Yesterday's installment of Bliss, Harry Bliss's syndicated single-panel cartoon, is set in a hotel room where two unicorns have just finished having sex. The female is pulling on a stocking while the male is smoking a cigarette. Two horseshoes may be seen on the floor.
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"You'd better hurry—we'll miss the ark."
Harry Bliss
Bliss, December 27, 2025 |
The scene is contemporary and, of course, nicely rendered. Many Bliss readers may be unaware that the idea behind this gag comes from a classic drawing by Charles Addams, one of his very best:
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Charles Addams
The New Yorker, March 10, 1956, p. 44
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Addams, though, is not going for the belly laugh. His cartoon is not meant to be funny so much as poignant. It is full of atmosphere and emotion. Read left to right, foreground to background, it tells a moving story. The original art is in the collection of the New York Public Library.
Those branches Addams shows sticking out of the water may be echoed in Bliss's motel room painting. It's hard to say for certain. What do you think?
Unicorns and the ark are not a new idea. Curiously, there are some 15th and 17th century depictions of unicorns actually on board the ark. This begs the question of how and when they might have died off. Addams may well have been the first to depict the unicorns becoming extinct because they missed the ark.
Like Bliss, Hallmark couldn't resist going for the big laugh. A unicorns-missing-the-ark card was marketed by their Shoebox division because exclamations like "Oh, crap!" just don't feel at home in the Hallmark imprint. I spotted it in the card rack at a local pharmacy in early 2020. I believe this card has since been discontinued.
Another contemporary New Yorker cartoonist, Ellis Rosen, has put his own spin on the idea—twice.
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| https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1333542411474003&set=pcb.1333542478140663 |
And, in acknowledgement of the pickleball trend . . .
Inevitably, there are many more examples out there, too many. I won't try to catalogue them all as there is that law of diminishing returns. As far as I can tell, The New Yorker is where it all started. Regardless of that, I don't think Addams's version will ever be equalled. |
With a drawing by Charles Addams and a Profiles illustration by Abe Birnbaum
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Note: It is, of course, possible that there is some depiction of a pair of unicorns missing Noah's ark that predates the Addams drawing. If such a thing exists and anyone knows of it, please get in touch.
This is not the first time Harry Bliss has mined the work of Charles Addams. I have enumerated other examples here.
Before we go, let me just note that Abe Birnbaum illustrates the Profiles page and he includes a piece of technology that was then state-of the art but is now obsolete: |
Emory Cook
Abe Birnbaum
The New Yorker, March 10, 1956, p. 45 |
Modern publishing techniques do not often require column fillers, which may also be considered obsolete, but I do really miss the Newsbreaks—though not quite as much as the Addams cartoons.
Quality prints of this wonderful Addams cartoon are available from the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation, which holds the copyrigtht. Just follow the aqua link.
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