To Edward Koren's Favorite Visionary

David from Manhattan presents us with some interesting scribblings from cartoonist Edward Koren to his "favorite visionary," ophthalmologist David Pearce. David writes:

The drawings on a single sheet of stationery was accompanied by a letter from June 4, '96. It reads: "I've repaired (i.e. traced the old drawing with more permanent ink) & included a new offering as penance for having the unprofessionalism to give you a tribute with disappearing ink. I may or may
not be in N.Y.C. next week. The search for [a] new principal for our school may claim my trip. Best—Ed"

Presumably the "new offering" is the lively visionary drawing here. A legendary cartoonist's embarrassment over mediocre ink isn't the usual remark from an artist to a fan. One wonders what the retraced drawing looks like. A couple of Koren sketches on NYer or volunteer fire dept. stationery to Dr. Pearce are still on eBay. Both sellers are in Brooklyn, as was mine. I don't recall the purchase price, but an offer got us down to, I believe, $125.

I did not have the presence of mind to archive this eBay auction, but fortunately Worthpoint did hang on to it:

Edward Koren
Worthpoint-archived eBay listing

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/yorker-ed-koren-orig-signed-drawing-3759079849

Note:  Thanks to David from Manhattan for keeping this blog in his thoughts. This is David's forty-ninth contribution here, but I'm not going to call him a perfect square.

Do people really subscribe to Worthpoint? If so, could one of you tell me what this piece sold for?

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Reamer Keller in College Humor, March 1939

Cartoonist Reamer Keller published two gags in the March 1939 issue of College Humor. The first is set in a classroom and is a joke about the cliche of giving an apple to the teacher. Written on the chalk board is puss and the rhyme schus, a reference to College Humor cartoonist Adolph Schus. On the other side of the dunce cap are the words pin, bin, and linn. Linn must be a name; possibly it is a reference to cartoonist Bandel Linn, but was he on College Humor's cartooning roster at the time?

"Only 23 apples! Who's absent today?"
Reamer Keller
College Humor, Volume 9, No. 3, March 1939, page 23

The second cartoon shows a sultan playing favorites:

"You're holding a few of my wives for shoplifting—I'd like to bail out the tall blonde."

Reamer Keller
College Humor, Volume 9, No. 3, March 1939, page 40

Note:  The March 1939 issue of College Humor referenced above is one of more than 5,600 magazines in the Steven Boss humor magazine collection at Columbia University. I photographed these two cartoons and quite a few others in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library on March 10, 2016. The Butler Library opened in 1934 just five years before this issue of College Humor that it now holds was published. In addition to the Boss collection, the Butler Library houses a couple of million other volumes. It is currently closed until further notice, but when it does reopen Curator for Comics and Cartoons Karen Green can give members of the general public access to the collection if they bring her an apple.

Attempted Bloggery seeks additional published work by Reamer Keller, from College Humor and elsewhere. Today I'm sharing the final College Humor Keller cartoons I was able to photograph at the RBML. Fortunately I still have work by a few other cartoonists to share.

I'd like to have some sort of corroboration regarding Keller's reference to Linn or to hear alternative possibilities.


External Links:

Reamer Keller's Wikipedia Entry

Reamer Keller on Lambiek Comiclopedia

Stripper's Guide:  "Reamer Keller, Portsmouth Gift To The Pen-And-Ink Brigade, Tells How" by Wayne Paulson (Portsmouth Times, October 24, 1937)

Daily Reamer

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Reamer Keller

Adolph Schus

College Humor

Attempted Bloggery's Primary School Index

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Jerry Marcus: The First Thanksgiving

Dick Buchanan has gone into his Cartoon Clip Files again in search of long-neglected holiday humor. He has found an old Saturday Evening Post cartoon by Jerry Marcus depicting the first Thanksgiving. It's a delightful gem of a drawing by a cartoonist we don't hear much about. Dick writes:

Jerry Marcus had 4 New Yorker sales. He was a regular for the Post and appeared in most major magazines. A lot of his work featured smart alecky kids, etc.

"We ought to do this again, next year."

Jerry Marcus

The Saturday Evening Post, November 29, 1958, page 71

Scan by Dick Buchanan

This is quite a complex scene evoking much of how we have come to envision the first Thanksgiving. It's not a family gathering, of course, but a friendly meeting of sometimes antagonistic cultures. The women doing the serving appear just as pleased as the men being served, something not uncommon in imagery of the 1950s. And just look at that dog eying the turkey, completely unnecessary to the gag and completely marvelous! Also unnecessary, and not nearly so marvelous, is the comma in the caption. Still, this gag is a clever imagining of how a tradition we take almost for granted might have got its first spark.

Note:  Some of the many things I am thankful for especially at this time of year are the contributions of Dick Buchanan from his voluminous Cartoon Clip Files. Dick contributes regularly to the blog Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently part of a post remembering the great "Gahan WIlson 1930 - 2019."

This post marks Jerry Marcus's first appearance on this blog.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives: 

Thanksgiving Day

Dogs

The Saturday Evening Post

Dick Buchanan

Attempted Bloggery's Turkey of an Index

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