Lucretia J. Weed's Copy of Stop Trying to Cheer Me Up! by Frank Modell

Publisher Lucretia J. Weed's copy of Stop Trying to Cheer Me Up! was inscribed to her by cartoonist Frank Modell in 1978, the year of publication. For a collection of Modell cartoons, the title is perfect.

The back cover features a unicorn on a unicycle. What else? The play on words might not be immediately apparent.

Modell inscribed the front free endpaper, but it takes two efforts for him to spell Lucretia correctly.

Half title

Title page

All but four of the one-hundred sixty drawings were first published in The New Yorker. The work spans thirty years in the magazine, 1948-1978.

The book is dedicated to three people. The former Daisy Simon and Irving Modell were the cartoonist's parents. James Geraghty, of course, was the magazine's art editor from 1939 to 1973.

"And when did it first occur to you that perhaps life is not a cabaret?"

Frank Modell
eBay listing ended July 12, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/405533414673?_skw=Stop+Trying+to+Cheer+Me+Up%21+Signed+Frank+Modell%2F1st+Ed%2FHCDJ+1978+Humor+Cartoons&epid=4598692&itmmeta=01K3YVYB47HC3XDE2BQEYY1J9M&hash=item5e6bacd511:g:Y4UAAOSwILJnqQEi&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAABEFkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1dAsTDW17yImIO0vsR7QhtTIVkQ0w1Tvf2WfV3kuRMgsjxAEn7CiQrbWtUldBpke2SZ5kVNFp7k9liJZdYj83Pyr4Txi2%2FPtudzw28F2

H%2BH7yCWtpRmcSHjxQ7dvwgIt4P779K0xxTAqh8M8%2BwRyB8VACcWh32t6NdSmRNdLV%2FfY037sea0fomLzsN2C%2B2ttUWm0LbAhI1%2FOzq2RTvexVyjtxmRzUz0A3tcWXPbotwY338mHsLuJ1P0pCbN7Sk3Mb%2BcGhVmDIVbvL3%2BxoIZZyp4otVXD5F%2BOGFizNcBbq01WXAzBwJpDuDSqpt6Byb4K9LAmyTuw18QAR%2FukV5%2FE2S%2B%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5iy-dufZg&pfm=1

Frank Modell
eBay item description

Sold for a Best Offer of $40.

And for anyone who doesn't get the one cartoon this eBay seller chose to photograph, this might very well help:

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Mickey Mouse: Viva Mous-olini!

October 1, 1932, saw the release of "Bugs in Love," A Walt Disney animated short. It was directed by Burt Gillett and was to be the last of the Silly Symphonies to appear in black-and-white. This was the occasion for an unlikely full-page ad the studio took out that day in The Hollywood Reporter. The unfortunate text reads, "Viva Mous-olini! The New Dictator of Marquee Fashions." Fashions?

The art is still more unfortunate. Mickey Mouse, who represents the Disney studio, does not appear in the animated short. He, the "new dictator," is shown with his right arm raised in a Roman salute, also known as a Fascist salute (which the Germans had already adopted as the Nazi salute). Minnie Mouse's own comment, with its not-very-clever play of words on marquee for marquis, indicates the lack of seriousness with which this advertising copy was conceived. The ad is tone-deaf toward fascism, certainly, but that might have been forgivable in the America of 1932. The ad's main message is decidedly apolitical: that enough people throng to all Disney shorts, whether Mickey Mouses or Silly Symphonies, to make every one of them profitable. So why the raised arm? It has to be for humor.

In 1932, October 1st was also the first day (and second evening) of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. The red letters above the Reporter's masthead wished readers a good holiday—in transliterated Yiddish! In retrospect, this was not the right moment to belittle fascism, if there ever was a right moment.

In an eBay listing, a photo fo the full spread shows the full Disney ad. The militaristic crowd in the photo is returning Mickey's Roman salute.

The million-dollar asking price is surely wishful thinking on the part of this copy's eBay seller. A reasonable Best Offer might be entertained. You never know.

Mickey Mouse
eBay listing accessed August 29, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/395434900609?_skw=Disneuy&itmmeta=01K211DPXPJP81E007HHRWFKBM&hash=item5c11c1bc81:g:h5YAAOSwsEVmlhZ6&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAAwFkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eEs3T5N7nnJm%2Bi9ZX9Mc8jNYfN3ohrzT24TkWiRb4GpyI%2BSQqNwkndXDU7BSKDZA8b6kxsWgpjL29iWLv

UkdRtghhldWufnsZd5TR3cZj%2F7kRI8%2FHzsLKQf2jjJWsSvTIPMuExGB94LMFgX2PPBBQ9UG6IA46PTaoV%2F3F%2FMpHXrBbNq2gnHUp%2B20hIKhuHbWES99rgFPPW3i1j5U%2Flc7WDHevnWOLAUBFb%2FerWYaTdxg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4LztqGQZg

Mickey Mouse
eBay item description

"Bugs in Love" (1932)

A Walt Disney Silly Symphony

A 1935 Disney Gala

in Mussolini's Italy

05048

Thomas Nast: The Home Market Fallacy

In 1888, cartoonist Thomas Nast had a lot to say against tariffs. Theys were imposed to generate revenues and ostensibly to protect domestic producers, such as farmers, against inexpensive foreign imports. Nast asks whether Uncle Sam would be able to swallow all the farmers' surplus produce on the home market. He makes the case that "The people must be relieved, not burdened." Who knew?

Thomas Nast
Swann Auction Galleries Illustration Art sale of December 14, 2023

https://www.swanngalleries.com/auction-lot/thomas-nast-the-home-market-fallacy._AE64541AFB

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Seth: Another Copy of Wimbledon Green Signed in 2005 With a Sketch

A few years ago I was occcasionally delighted to find an inexpensive signed copy of one of Seth's evocative picture novellas—as he sometimes calls them—particularly whenever he was good enough to have added a drawing of one of the book's distinctive characters. I bought a few of these collectible volumes, but here on the blog I noted that prices were steadily rising. Seth also seemed to be attending fewer and fewer signings. Prices climbed well over $100 for some of these books, although I'm not sure demand followed; some books have been languishing on eBay for years.

A copy of Wimbledon Green: The Greatest Comic Book Collector in the World (2005) signed in the year of publication is not personalized and has a small, quick sketch of the title character. It is selling for about five times the price of a similar copy I documented here just four years ago.

Seth
eBay listing accessed August 24, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/257025858168?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m164380.l178264&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=70c60678cede44068c9ef0271c6fa341&bu=43186000575&ut=RU&exe=0&ext=0&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20250721013628&segname=11021&recoId=257025858168&recoPos=1

Seth
eBay item description

Again, back in 2021, I posted images of another 2005-signed copy very similar to this one. Four years ago, it sold for a best offer of $26.89 plus $15.83 shipping from Canada: 

It's all in the archives here.

There is a still more expensive copy currently on eBay with a considerably more elaborate drawing.

Was I the one who drove up the price of books signed by Seth? I really hope not.

05046

Otto Soglow: On Strike at the Deli

Original Depression Era New Yorker art dating from 1937 by cartoonist Otto Soglow was sold last month on eBay. The sequential drawing takes us into the nitty gritty of a labor dispute at a delicatessen belonging to one E. Swartz. Will the protest be resolved?

Otto Soglow
Original art
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

Soglow has reoworked the last panel a little. There is some white-out in the area of the picketer's forward leg and some glue staining at the bottom of the hanging placard.

Verso

Otto Soglow
eBay listing ended July 23, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176486041197?_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01JA75GRHZ41G1ZVP8WQDWXXJC&hash=item291763466d:g:pBoAAOSwgWRmjrhF&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnl3XP2vwNBdXK9mSCl48A9hYw29Qlqn6EXU2A1VSRfMEnzvcGhb%2F0RFJTi7GyecDSJOi39%2FC--MrlK%2BYo%2F4r6FuidDi%

2BC3nvj5%2F0GD2ipVeaGfw0N0YlpKt7Us1CQF%2F3384j1s5C3PAXQ%2Bm%2FFwHcWq6GHr9CxzFzpzlMGDeezLu2In0SbHVu5h0AZNgv40EWtNkigrnar33CmkdyoIkBj%2FmT7Hg9N%2FTwfAwJfDb4hFa8PMJj8ziO0e15GC%2FSfpctHqXHaNO%2BJsX4phqy%2FSZ81SZVDBQpw0DOSY0798gT2xjQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4qJw-XRZA

Otto Soglow
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

In Soglow's final panel, the bottom of the sign that is worn reads Today's Big Special, which repeats the first words on the sign that is carried. The New Yorker's editors evidently had Soglow restore the bottom of that sign to read Local Union, as in the first panel, with a patch that is now lost. Some residual glue must have caused discoloration to that part of the paper.

Otto Soglow
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

Otto Soglow
Original art
The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 27

With cartoons by George Price and Otto Soglow

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1937-10-09/flipbook/026/

* * *

On the other side of the page, cartoonist George Price uses shading and a more relaxed and freewheeling line to produce a very different sort of cartoon image. Here he shows a physician perched upon a laboratory table during an office visit, perhaps not such an unconventional seating choice when there is no examining table. Price, though, is making fun of a cigarette promotion which must have been very familiar at the time to the magazine's readers. Line thickness and empty white space assures that we don't miss the essential speech balloon.

"It suddenly appeared                                         

when I started working on that Old Gold contest."

George Price

The New Yorker, October 9, 1937, p. 26

The thing is, I haven't been able to find a print example of the Old Gold cigarette contest referenced in the Price cartoon. Still, I think I know a caption contest when I see one.

Note:  With the help of enterprising collectors, I would love to dedicate future posts on this blog to examples of original art by the likes of New Yorker cartoonists Otto Soglow and George Price. I would also like to add information about that elusive Old Gold contest right here.

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