawing's appearances in three Addams collections, but the 1947 book is correctly titled Addams and Evil.

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries item description

With such a classic original selling for $31,200 (including the 30% buyer's premium), well above the 2017 presale estimate of $12,000 to $18,000, one might wonder what an Addams rough drawing of the same subject might be worth in today's market. Well, thanks to Swann Galleries's recent Illustration Art sale, we actually can provide the answer. An unusually detailed pencil study from a Vermont collection went up on the auction block in December of 2025. Perhaps the owners were aware that Swann had sold the original finished drawing eight years earlier.

Charles Addams
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries listing of December 4, 2025

https://www.swanngalleries.com/auction-lot/_C17DDFE222

Despite the above, the correct date of publication in The New Yorker is February 8, 1947, as I've already indicated.

Note that in the intervening years, Swann's top buyer's premium has come down from 30% to 27%. There's something to be said for competition. Still, $9,525 with said premium is a remarkable price for a New Yorker rough. Indeed, many Addams New Yorker originals in this blog's archives have sold for less than that. Today, though, Addams's work continues to appreciate and that seems to be carrying over even to the roughs.

Here's the relevant page from Addams and Evil (1947):

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/HumorMagazines/Addams%20And%20Evil%20(1947).pdf

And here's a grouping showing how the drawing appeared in rough form, in the original art, and finally in the pages of The New Yorker:

Charles Addams
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

With a spot drawing by Morris Neuwirth and a cartoon by Charles Addams

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1947-02-08/flipbook/026/

* * *

I have a fair degree of confidence that the spot artist on the page opposite the Addams drawing is Morris Neuwirth (1912-1985) and that the toll lanes depicted here relate to something built by Robert Moses.  Some of Neuwirth's work is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Stop Pay Toll
Morris Neuwirth
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 26

The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts 💯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story

Blog Post No. 300:  From the Libraries of Searle, Koren, Booth, and Saxon

Blog Post No. 400:  The Attempted Bloggery Quiz

Blog Post No. 500:  The Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz

Blog Post No. 600:  What I Do When I'm Not Blogging

Blog Post No. 700:  The Many Hazards of Blogging

Blog Post No. 800:  Think Locally, Blog Globally

Blog Post No. 900:  The Blog I Was Meant to Write

Blog Post No. 1000:  Happy New Year, Lurkers and All!

Blog Post No. 1100:  The Power of Google

Blog Post No. 1200:  The Ukrainian Situation

Blog Post No. 1300:  Plus-Sizing the Readership

Blog Post No. 1400:  New Goals for an Old Blogger

Blog Post No. 1500:  The Wisdom of Warren Buffett 

Blog Post No. 1600:  "The Big Bang Theory's" Homage to Charles Addams

Blog Post No. 1700:  The New Yorker Apocrypha

Blog Post No. 1800:  The Wrong Bag

Blog Post No. 1900:  Think Good Thoughts About George Booth at 90

Blog Post No. 2000:  Charles Addams and the Birth of a Rare Book Collector

Blog Post No. 2100:  Eustace Tilley in Leotards

Blog Post No. 2200:  Peter Arno Drawings from the Estate of Frank Modell

Blog Post No. 2300:  Peter Arno—Not for Attribution

Blog Post No. 2400:  Sizzling Platter Chatter

Blog Post No. 2500:  E. Simms Campbell in Color—Esquire Cartoons from 1935

Blog Post No. 2600:  Peter Arno—You're Welcome?

Blog Post No. 2700:  Peter Arno and Charlie Chaplin Shipyard Gags

Blog Post No. 2800:  George Price's House Rules

Blog Post No. 2900: My Copies of The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons
Blog Post No. 3000:  The Vatican Museums 2019
Blog Post No. 3100:  Frank Beaven's Dickensian Christmas
Blog Post No. 3200:  St. Patrick's Day 1938—Will Cotton Original New Yorker Cover Art
Blog Post No. 3300:  "Give Up?" by Whitney Darrow, Jr.
Blog Post No. 3400:  The 1942 Navy Relief Show Program
Blog Post No. 3500:  William Steig's "What is Art?"

Blog Post No. 3600:  Ronald Searle's Slightly Foxed—But Still Desirable, No. 3/150
Blog Post No. 3700:  Peter Arno's Changing Point of View
Blog Post No. 3800:  Good Provider Cartoons in The New Yorker
Blog Post No. 3900:  Peter Arno's Cad Confrontation

Blog Post No. 4000:  George Booth's Last Call for Stuffed Peppers

Blog Post No. 4100:  The American Theatre's Carnival for Britain

Blog Post No. 4200:  The First New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest?

Blog Post No. 4300:  Visiting the Site of Charles E. Martin's New Yorker Cover of April 14, 1973

Blog Post No. 4400:  Admiring  Nature—Saul Steinberg Preliminary New Yorker Cover Art

Blog Post No. 4500:  Peter Arno's Whoops Sisters Dancing with Twins

Blog Post No. 4600:  Anatol Kovarsky's A Midsummer Night's Dream Scarf for Richard A. Farrar

Blog Post No. 4700:  Peter Arno's Rebecca and the Wounded Ivanhoe

Blog Post No. 4800:  Saul Steinberg, Artist

Blog Post No. 4900:  Peter Arno's Great Names Contest

Blog Post No. 5000:  Peter Arno's Side-Show for February 1937

Blog Post No. 5100:  Anne and Sergio's Copy of Edward Koren's Are You Happy?

05200

Keith's Copy of Inked by Joe Dator

Inked: Cartoons, Confessions, Rejected Ideas and Secret Sketches from The New Yorker's Joe Dator (2021) is by none other than . . . The New Yorker's Joe Dator. Keith's copy was inscribed by Joe in 2023 with an original sketch of the character Walter. This year marks Joe's twentieth at The New Yorker, and we're all the better off for it.

05199