Attempted Bloggery: Malcom Hancock: A Price List for Joel

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Malcom Hancock: A Price List for Joel

It's a shame that we don't have the date for a rather interesting letter from cartoonist Malcolm "Mal" Hancock (1936-1993) written by hand to a fan named Joel. A business card is stapled to the sheet. The letter is apparently a response to a request for original art. It was sold on eBay in January for $40.

Shrewdly, Mal twice describes the purchase of his cartoon art as an "investment." He gives Joel a price list for his artwork including syndicated panel cartoons The Lumpits (1970-1978) and Foster Fenwick (1968-1982) as well as magazine work for The Saturday Review/World, The New Yorker, and Playboy. Mal's first New Yorker cartoon was published in 1973, so this letter most likely dates some time from 1973 to 1982, after which he introduced a new panel title not mentioned here. It more likely dates from 1973 to 1978 when both panel strips mentioned were in syndication, but no matter how early this price list may be, original published New Yorker art priced at $100 seems improbably inexpensive. (According to Michael Maslin's Ink Spill, Mal published only two New Yorker drawings, in 1973 and 1975.) At $250, the Playboy cartoons are the priciest listed, perhaps because they were in color or perhaps because they were most in demand.