"Life is like that!"
—Sketchbook of American Humorists, 1938
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| Sketchbook of American Humorists, 1938 |
Now I don't own a copy of Sketchbook of American Humorists, a 1938 spiral-bound cartoon collection featuring the works of Peter Arno, Syd Hoff, John Held, Jr., and others. Nevertheless, I'm reasonably certain that a Frank Starke studio photograph of a St. Louis man posed on a bicycle is probably not the best way to illustrate an eBay listing for the book. The period photo does have a certain endearing quality, but it is not in any way related to the cartoon book. As such, it reveals the eBay seller as not only careless with the listing, but derelict with proofreading after posting. The seller's feedback is 99.9% positive, so the eBay world seems not to share my concerns, but perhaps others do. So who would like to know what I would do here instead?
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| Sketchbook of American Humorists eBay Listing as of March 16, 2017 |
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| Sketchbook of American Humorists eBay Item Description |
Well, if I were going to try to sell a copy of this book on eBay—and I might if I owned multiple copies—I would discard the irrelevant bicycle photograph and in its place use actual images of this book, such as those scanned by illustrator Stephen Kroninger and presented to me this year on my birthday. But which to choose? Take a look:
Roland Coe (1906-1954) shares top billing on the book's cover, but I really don't know anything about him. Apparently he was an American cartoonist and commercial artist who contributed to the Buffalo Times and Buffalo Courier. His work appeared in several national magazines including the Saturday Evening Post, Life, and Esquire. He created the comic strip Crosstown, His Nibs (for Wheaties cereal), and The Little Scouts, the latter also a Dell comic book. Mike Lynch Cartoons is a good place to get started exploring his work. The Roland Coe Collection may be found in the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University. Go take a look and tell me what you find there.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
eBay 101
Peter Arno
John Held, Jr.
Syd Hoff
Stephen Kroninger
Baseball
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