Attempted Bloggery: Steve's Copy of The Art in Cartooning

Saturday, August 15, 2020

Steve's Copy of The Art in Cartooning

Scott Burns writes:

Per your request, here’s another signed copy of The Art in Cartooning from my personal collection. This copy is inscribed by all three editors (Mort Gerberg, Edwin Fisher, Ron Wolin) with additional inscriptions and drawings by Bill Woodman, Sheldon Oppenberg*, Jack Ziegler, Sam Gross, Marvin Tannenberg**, Dana Fradon, George Booth, and Jules Feiffer.

* Oppenberg was a cartoon art collector; I don’t think he was a cartoonist himself — although some of his sketches sometimes show up on eBay.

**Under the name Tann, Tannenberg’s gag cartoons were published in numerous magazines including Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Look, Ladies Home journal, Playboy and Saturday Review. He was a founding member of the Cartoonists Guild and served as its first president.

The rest I’m sure you know. Unfortunately, I'm as clueless about the signing circumstances as you — but my guess is that there was probably some kind of opening reception for the book. The “Steve” to whom the signatures are inscribed, I presume had some connection since the inscriptions are a bit more personal than in the other copies I have seen.

That's right. Marvin Tannenberg writes that he's still wearing Steve's belt while Ron Wolin hopes Steve will make him "a super pair of sandals" when and if he makes it to Albuquerque. Ron Wolin knows Steve's mother and Steve either just met or already knows Marvin Tannenberg's daughter Allyce. So Steve is in the custom leather goods trade in Albuquerque and the cartoonists, perhaps at his request, draw for him an assortment of—what else?—cows!

And here's where it gets really interesting. Bill Woodman and Mort Gerberg each draw very plausible comic cows. Jack Ziegler's cow is another story. Sam Gross and George Booth react hilariously to Ziegler's haplessly-drawn bovine. Dana Fradon chimes in as well.

Of note, Sam Gross has his cartoon character say "Ziegler draws lousy cows," adding self-deprecatingly "So does S. Gross." History has since shown his humility to be false; he was to create one of the best cow gags ever for The New Yorker and have it published in 1983:

"Son, your mother is a remarkable woman."
Sam Gross
The New Yorker, August 15, 1983, page 48

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1983-08-15/flipbook/048/

A few more observations: Jules Feiffer and Ron Wolin do not draw in the book. Marvin Tannenberg sticks with his self-portrait. Sheldon Oppenberg keeps it very simple. Ed Fisher comes very close to leaving a drawing, something we have not seen him do before on this blog.

Note: Thanks to Scott Burns of Burns Bizarre for responding to my request and sharing his copy of this book with us. His knowledgable commentary is appreciated as well.

So now we have seen four gorgeous copies of The Art in Cartooning signed and sketched upon by multiple cartoonists. I am eager to hear from readers with information about the March 1976 book signing at which I believe all these copies were signed. I am also eager to post other uniquely signed, inscribed, and sketched-in copies of this book.