Iceland 2024: Walking Tour of Reykjavík

No sooner had we arrived in Iceland last week, than we got a peek at Keflavik Airport duty-free Loki and Thor Viking Schnapps:

We stayed for the week at the Hotel Borg. I would stay here again.

Upon our arrival in town on Monday, we had breakfast and took a walking tour of Reykjavík, beginning in the square.

Jón Sigurðsson

Einar Jónsson

City Hall

Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat (1994)

Magnús Tómasson

Tjörnin

Walking on Lake Tjörnin

New building for the Icelandic Parliament

Polar bear and puffin mural

Truth in advertising

Hot dogs

I'm saving this museum for my next visit:

Poster for the Icelandic Penis Museum

Yule cat

Rainbow Street

Bay view from the Harpa Concert Hall

In the evening, we encountered a sculpture on the way to dinner at Tapas.

Horfur [Prospect] (2000)

 Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir

The Drunk Rabbit

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #883

Two house cats watch a much larger cat on TV in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #883 from the issue of January 29, 2024. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Dahlia Gallin Ramirez.

"This show lacks indifference."

This caption just didn't move:

"I thought you meant the 'Stripes' with Bull Murray."

February 17, 2024 Update:  The Finalists

February 23, 2024 Update:  I voted for the caption from Chesterfield.

March 2, 2024 Update:  The Winner

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Arnold Roth: From the Collection of Paul P. Goldberg

Cartoonist Arnold Roth presented collector Paul P. Goldberg with an autograph drawing of the artist's self-portrait bust on a pedestal body, walking. The nose, befittingly for Roth, is a pen nib. The effort on Roth's part seems to be greater than required; he clearly loves to draw. The card is very specifically dated and postmarked February 12, 1968. It was mailed in Princeton.

Arnold Roth
eBay listing ended December 14, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176086813052?hash=item28ff97897c:g:6LQAAOSw-FllckQi

Arnold Roth
eBay item description

Arnold Roth
eBay bid history
The winning bid comes in at least two seconds after all the others.

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The Art of the Redraw: Leslie Starke, et al., From the Collection of Paul P. Goldberg

A group of ten postcards collected by Paul P. Goldberg and sold on eBay last month caught my notice because one of the ten cartoonists providing small sketches was Leslie Starke, whose work appeared in The New Yorker and Punch, among other publications. I mean no disrespect to the other nine cartoonists represented, but Starke's drawing was the only one of the lot which looked like a realized single panel cartoon. Could it be a redraw?

Starke's cartoon depicts a monk gazing into a lit fireplace and seeing demons. The central demon's face is unfortunately overprinted with a cancellation mark, a well-known potential hazard of mail art.

Starke's postcard has to be the one with UK postage added. Perhaps Goldberg mailed a self-addressed US postal card to some American publication in which he saw the cartoonist's work and the magazine forwarded it overseas.

Leslie Starke, et al.
eBay listing ended December 14, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176086792220?hash=item28ff97381c:g:oAgAAOSwAGRlcnlp

Leslie Starke, et al.
eBay item description

Leslie Starke, et al.
eBay bid history
Ten bidders go after ten autograph drawings with fifteen bids. The one who places the last bid wins it all.

Starke's sketch, it turns out, is indeed a quick redraw of a cartoon that may well have been published, only one can't easily determine where or when. The original drawing was sold on eBay and the sale is archived behind a paywall on Worthpoint. I wonder if Goldberg knew of the other version.

Sketch for Paul Goldberg

Leslie Starke's signature

Some important information may or may not have been removed from the backing.

Leslie Starke
Worthpoint archived eBay listing accessed January 24, 2024

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/monk-leslie-starke-original-comic-art-1863242860

Note:  Perhaps someone familiar with Leslie Starke's prodigious output will recognize the monk drawing and let us know where, if anywhere, it was published. Punch perhaps? If you know, please quote chapter and verse. 

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