Twin Inscriptions in Art Spiegelman's Maus

Stephen Kroninger writes with photos of a first edition of Maus (1986) personalized for his twin daughters in 2019 by the graphic novel's author Art Spiegelman. Spiegelman has added a drawing of Artie, as his father called him, waving in friendship along with an inscription: "I knew yez when!" You can always recognize Artie in the Maus drawings by his vest.

Note:  My thanks go to Stephen Kroninger for these photos. This is Stephen's thirty-sixth contribution to this blog.

Personally, I prefer the spelling youse.

03623

Ronald Searle's Sunset Strip

Ronald Searle's Sunset Strip is an unusual illustration for the artist, a dizzying commercial landscape unpopulated with any figures or even automobiles. It was created for TV Guide in the 1970s and the original art was listed by Taraba Illustration Art as early as 2012.

Ronald Searle
Sunset Strip
Original art
TV Guide

Detail

Ronald Searle
Taraba Illustration Art, LLC
Accessed November 18, 2012

Dead Link

Fortunately for us, contributor David from Manhattan was able to sort out the TV Guide publication history. He writes:

Searle illustrated an article, "Sunset Strip—Decline of a Legend" back in June 22, '74. Not TVG's finest hour with how it was cropped. Dimensions are 13 3/4 x 10, paper laid on board. He wrote a caption at bottom, and applied his handstamp on back, but not signed. Which leads to a question for you. Amidst the urban jumble, there appears to be what looks like a large "RS" with an arrow pointing to it. A bit of sly humor on the artist's part, or is the current owner getting carried away?

Here again is the art:

Ronald Searle
Sunset Strip
Original art
TV Guide, June 22, 1974

What irritates me most about TV Guide's reproduction is actually not how severely the image was cropped—I think it was created with that possibility in mind—but rather how much of Searle's exuberant detail was muddied in the printing process.

Ronald Searle
"Sunset Strip—Decline of a Legend"
TV Guide, June 22, 1974

TV Guide's crop line cuts directly between these two towers. Even in the preserved right half, the drawing's frenetic energy was largely lost anyway in the process of printing:

Detail

Is there a hidden RS? Anything's possible.

In Searle's handwriting

Yes, Searle's American agent John Locke had a prestigious BUtterfield-8 phone number. This prefix was culturally immortalized by the John O'Hara novel and subsequent movie of that name. Locke typically would answer his phone by saying, "8010."

Note:  Thanks to David from Manhattan for all the scholarship he puts into his contributions here. This is David's thirty-sixth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.

For more on Searle's TV Guide work, tune in to Matt Jones's 2007 post "Magazine Illustration Part 1: TV Guide" on Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog, here.

Ronald Searle's centenary will be celebrated on Tuesday, March 3. As any fule kno.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

TV Guide

David from Manhattan

Attempted Bloggery's Sundowning Index

03184

Ray Helle: The Thanksgiving Dinner Vote

Ray Helle's oddity of a Thanksgiving cartoon was published in American Magazine in 1950. All the family members seated round the Thanksgiving table are angry after disagreeing in a vote over what to have for the holiday dinner. The turkey, who did not get a say in the menu, seems to be the only one in the mood to celebrate. What the bird is doing at the dinner table in the first place is anyone's guess, aside from the obvious fact that the turkey is now prepared to enjoy dinner rather than be it. 

Ray Helle
"Now, Father, you know the vote was four to one and you lost.
Stop grumbling and carve the bologna[.]"
The American Magazine, November 1950, page 72

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  Today's cartoon comes to us through the scanning prowess of Dick Buchanan, now making his thirty-sixth contribution to Attempted Bloggery. Dick, of course, is the mastermind behind the unmatched Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files. He contributes regularly to the blog Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a brand new post entitled "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Gag Cartoon Clichés Part 8 1946 - 1956."


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives: 

Turkeys

Thanksgiving Day

The American Magazine

Dick Buchanan

Attempted Bloggery's No-Baloney Index

02746