This past March, I visited the illustrator John Cuneo's online shop or "bodega," as he calls it. I purchased a sketchbook page based on a favorite comic book and television hero of my youth. The drawing is simply titled Batman. The artist describes him as "A husky Batman poised for action, accompanied by pets." The character was very important to me back in the day and, apparently, still is.
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| Batman John Cuneo |
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The Angel of Inspiration is a title provided by the Chris Beetles Gallery for a cover submission to The New Yorker by Ronald Searle. The original art looks as if it dates from the early 1960s, a time when Searle already had established himself as one of the star cartoonists of Punch but before his first successful New Yorker cover appeared in 1969. The inspiring angel has inadvertently caused ink to spatter over a beatnik's manuscript. Creative people may well relate to this.
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| Ronald Searle Chris Beetles listing accessed December 31, 2022 |
This work was first exhibited by Chris Beetles in 2020 with no indication from the gallery of its likely date or intended purpose. It was priced at 6,500 GBP. It has since been sold, apparently fairly recently.
I call it a New Yorker cover submission because of the telltale strap running vertically down the left side of the artwork. My basis for dating it to the early 1960's is a different Searle drawing, this one with collage elements. It appeared in a 1961 number of Punch and I believe it to be very comparable in style. It features a very similar color palette and a very similar beatnik; therefore I assign it to a similar date.
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| "Are you sure this is Chris Barber's place?" Ronald Searle and George du Maurier Punch, July 19, 1961 |
Chris Barber was a well-known English bandleader and jazz trombonist.
Note: Earlier today Attempted Bloggery reached a total of seven million page views.
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In June, a Canadian bookseller offered a copy of Seth's 2009 opus George Sprott (1894-1975) with an original drawing. The listing showed only the usual stock photo. It's frustrating when this happens, but I have a history of purchasing books Sight Unseen, a gamble that often pays off, but not always. Thus I pursued this volume on the promise of something potentially wonderful, yet unvisualized, inside. The $60 price inclusive of shipping made this one seem a no-brainer. The seller, as it happens, felt remorse over another Seth book I ordered at the same time that proved unavailable and ended up sending this to me free of charge. That doesn't happen very often despite my good nature.
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| Seth AbeBooks item description |
The book did indeed hold an original drawing by the artist. Every copy of this book I have previously shown on the blog had a drawing of the title character. This one, to my surprise, has a delightful drawing of young Daisy Sprott, George's niece. On all counts, I'm going to call this addition to the library a win.
Charles M. Schulz began his Peanuts comic strip in 1950 and in 1952 published the first of what would come to be many collections. It was simply named Peanuts. A copy of a later printing of the first edition is signed by Schulz and includes an original drawing of the character Schroeder in profile accompanied by a trio of hand-drawn musical notes. It's evident that Schulz's rendering of Schroeder evolved quite a bit from the time he drew the cover illustration. This splendid volume is offered by Raptis Rare Books of Palm Beach for $4,000. There is still plenty of time for some lucky music or comics lover to get it before Beethoven's birthday.
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Charles M. Schulz AbeBooks listing accessed August 22, 2026 |
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Charles M. Schulz AbeBooks item description |
Note: Beethoven's birthday is December 16.
Another monthly contest already? The CartoonStock Caption Contest number 209 is set in a laboratory where an ape is perhaps doomscrolling on his cell phone while a pair of researchers looks on. The man in the lab coat is speaking. The cartoonist is Kaamran Hafeez.
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| "As our new lab assistant, it will be your job to take it away from him." "We can't get him off Truth Social." "Frankly, we have no idea what Caesar is up to." * * * "I wish he had joined that barbershop quartet instead." |
I'm afraid that last caption doesn't stand on its own. It should be an easily-recognized reference to The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #1002 which had its deadline on Monday night. If you know, you know. I saved my $3 because he's an ape, not a monkey.
August 26, 2026 Update: The Winner
My captions made no one's list.
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In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #1002 from the issue of August 17, 2026, four monkeys sing in a barbershop quartet while two laboratory workers observe them through glass. The older woman speaks. My submission is shown below. The drawing is by Benjamin Schwartz.
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| "So you found them at the bottom of the barrel?" |
These captions were not in tune:
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| "They're swell. You and I are no longer in harmony." "Run your next project by me first." "Great job. We've been defunded." |
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In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #1001 from the issue of August 10, 2026, four snails sit around a campfire at night. One holds a flashlight to his face and speaks. My submission is shown below. The drawing is by Lynn Hsu.
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| "With horror I realized I had wandered into a convention of French chefs." |
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| "His white whale was a blonde ale." "It was then that I realized I couldn't outrun the man with the saltshaker." "When I arrived in Margaritaville, my nemesis was searching for his lost shaker of salt." |
August 26, 2026 Update: The Finalists
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We finally made it to The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #1000! It is from the issue of August 3, 2026, two men look upon a stone in which many swords are buried nearly up to their hilts. The man holding a staff speaks. My submission is shown below. The drawing is by Lars Kenseth.
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| "None of them will make you the Burger King." |
August 16, 2026 Update: The Finalists
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In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #999 from the issue of July 27, 2026, a couple seated in their living room look up at a giant hole in the wall through which an elephant has just run out. The man speaks. My submission is shown below. The drawing is by Tom Toro.
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| "Enough with the dad jokes." |
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| "Now what do we avoid talking about?" |
August 9, 2026 Update: The Finalists
August 16, 2026 Update: I voted for the caption from Seattle.
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In 1992, Éditions Denoël published Quelques artistes et gens de lettres by Jean-Jacques Sempé, himself a cartoon artist and a man of letters. I don't think this book was ever printed in an English language edition. A superb copy is offered for sale by the Paris bookseller Librairie Le Feu Folet [Will-o'-the-Wisp, if you will]. It is reportedly inscribed to one Roger Karenvent although I don't believe that is the actual surname Sempé wrote. Nevertheless, the original recipient, Roger K., whoever he was, received a very nice drawing in his book of an artist at work on a still life.
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