Dan Kilgo: The High Cost of Halloween

The U.S. inflation rate hit a whopping 14.4% in 1947 as the postwar economic expansion got underway. That's why the Saturday Evening Post felt its readers that year would be able to relate to a certain price-conscious Halloween cartoon by Dan Kilgo.

"Can you imagine paying two bucks for a lousy broom like this?"
Dan Kilgo
The Saturday Evening Post, October 18, 1947, page 74

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  Once again I want to thank Dick Buchanan for providing Attempted Bloggery with another gorgeous scan from the celebrated Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files. Dick contributes regularly to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a post entitled "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Color Gag Cartoons 1936 - 1967." Really, it's just like being there.

Today marks cartoonist Dan Kilgo's first appearance on the blog. The cartoon is wonderfully atmospheric, no?


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Halloween

The Saturday Evening Post

Dick Buchanan

Attempted Bloggery's Bargain Counter Index

02724

Hallowed Haunts: The Drawings and Watercolors of Charles Addams

A single folded leaf served to promote and to catalogue the exhibition "Hallowed Haunts: The Drawings and Watercolors of Charles Addams." Addams's original works were exhibited in New York at the National Academy of Design from November 3, 1991 to January 12, 1992—the closing date was later extended. In the more than a quarter century since the show, no one else has posted this leaflet on the internet, a glaring oversight to be sure. So I thought I'd take the liberty...

"Hallowed Haunts: The Drawings and Watercolors of Charles Addams."
National Academy of Design
November 3, 1991 to January 12, 1992 [Extended]

Adam Gopnik on Charles Addams

Exhibition Curators Barbara M. Nicholls and Barbara S. Krulik on Charles Addams

The works:

"Hallowed Haunts: The Drawings and Watercolors of Charles Addams."
National Academy of Design
November 3, 1991 to January 12, 1992 [Extended]

That last column was cut off slightly. (Some people shouldn't be trusted with a scanner.) Here it is in full:

Click the aqua link to read about the exhibition as covered in the Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/22/arts/an-exhibition-of-addams-originals.html

Note:  The fact that I'm not especially gifted with a scanner is no reason you shouldn't try one. Send your scans of original Charles Addams art, correspondence, rarities, and assorted bric-a-brac to Attempted Bloggery for possible use in a future post.


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Charles Addams

Barbara Nicholls

Halloween

Original New Yorker Cartoon Art

Attempted Bloggery's Ravenous Index

02723

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #637

Line up for my entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #637 for October 29, 2018. The drawing is by P. C. Vey.

"You call this a floor show?"

November 5, 2018 Update:  The Finalists

November 12, 2017 Update:  I voted for the second caption.

November 19, 2017 Update:  The Winner

Note:  Last week cartoonist Tom Chitty took a break for lunch atop a skyscraper. My caption didn't react well to the heights. Go out on a limb—or a girder—with Contest #636.

Then rake in all my past posts about P. C. Vey.

02722

Arthur Rackham: Hey! Up the Chimney, Lass!

The original 1907 frontispiece illustration by Arthur Rackham to the Rev. R. H. Barham's The Ingoldsby Legends shows a gaggle of witches flying up out of a chimney. Rackham uses an S-shaped composition to convey the  spiralling upward sweep of the witches. He makes sure to put the pretty witch dead center where we can see her. Rackham demonstrates careful control over the forms of the witches, but allows himself uncharacteristic freedom in rendering the fanciful anatomy of the black cats.

The Chris Beetles Gallery sold this spectacular illustration in 2004 for an impressive 65,000 GBP. The work has come back to the gallery for another go, but anyone who hopes to snag it this time around should take note that the price has doubled.

Arthur Rackham
Hey! Up the Chimney, Lass! Hey After You!
Rev. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends, 1907

Arthur Rackham
Chris Beetles Gallery Listing Retrieved October 27, 2018

https://www.chrisbeetles.com/gallery/illustrations/hey-chimney-lass-hey-after-you.html

Note:  The 2004 sale price is referenced in the Antiques Trade Gazette here.


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Halloween

Original Book Illustrations

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02721

Charles Addams: A Central Park Offering

Reader David from Manhattan has sent in photographs of original Charles Addams art. Details of the image and even of the mounting are included. The somewhat intemperate drawing was published in the New Yorker in 1964. David writes:

The cartoon is 13 W x 14 7/8, and mounted on board which is 15 3/16 W x 19. The reverse, as you can see from one shot, no longer has a New Yorker label (if indeed that's what was there), but there's a faint handstamp, "UNBLOCKED, LEAVE BEARERS ON" at lower left (not visible here), and a 2nd smaller handstamp and notes (see image). The condition is wonderfully fresh....

Charles Addams

Original art

The New Yorker, November 5, 1964, page 66

Detail

Detail

Detail

Reverse

Charles Addams

The New Yorker, November 5, 1964, page 66

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1964-12-05#folio=066

Note:  My thanks go to the man known here as David from Manhattan for sharing his fine original Charles Addams drawing with us. This is David's twenty-ninth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.


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Charles Addams

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Attempted Bloggery's Self-Indulgent Index

02720

Audrey and Matthew's Copy of Favorite Haunts by Charles Addams

Audrey and Matthew must have had something to celebrate in 1977—an anniversary, perhaps?— when Charles Addams made them this splendid drawing in a copy of his 1976 cartoon collection Favorite Haunts. Two of his classic Addams Family characters, Uncle Fester and Grandmama, prepare to cut the cake. The book sold for $1,135.25 at Heritage last New Year's Eve.

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/sketches/charles-addams-signed-favorite-haunts-with-original-art-sketch-simon-and-schuster-1976-1-/a/121753-15001.s?ic3=ViewItem-Auction-Open-BrowseWantlistMatches-080917#121753-20003

Note:  You know the drill. If you have access to an original Charles Addams drawing like this one—or even not like this one—you are encouraged to scan or photograph it and send it along to Attempted Bloggery for the sake of posterity.


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Grandmama

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Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Haunted Index

02719

Nathaniel Benchley's Copy of Charles Addams' Nightcrawlers

When Charles Addams was to delight his friends with drawings in copies of his 1957 cartoon collection Nightcrawlers, he often used a blue ballpoint pen and created bold full-page images. A copy inscribed "For Nat" was given in the year of publication to author Nathaniel Benchley (1915-1981) who, in 1955, had published a biography of his father, the Algonquin Round Table's Robert Benchley and prior to that, in 1954, had collected his father's pieces in The Benchley Roundup. The drawing shows the mischievous Pugsley Addams with a pet lizard, the one tended to by Wednesday on the dust jacket cover, thankfully on a leash. The boy had appeared in cartoons for decades but was not to receive his first name until the development of "The Addams Family" television series in 1964. Addams initially had wanted to call him Pubert.

Nathaniel Benchley's children are the late Peter Benchley (Jaws, 1974) and writer and actor Nat Benchley. Apparently no one in the family wished to hold on to this cartoon book.

Charles Addams
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved November 21, 2018

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=7231626020&searchurl=kn%3DCharles%2BAddams%2B%26sortby%3D1&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image5

Charles Addams was later to illustrate the cover for Nathaniel Benchley's The Visitors (1965).

Nathaniel Benchley, The Visitors, 1965
Cover illustration by Charles Addams

December 4, 2022 Update:  Sold?

November 4, 2023 Update:  Maybe it wasn't sold at all, but there has been a change in consignment. The book is now being offered by Sotheby's at the same $3,750 price with the same photos.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/_nightcrawlers-eb81

Note:  Readers lucky enough to own books like this one (Nightcrawlers) with original Charles Addams drawings like this one (of Pugsley) are encouraged to share them with a blog like this one (Attempted Bloggery).


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Charles Addams

Pugsley Addams

The Addams Family

Signed Books with Original Drawings

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02718

Audrena's Copy of Addams and Evil

In 1958, Charles Addams drew one of his many standing figures of Wednesday Addams in an inscribed copy of his 1947 cartoon collection Addams and Evil (New York:  Simon and Schuster). Here it's the thirteenth printing (!) of the book and the drawing is signed in New York and dated. The inscription is formulated a little unusually:  "To Audrena for Bob Guy." So whose book was this exactly? One wonders if this Bob Guy is the actor and writer who was later to be behind the TV series "Jeepers Creepers Theater" in 1962-1963. It seems plausible enough.

Happy Wednesday!

Charles Addams
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved September 30, 2018

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22387548304&searchurl=kn%3DThe%2BNew%2BYorker%2Bsigned%26sortby%3D1&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp5-_-title2

Note:  The five larger photographs are from the AbeBooks listing, while the eight smaller photos are from the bookseller's own website, making a total again of thirteen photos of this thirteenth printing! I'm sure it's all just a happy coincidence.

That spaceship cartoon on the back of the dust cover is a famous one indeed. I wrote about it last year here.

Wednesday Addams had appeared in Addams Family New Yorker cartoons since 1938, but she didn't receive her name until "The Addams Family" television series in 1964. At the time this drawing was made, she was nameless.

Readers with books like this one with original Charles Addams drawings are encouraged to share them here on the blog.


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Charles Addams

Wednesday Addams

The Addams Family

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Mid-Week Index

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