In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #950 from the issue of June 30, 2025, a hot dog in a clothing store tries on a small bun for size. The saleswoman speaks. My entry appears below. The drawing is by Dan Misdea.
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| "Not everyone can pull off a man bun." |
July 19, 2025 Update: The Finalists
July 26, 2025 Update: I voted for the caption from Vancouver.
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Readers of this blog are no doubt familiar with the classic depiction of Eustace Tilley which graced The New Yorker's first cover in 1925. The artist, of course, was Rea Irvin and the cover was reproduced annually until 1994. Take, for example, the 1964 anniversary issue, as currently listed on eBay:
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| Rea Irvin The New Yorker, February 22, 1964 |
Call me snobbish for saying so, but eBay sellers who deal in back issues of the magazine should be able to learn the essential cover illustrators. Even if they do not, the information is certainly easy enough to look up in any number of ways. At any rate, there is no excuse for the title of this eBay listing, which manages to misidentify the cover artist as Peter Arno:
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| "Peter Arno" eBay listing accessed June 27, 2025 |
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A Playboy cartoon from 1972 pokes fun at the women's rights movement and offers a more promiscuous alternative. Rowland B. Wilson's original art was sold this week at Heritage Auctions.
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| "Don't count on me for the revolution, girls—I've decided to work for change within the system." Rowland B. Wilson Original art Playboy, February 1972 |
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| "Don't count on me for the revolution, girls—I've decided to work for change within the system." Rowland B. Wilson Original art Playboy, February 1972 |
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| Rowland B. Wilson Heritage Auctions listing ended June 25, 2025 |
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| Rowland B. Wilson Heritage Auctions item description |
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| "Don't count on me for the revolution, girls—I've decided to work for change within the system." Rowland B. Wilson Playboy, February 1972 |
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| "Don't count on me for the revolution, girls—I've decided to work for change within the system." Rowland B. Wilson Original art Playboy, February 1972 |
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Cartoonist Charles Addams, revered for his work in The New Yorker and, of course, especially for "The Addams Family," was a lifelong student of architectural form. His tastes ran to the gothic and the macabre; the Addams Family mansion, always a magnificent ruin but never drawn the same way twice, is a case in point.
But what were his feelings toward the modernist architectural movement? Well, his New Yorker cartoon of June 20, 1959, (created, incidentally, a full five years before "The Addams Family" television series) may offer a humorous hint.
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| Charles Addams Original art The New Yorker, June 20, 1959, p. 29 |
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| Charles Addams Framed and matted original art The New Yorker, June 20, 1959, p. 29 |
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| Charles Addams Bonhams auction listing of October 24, 2024 |
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| Hammer price $6,000 |
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| Charles Addams The New Yorker, June 20, 1959, p. 29 |
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| Charles Addams Original art The New Yorker, June 20, 1959, p. 29 |
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| With a spot drawing by Judith Shahn and a cartoon by Charles Addams. The text is James Thurber's. |
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| Spot drawing Judith Shahn |
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A photo that was originally part of the New York Daily News Archive shows New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno at the tony Atlantic Beach Club on Long Island. He is autographing a copy of "his latest opus" for socialite Mary Brown Warburton, granddaughter of John Wanamaker, the store merchant who, among other things, invented the price tag. She would be about 35 here and he 26. Getty Images dates this photograph to September 11, 1930 and that means the book he's signing is almost certainly Hullabaloo (1930).
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| Peter Arno eBay listing accessed June 25, 2025 |
Note: See also my post about Peter Arno's visit to the yacht of John Wanamaker, Jr., Mary's uncle and another "notable," here. Arno apparently enjoyed good relations with this family listed in the Social Register.
Mary Brown Warburton's rather unsparing obituary in the Times may be found here. She was "about 42 years old" according to the 1937 notice.
Arno's Hullabaloo remains a very entertaining cartoon collection ninety-five years after publication. If you don't have one, get yourself a copy. See if it has a price tag.
https://newyorkerstateofmind.com/tag/peter-arnos-hullabaloo/
Copies of Arno books with interesting inscriptions or—better still—drawings are hard to come by but easy to share right here. You provide me with the images and I show them to the world through the miracle of blogging. It's what I do.
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On Monday evening, an original book illustration by cartoonist William Steig was sold by Kensington Estate Auctions. It appears in Will Cuppy's humorous 1950 book The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. The illustration is the second to accompany the chapter "Pericles."
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| William Steig Kensington Estate Auctions listing accessed June 5, 2025 |
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| William Steig Kensington Estate Auctions item description |
Sold!
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| The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950, 2002) Will Cuppy Part II: Ancient Greeks and Worse "Pericles" Pages 34-35 |
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In the CartoonStock Caption Contest number 194, we find two frankfurters being heated on a hot dog Ferris wheel. The smaller, shriveled hot dog is speaking.
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| "Do you think I WANT to be chosen?" "What's your secret, Cialis or Viagra?" "I had to retire from porn." * * * "Worst amusement park ride ever." "Do you know a better survival strategy?" "My friends who hydrated are all gone." "May I call you Little Indian?" "I thought I got on a Ferris wheel." |
At 19:30 in the video, Lawrence Wood admires my first caption very briefly. He later mentions it in his caption contest commentary:
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Image added June 29, 2025 |
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In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #949 from the issue of June 23, 2025, four people in business attire stand on a surfboard riding a wave. The man standing in front, possibly the boss, is speaking. My entry appears below. The drawing is by Christopher Weyant.
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| "Cowabunga! Pass it down." |
These captions didn't catch any waves:
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| "Take a memo: Cowabunga!" "Who's the most innovative department now?" "Who knows the theme to Hawaii 5-0?" "Wait, who's photographing this?" "I give you the cover of next year's annual report." "I need to let one of you go." |
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Gahan Wilson's original cartoon for the New Yorker issue of January 19, 1998, shows a city undergoing an calamity of apocalyptic proportions.
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| "Still, you gotta admit crime is down." Gahan Wilson Original art The New Yorker, January 19, 1998, p. 57 |
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| Gahan Wilson's signature |
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| Gahan Wilson South Bay Auctions, Inc., listing accessed June 12, 2025 |
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| "Still, you gotta admit crime is down." Gahan Wilson The New Yorker, January 19, 1998, p. 57 |
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| "Still, you gotta admit crime is down." Gahan Wilson Original art The New Yorker, January 19, 1998, p. 57 |
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| With a drawing by Gahan Wilson |
Note: Original cartoon art by Gahan Wilson is usually a good subject for this blog, whether or not the world as we know it is coming to an end. Please send images of what lies hiddin within your collection.
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