Monday, September 30, 2024

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #915

A cat sleeps peacefully atop a pile of unwashed laundry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #915 from the issue of September 30, 2024. My submission is shown below. The unkempt drawing is by Yinfan Huang.

"You realize this means our bed is unoccupied."




These captions needed some tidying up:

"The pea didn't work."
"How about you wash and I'll fold?"
"Let's punish her by having sex."
"Laundry day is just one of many things she doesn't care about."





October 13, 2024:  The Finalists






October 19, 2024 Update:
  I voted for the caption from Arlington.



October 21, 2024 Update:
  The Winner






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Friday, September 27, 2024

Ben Simms's Copy of The Pious Friends and Drunken Companions by Frank Shay and John Held, Jr.

A savvy book publisher, perhaps struggling during the Great Depression, who wanted to capitalize on two popular volumes, My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions (1927) and More Pious Friends and Drunken  Companions (1928), both written by Frank Shay with illustrations by John Held, Jr., could simply reissue the pair together, say in 1936, as an omnibus volume. All that would be needed is a new title for the compendium—something unimaginative like The Pious Friends and Drunken Companions might even work. This new edition could be promoted with a book signing or two featuring that quintessential illustrator, Held, whose work so well embodied the Roaring Twenties but who may have had some time to spare in the 1930s.


Held added to one Ben Simms's copy of the book an unflattering self-portrait. He gave himself three chins and a rather pruny complexion. Cartoonists!


As I have previously noted, The Rumrunner's Sister-in-Law is Held's very first New Yorker woodcut, published in the issue of April 11, 1925. You remember, page 5.


At post time, the book is still available from Sequitur Books of Boonsboro. That's not a non sequitur.


John Held, Jr.
AbeBooks listing accessed September 27, 2024



Note:  I have never before seen a book in which John Held, Jr., left his signature, let alone a drawing. I would hope there are other examples to which my pious friends and drunken companions could introduce me.




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Thursday, September 26, 2024

Judith Leiber: The New Yorker Minaudière

A Judith Leiber minaudière, a clutch with multiple compartments, is decorated in crystal with a colorful New Yorker image including the magazine's mascot Eustace Tilley on one side and solid black on the other. An example was sold online, sale date unknown, by the Real Real, for $1,795, a significant discount from the estimated retail price of $4,995. The design is clearly adapted from the dustjacket of The Complete Book of Covers from The New Yorker 1925-1989. The latter date has here been altered to 1995, the magazine's seventieth anniversary and evidently the date the miniature handbag was released.




 






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Wednesday, September 25, 2024

License Plate for a Beatlemaniac

Baby, you can drive this car:

"4 FAB 4"
New York State license plate






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Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Barbara Shermund: Trophy Wall

An original color cartoon by Barbara Shermund changed hands on eBay three months ago for $700. It depicts two men, one proudly showing off his fishing trophies to the other. The wall display includes a mounted mermaid. I confess I can't make out a word of the caption, but the keen-eyed seller apparently can.

"And there's one, my boy, that gave me quite a battle!"
Barbara Shermund
Original art
Pictorial Review, released November 9, 1947

It's a little dark, no?

Barbara Shermund's signature

Verso
PR indicates Pictorial Review.
Release date November 9, 1947


My, my. This drawing has seen the auction block before.

Barbara Shermund
eBay listing ended July 1, 2024


Barbara Shermund
eBay item description







This original was one of five Shermund items related to angling presented by the artist in August 1949 "To Al Mayer, the champ fisherman of Todd's jetty" in Seabright, New Jersey. They were sold together at Doyle in 2002. The present cartoon is here referred to only as The Prize. (The scarcely-readable caption is hidden behind the matte.) The drawing has since lost its frame.


Within a few hours of my posting this cartoon, Jeff Nelson came through with an image of the Shermund's Sallies page. It's in black and white because it had been stored on library microfiche sans color and uploaded thus to the newspapers.com website. I have now corrected, slightly, the eagle-eyed eBay seller's caption.

"And there's one, my boy, that gave me quite a battle!"
* * *
"I just proposed to Henry, Father—has he your blessing?"
Barbara Shermund
Shermund's Sallies
Pictorial Review, November 11, 1947, Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph
Newspapers.com image provided by Jeff Nelson

Note:  I'd still love to see how this page appeared in color. Please get in touch if you have the corresponding November 9 (or later), 1947 issue of Pictorial Review in your archive. I'm fresh out.


It would be so great to get a better look at Barbara Shermund's sketchbook from the Doyle auction. Would the present owner please step forward?


For that matter, all sorts of original art by Shermund are of interest to the readers (and the writer) of this blog. I would be only too happy to post some more images here of Shermund creations. Please send along what you've got, my boy.






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Monday, September 23, 2024

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #914

Two goldfish in a bowl hover over a laptop computer in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #914 from the issue of September 23, 2024. My submission is shown below. The watertight drawing is by Ivan Ehlers.

"I'm calling it the Bowl Wide Web."




These captions didn't hold water:

"Now there's something we can surf."
"Not that kind of net."
"I was taught to stay away from any net."
"Why do we need to communicate with the entire bowl?"
"It's great for jogging the old memory."
"If only it were waterproof."





October 5, 2024 Update:  The Finalists




October 13, 2024:
  I voted for the caption from London.


October 19, 2024 Update:  The Winner





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Sunday, September 22, 2024

Charles Addams: Cobblers on Strike

Charles Addams's New Yorker cartoon from the issue of July 21, 1962 has no caption, but there are still quite a few words to take in. The key word is right in the middle of the factory wall so you won't miss it. 

Charles Addams
Original cartoon art
The New Yorker, July 21, 1962, p. 31

Charles Addams's signature

"For Marten Loewengart
with all best
Chas Addams"

Detail with strikebreakers

J. Whatman drawing board verso


The New Yorker stamp


The original art was sold yesterday in Palm Beach.

Charles Addams
AGOPB (Auction Gallery of Palm Beaches) listing of September 21, 2024

Charles Addams
AGOPB item description




Charles Addams
The New Yorker, July 21, 1962, p. 31

Charles Addams
Original cartoon art
The New Yorker, July 21, 1962, p. 31



With a spot drawing by Victor de Pauw and a cartoon by Charles Addams



Victor de Pauw
Spot drawing
The New Yorker, July 21, 1962, p. 30

I identified the artist on September 6, 2024.




Note:  In his 1964 wedding announcement, the Times described the drawing's recipient, Marten Loewengart, as a tanning company officer. So it may really have been the shoe subject matter that interested him in this cartoon.


I am eager to fill this blog with images of original art by Charles Addams. Please let me know what you have. After all, Halloween is coming.


Victor de Pauw's superb spot work has been noted here previously. I would be happy to hear from anyone with additional relevant material on this artist.









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Saturday, September 21, 2024

Otto Soglow: A Scarier Scarecrow

The original art for a 1968 Sunday comic strip of Otto Soglow's The Little King was sold on Wednesday at Heritage Auctions. The strip was typically a pantomime, but on September 22 there was a single line of speech: "The crows are not scared by a scarecrow!" Fortunately the Little King thinks up an effective remedy.
Otto Soglow
Original Sunday comic strip art
The Little King, September 22, 1968








Note:  I too am always in the market for a better scarecrow, but I'm also happy to display more and better original art by Otto Soglow (1900-1975). You'd think I wouldn't need to keep looking up his years.






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