Attempted Bloggery: Syd Hoff: Menu Mastery

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Syd Hoff: Menu Mastery

Syd Hoff's self-assured young woman orders her dinner so confidently she might as well be ordering for two in this postwar gag cartoon published in Collier's. The composition is based simply on the three central heads forming a nearly equilateral triangle, but there is nothing equal in the relationship we are looking in on. Collier's, it should be noted, has misspelled the artist's first name, which of course is Sydney.

"I'll just have whatever you're having, if it's steak[.]"
Syd Hoff
Collier's, August 14, 1948, page 42

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note: My thanks to Dick Buchanan for providing us with this deliciously obscure Hoff scan from the legendary Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files. It's rare to find anything in this medium so well-done. Dick contributes regularly to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a post entitled, "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Gag Cartoon Clichés 1949 - 1965 Part 3." Prime stuff.

Syd Hoff's work has been the focus here at Attempted Bloggery for the past three weeks or so. It's time for us to move on, but remember I am always eager to receive scans or photos of original Hoff art as well as forgotten gag cartoons, illustrations, and advertisements.