Bruce Eric Kaplan: Herb's Story

An original New Yorker cartoon by Bruce Eric Kaplan was sold at Heritage Auctions on February 6. It comes from the estate of Irvin Grief, Jr., and is the first work of BEK's to be offered by the auction house.

Herb got in touch with his inner monkey
Bruce Eric Kaplan
Original art
The New Yorker, February 3, 1992, p. 70

The cartoon purports to relate the story of Herb's enlightenment. Of course, it is just plain silly. Or, if you prefer, bananas.

Herb got in touch with his inner monkey
Bruce Eric Kaplan
Framed, original art
The New Yorker, February 3, 1992, p. 70

Paper backing

Twenty days prior to the auction, bidding had scarecely begun.

Bruce Eric Kaplan

Heritage Auctions listing of February 6, 2026, accessed on January 17, 2026

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/bruce-eric-kaplan-american-b-1964-herb-got-in-touch-with-his-inner-monkey-new-yorker-cartoon-february-3-1992-ink-on/a/15263-17135.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

Heritage identified the correct issue of The New Yorker in which this drawing appeared but it was on page 70, not page 41. Was Herb's inner monkey helping with the research?

Bruce Eric Kaplan

Heritage Auctions item description 

Sold!

Bruce Eric Kaplan
Heritage Auctions listing of February 6, 2026

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/bruce-eric-kaplan-american-b-1964-herb-got-in-touch-with-his-inner-monkey-new-yorker-cartoon-february-3-1992-ink-on/a/15263-17135.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

The artist's signature, BEK, has been largely obliterated in the original. There may have been a patch over it when it was photographed for the magazine. The banner was rewritten and had a period in the published version. It is a sentence, after all.

Herb got in touch with his inner monkey.
Bruce Eric Kaplan
The New Yorker, February 3, 1992, p. 70

Herb got in touch with his inner monkey
Bruce Eric Kaplan
Original art
The New Yorker, February 3, 1992, p. 70

With a cartoon by Bruce Eric Kaplan

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1992-02-03/flipbook/070/

05258

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #989

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #989 from the issue of May 4, 2026, a caveman stands and speaks testily to a second caveman who is sitting and carving Lego bricks. The standing caveman speaks. My submission is below. The drawing is by Robert Leighton.

"Stop procrastinating and make us a wheel."

05257

Arthur Rackham: Out the Little Old Woman Jumped

Out the little old woman jumped, and whether she broke her neck in the fall or ran into the wood and was lost there, or found her way out of the wood and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the three Bears never saw anything more of her.

—Robert Southey

Perhaps I should have begun with a spoiler alert. This version of the story, by Robert Southey, is less familiar today than the version with Goldilocks. Southey became England's Poet Laureate in 1813 and was able to dedicate his life to writing. In 1819, it will be recalled, Lord Byron famously savaged him in the Dedication to Don Juan. Southey kept writing, and in 1837 he published The Story of the Three Bears.

In this first version of the tale, the three bears were bachelors and there was as yet no blonde little girl, just a mean little old woman. Southey's story is included in The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book published in 1933 by George G. Harrap & Co, Ltd. Rackham included original watercolor drawings in the first ten numbered copies of the signed edition of four-hundred sixty. Copy no. 5 is currently offered by Peter Harrington of London, and it is in this copy that Rackham chose to illustrate the little old woman jumping from a window.

Arthur Rackham
Peter Harrington listing accessed April 29, 2026

https://www.peterharrington.co.uk/the-arthur-rackham-fairy-book-186445.html

Arthur Rackham
Peter Harrington item description

Note:  I would like to hear from collectors with other "specials" like this one bearing original watercolor drawings by Arthur Rackham. 

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My Entries in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for Spring 2026

Moment magazine's Cartoon Caption Contest for the Spring 2026 issue shows a man reading from the Torah at a Jewish religious service. In place of the traditional pointer, he is using a foam finger. The drawing is by cartoonist and sports fan Benjamin Schwartz. The reader speaks. My captions appear below.

"I'll be quick. They need me at the game."
"I can't see a thing with these glasses."
"Do I look like some kind of silversmith?"
"I'm telling you I looked everywhere."
"It's probably in the back of some drawer."
"I brought a different one for each aliyah."

05255

The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 205

In the CartoonStock Caption Contest number 205, a man wearing a leaf blower has arrived at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter is the speaker. The cartoonist, new to this blog, is Tim Mellish.

"That's an ungainly piece of equipment to bring up to a roof."
"And I suppose you couldn't hear the church van?"
"Why do you think your neighbor went for his rifle?"

05254

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #988

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #988 from the issue of April 27, 2026, a hammerhead shark is besting three people in a game of poker. The card shark speaks. My submission is below. The drawing is by Lynn Hsu.

"My game has really improved with the new contacts."

05253

James Thurber: Out of Fix

On June 13, 1934, an amendment to the Code was adopted, which established the Production Code Administration (PCA) and required all films released on or after July 1, 1934, to obtain a Seal of Approval before being released.

—Wikipedia

Leave it to the cartoonists of The New Yorker to find the humor in such moral high-handedness. And, in this case specifically, leave it to James Thurber, whose original cartoon art on the subject was sold yesterday at Heritage Auctions. He does have a way with domestic scenes.

"She's out of fix because they've cleaned up the movies."
Original art
James Thurber
The New Yorker, September 29, 1934, p. 13

What a great idea it was for Thurber to portray the indignation of the young girl here—she still has a doll!—the very sort of person the Hays Code was allegedly trying to protect. 

To me, it's an odd turn of phrase to say, "out of fix." It sounds wrong to my ear, but I take it to be close to "out of joint" or "bent out of shape."

"She's out of fix because they've cleaned up the movies."
Framed, original art
James Thurber
The New Yorker, September 29, 1934, p. 13

"October 6th or before," reads the notation on the back. The New Yorker knew it had a timely cartoon on its hands. It was published in the September 29 issue while the topic was still fresh in the public's mind.

Verso

James Thurber

Heritage Auctions listing accessed 22 days before the sale

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/james-thurber-american-1894-1961-she-s-out-of-fix-new-yorker-cartoon-september-29-1934ink/a/8245-71294.s?ic=homepage-myrecommendations-IllustrationArt-item-052114&tab=MyRecommendations-080216

James Thurber
Heritage Auctions item description

The present work, of course, translates well onto the printed pages of The New Yorker:

"She's out of fix because they've cleaned up the movies."
James Thurber
The New Yorker, September 29, 1934, p. 13

"She's out of fix because they've cleaned up the movies."
Original art
James Thurber
The New Yorker, September 29, 1934, p. 13

With cartoons by Alain and James Thurber

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1934-09-29/flipbook/012/

Sold!

* * *

On the page opposite the Thurber drawing, that old romancer Alain gets a little forward with the body language. Thurber's body language by comparison is rather restrained, at least in this issue. 

            "Go on, don't give
me that personality stuff!"
Alain
The New Yorker, September 29, 1934, p. 12

Note:  This blog will remain out of fix indefinitely.

05252

Ronald Searle: Strength Through Joy

Strength through joy?

I suppose Ronald Searle did indeed give his drawing of a wicked St. Trinian's girl flipping over her teacher the title of Unarmed Combat—twice, it seems—and that certainly describes the action well enough. But that is not how it appeared in print.

The titles of Searle drawings were generally afterthoughts. In his classic collection Souls in Torment, as promising a name for a cartoon book as one could hope to find in 1953, the present work is one of three drawings under the alternative heading Strength Through Joy.

The term "unarmed combat" actually appears as part of a caption on the page opposite. Thus, grouping these three drawings under an Unarmed Combat heading would have detracted from the caption on the following page. At least, that's a conjecture of what went on, and why Searle abandoned his presumptive title for this drawing when it was published in a book even though it fit perfectly.

The signature appears to be later than 1953 by more than a decade. Searle must have signed it whenever the drawing eventually left his studio.

Ronald Searle's signature

In 1991, this piece was offered by London dealer Chris Beetles. Despite Beetles noting the publishing history, the title he listed is the one that Searle wrote on the work. After all, it is a better title. 

At auction, many a tempting work seems reasonably priced before the bidding gets underway.

Ronald Searle
Chiswick Auctions listing accessed March 21, 2026, ten days before the sale

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/Ronald-Searle-C.B.E.-British,-1920-2011-Unarm-168-c-BEBFCC408C?utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=artistalerts&utm_content=378696&utm_term=378696

Ronald Searle
Chiswick Auctions item description

And yet it sells on March 31 at Chiswick Auctions for more than twice the high estimate.

Here it is on the printed page as one of a trio of Strength Through Joy drawings. On the opposite page is "Some little girl didn't hear me say 'unarmed combat'." The captioned cartoon shows an earlier version of Searle's signature.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T3RcLoQuSZA/TrHj7rZjIFI/AAAAAAAAX7k/-SmvpXssYq0/s1600/Searle11.jpg

05251

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #987

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #987 from the issue of April 20, 2026, a pair of dogs look up at giant moon that is in the form of a cat's head. The dog on the right speaks. My submission is below. The drawing is by Christopher Weyant.

"Don't just sit there—howl."

This caption didn't sit well:

"I refuse to see anything but a man in the moon."

May 2, 2026 Update:  The Finalists

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