My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #859

Eureka! If you can't read the writing on the wall, try the blackboard in The New Yorker  Cartoon Caption Contest #859 from the issue of July 31, 2023. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Juan Astasio.

"What were we looking for again?"

These captions didn't compute:

"It's so obvious!"
"How could we have missed it?"
"You were right. It's the null set."
"I forgot to factor in our combined weight."
"I forgot to carry the one."
"It IS rocket science."
"I can't sort this out. Let's call them non-human biologics."

 

August 7, 2023 Update:  The Finalists

August 18, 2023 Update:  I voted for the caption from Boston, the bottom one.

August 21, 2023 Update:  The Winner 

Colin Mills is the son of Carol Lasky.

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Arthur Rackham: Closeted Up With the Fortune-Teller

Arthur Rackham's original illustration Closeted Up With the Fortune-Teller is available from Heritage Book Shop in Beverly Hills. It was published as color plate 4 in the artist's 1929 edition of Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield and is selling for $12,500.

Arthur Rackham
Heritage Book Shop listing accessed July 30, 2023

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/the-fantasy-world-of-arthur-rackham-rare-original-illustrations-from-the-collection-of-shirley-carter-burden/arthur-rackham-original-illustration-for-the-vicar-4

In December of 2021, Sotheby's offered this work, one of many fine original Rackham illustrations from the collection of Shirley Carter Burden. With an estimate of 7,000 to 9,000 GBP, the lot failed to find a buyer.

Arthur Rackham
Sotheby's, December 1, 2021, lot 25

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/the-fantasy-world-of-arthur-rackham-rare-original-illustrations-from-the-collection-of-shirley-carter-burden/arthur-rackham-original-illustration-for-the-vicar-4

https://www.catawiki.com/en/l/70541029-olivier-goldsmith-arthur-rackham-ill-the-vicar-of-wakefield-1929

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Garth Williams: The New School of Dancing

Garth Williams's 1940 drawing The New School of Dancing makes fun of modern dance, depicting its practitioners as awkward marionettes in a mechanized art form. Their movements are anything but graceful. The turntable on which the male dancer stands is rotated by a fan belt. The drawing apparently predates the illustrator's attempt to break into The New Yorker. It has been sold by Downtown Brown Books of Portland, Oregon, for $300.

Garth Williams
AbeBooks listing accessed May 8, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/art-prints/New-School-Dancing-1940-Williams-Garth/31176576055/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_high

Sold!

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License Plate for the Tardy?

Today's blog post comes to you with more than my usual sloth. Nevertheless, I assure you that the following license plate does not belong to me.

"ALWYSLTE"
New York state license plate

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Joseph Farris: The Sands of Time

Yesterday Millea Bros., Ltd., of Boonton, New Jersey, sold an original ink drawing by New Yorker cartoonist Joseph Farris (1924-2015).

Who among us is fond of the consequences of aging? Certainly not the elderly man in an hourglass depicted here by Farris.

Detail

Joseph Farris's signature

The auction house provides no publication history. The presale estimate is $100 to $150 with a 25% buyer's premium.

Joseph Farris
Millea Bros Ltd listing accessed July 25, 2023

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/joseph-farris-original-cartoon-drawing-1265-c-1464020b98?objectID=181101617&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=fc5a28d332dbde10c8cc6cba410ba956

Joseph Farris
Millea Bros Ltd item description

As might be expected, there were no online bids seventeen days before the auction.

Bidding as of July 9, 2023

An opening bid of $50 was placed by the day prior to the sale.

Bidding as of July 25, 2023

Sold!

Note:  It's never too late. I may not know whether or where this cartoon was published, but somebody must. Could anyone in the know either write or leave a comment?

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The Boston Globe: Cartoon Books of 1945

To help readers in 1945 with their holiday book buying, the Boston Globe published a number of capsule reviews on Wednesday, November 28. Subjects on the book page included "For Sportsmen," marketed to returning soldiers hoping to turn their energy to leisure activities, and "Dream House," as those same soldiers would very soon need a place to live with their growing families. Then there was "Visual Fun: Collected Cartoons Drawn for Laughter." Five current cartoon books were mentioned. Four of them collected work by New Yorker artists, something the Globe failed to note. The great war was over. It was time to sit back and have a good laugh.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/434102048/?terms=Mary%2BPetty%2BAlan%2BDunn

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The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 169

For the CartoonStock Caption Contest #169, Jason Adam Katzenstein shows us a dog as commencement speaker at a graduation ceremony for dogs. How does one write a caption for this?

By now, you should have the rules of the monthly cash prize contest committed to memory: Five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $70 into the first fourteen pay-to-play contests and this fifteenth one brings my cash outlay up to $75. I was fortunate enough to win $200 in previous contests, so I'm still playing with the house's money. The competition is fierce and I don't know whether I can keep this up, but I'm going to work at it like a dog. My three latest entries are shown below, above the break. Below the break are my also-rans.

"It's true. You will all have your day."
"Ask yourselves why no graduating cats are here."
"With homework behind us, I ate my own speech."
* * *
"We will now all fetch our diplomas."
"Help yourselves to a diploma or a belly rub."

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #858

Psst! May I interest you in a bootleg copy of The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #858 from the issue of July 24, 2023? My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Jerald Lewis.

"You'll never guess what it rained."

This caption broke training:

"Please buy them all. They tickle."

August 6, 2023 Update:  The Finalists

August 7, 2023 Update:  I voted for the caption from Martinez.

August 18, 2023 Update:  The Winner

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Gahan Wilson: Water Safety

Fleetwood bookseller Charles Agvent is offering an original Playboy cartoon by the inimitable Gahan Wilson. It is, after all, that time of year when water safety should be on everyone's mind.

"Oh—and look out for the shark!"
Gahan Wilson
Original art
Playboy, August 1997, p. 113

Gahan Wilson
AbeBooks listing accessed December 12, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31365698403&searchurl=kn%3DThe%2BNew%2BYorker%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D0&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title15

Here's how this drawing appeared when published:

"Oh—and look out for the shark!"
Gahan Wilson
Playboy, August 1997, p. 113

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185537185400

Happy Shark Week, everybody!

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Jean-Jacques Sempé: From Mao to Mozart Poster

Cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé (1932-2022) was completely at home in the world of music. His movie poster for the French-language version of From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (1979) expresses the joys and challenges of music making in the monumental shadow of Mao. An example came up for auction yesterday at Eldred's in Hanover, Massachusetts. Spoiler alert: It did not find a capitalist buyer.

Jean-Jacques Sempé
Eldred's, July 21, 2023, accessed July 20, 2023

https://www.eldreds.com/auction-lot/movie-poster-by-new-yorker-cartoonist-jean-jacque_C6A4F8FBD8

There was no activity on July 9, twelve days prior to the sale.

There were still no bids on July 20, fifteen hours before the sale.

Ultimately, there was no sale:

04388

A Steuben Blue Aurene Ruffled Fan Vase

There's so much comic art on this blog that readers might easily forget that its author also has a passion for art nouveau glass. Iridized glass was marketed by Frederick Carder of Steuben as Aurene glass, produced in both gold and blue varieties. A blue Aurene fan vase, Shape 2761, is shown here. This example was sold at auction on February 28 by Akiba Galleries.

The presale estimate of $200 to $2,000 is not very helpful. The bidding was at $100 before the Florida sale commenced.

Steuben
Akiba auctions listing February 28, 2023

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/lot_88C4420966#

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