Showing posts with label Adam and Eve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adam and Eve. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 186

In the CartoonStock Caption Contest number 186, we find ourselves in the Garden of Eden after the forbidden fruit has been eaten. Eve is wearing a great many more fig leaves than Adam and she is speaking.


The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed (and neither has my description of them): Five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $155 into the first thirty-one pay-to-play contests and this thirty-second challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $160. Having achieved runner-up status with two previous entries, I've collected $200 from CartoonStock, so I'm still playing with the house's money, thank goodness. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds may generally be considered favorable even for us less-gifted caption writers. My three entries are shown below, above the break. The cartoonist is Tom Toro.

"But we could change the course of art history."
"And what if the rest of you gets chilly?"
"Then do it for me."
* * *
"No, more is more."




December 1, 2024 Update:  The Winner




The Judges Deliberate




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Saturday, August 21, 2021

Lászlo Roth: More Esquire Cartoons

This week we have seen a single example of artist Lászlo Roth's work as a New Yorker spot illustrator dating from the 1970s. We have also seen a trio of his color Esquire cartoons published in the 1950s. Jeff Nelson has now come forward with four more of Roth's Esquire cartoons, each published in 1955. As with the cartoons shown in yesterday's post, they make use of a variety of unusual media and include elements of collage.

"Boss, everybody in the office chipped in so you could get a little practice. . . just in case!"
Lászlo Roth
Esquire, February 1955, page 63

Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson


"Will you stop drawing all over the wall!"
Lászlo Roth
Esquire, April 1955, page 74

Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson


"Furthermore, an apple a day keeps the doctor away!"
Lászlo Roth
Esquire, May 1955, page 72

Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson


"Bwango takes his wife everywhere[.]"
Lászlo Roth
Esquire, August 1955, page 60

Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson





Spread views from Esquire Classic:












Note:
  Once again I want to thank Jeff Nelson for providing the images by
Lászlo Roth from Esquire magazine.



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Friday, August 20, 2021

Lászlo Roth: Esquire Cartoons

Yesterday's post about illustrator Lászlo Roth identified him as a New Yorker spot artist. This prompted reader Jeff Nelson to shed some light on another aspect of Roth's career. Jeff sent in three vintage color cartoons from Esquire magazine. These were published between January 1955 and January 1957. They are noteworthy for their versatile technique and for the prominent and unusual use of collage elements in each of them.


"Adam, I'm turning over a new leaf today!"
Lászlo Roth
Esquire, January 1955, page 47

Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson



"How are you fixed for blades?"
Lászlo Roth
Esquire,
 May 1956, page 83
Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson



"I've been coming here for fifteen years and they haven't struck oil yet[.]"
Lászlo Roth
Esquire, January 1957, page 90

Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson




From Esquire Classic:







Note:  My sincere thanks go to contributor Jeff Nelson for allowing me to keep this Lászlo Roth appreciation going a bit longer.



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Friday, January 17, 2020

Lee Lorenz: Ecce Femina

Lee Lorenz's color lithograph Ecce Femina (the title is a play on the Latin Ecce Homo, "behold the man," from the Gospel of John) dates from 1982 and was published in an edition of 80. The woman at the center of the composition is Eve; she whom we are asked to behold is herself preoccupied with beholding the woman in her hand mirror. Meanwhile Adam seems ready to take a fall for her, St. George battles his dragon for her, and Pan plays the pipes, presumably in an attempt to get her attention. At the bottom of the composition an unconventional pair of suitors is eager to present her with flowers. The overall effect, though, is lacking in coherence. The colors, judging by the scan, appear unhappily muddy. 
Lee Lorenz
Ecce Femina
Edition of 80, 1982

https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Ecce-Femina/2CE658EFC1103309


Note:  This is the fourth and last of the lithographs by Lee Lorenz that I am aware of. The chronological sequence is The Temptation of St. Anthony (1981), Ecce Femina (1982), Weight Watcher (c. 1989), and In the Beginning (1990). If there are any others I've missed, or other states of these four prints, please let me know.


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Saturday, July 22, 2017

Ronald Searle: Adam and Eve and the Flaming Sword of P. C.

See what happens when you don't behave? New to eBay:

Ronald Searle, Adam and Eve and the Flaming Sword of P. C.
Saturday Review, July 1972

Ronald Searle, Adam and Eve and the Flaming Sword of P. C.
Saturday Review, July 1972
Framed


Ronald Searle, 1979

Ronald Searle, 1979

Ronald Searle
eBay Listing as of July 22, 2017

Ronald Searle
eBay Item Description

Ronald Searle, Adam and Eve and the Flaming Sword of P. C.
Saturday Review, July 1972

July 31, 2017 Update:  "This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available."



Note:  This piece is mentioned on Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog here.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

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Monday, February 20, 2017

My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #557

It's time to serve up my entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #557 for February 13, 2017. The drawing is by Harry Bliss.
"Wait a minute—like WHOSE
mother used to make?"



February 23, 2017 Update:  The Semifinalists
https://www.research.net/r/557mcab


February 27, 2017 Update:  The Finalists



March 6, 2017 Update:  I voted for the first caption, the closest to my own.


March 13, 2017 Update:  Winning Caption



July 1, 2017: Harry Bliss's syndicated daily cartoon Bliss for June 30, 2017 revisits familiar territory. It is tempting to think Mr. Bliss has restored the cartoon's original caption here, but the wording is suspiciously close to that of the first of the finalists.



Note:  Last time, cartoonist P. C. Vey cooked up a space opera. My caption couldn't fire its booster rockets, but you can still launch into Contest #556.

The blog archives have yet more temptation from Harry Bliss.

Adam and Eve—we've seen them here before.

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Sunday, July 31, 2016

My Entries in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for May/June 2016

The Moment Cartoon Caption Contest allows multiple entries, which are left as comments on their website or Facebook page. I submitted a total of four in the May/June 2016 contest. The subject, as you can see, is Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but careful scrutiny reveals there's a hot dog vendor intruding on the familiar story. I'm more than happy with my captions, particularly the last one—although I understand why Moment might prefer not to publish it. Anyway, none of these made it to finalist status this time around. The drawing is by Benjamin Schwartz.

"I call him Lying Nathan!"
"He shows up every fall."
"He gets a full chapter in the Apocrypha."
"Eat the apple and you'll understand wiener jokes."


The Finalists:
Moment Cartoon Caption Contest Finalists for May/June 2016




September 20, 2016 Update:  Winning Caption


Note:  It's official: I am now a three-year veteran of the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest. Why, yes, I'd be happy to recite the statistics for you. Of the eighteen Moment caption contests I've entered, my caption has made it to finalist status in fourteen of which I've won five. What's most important here is that I've fulfilled and surpassed the Mankoff Prophecy.

You may be aware that I enter a fair number of these cartoon caption contests, especially for the New Yorker and Moment. The Moment contest has been the successful one for me. It's all in the archives.

See my previous posts about that original cartoonist and original sinner Benjamin Schwartz.

You can vote for a finalist in the current contest here. If summer reading is your thing, why not enter the July/August contest? Your participation will help make the contest a better one. Then, if you're truly obsessive, you can blog about the experience...

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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Constantin Alajálov: "Do Do Do" from George Gershwin's Song-Book

In 1932, Random House published George Gershwin's Song-Book. It featured eighteen Gershwin songs with new piano scores and a series of jazzy illustrations by Constantin Alajálov. The illustration for "Do Do Do" is set in the Garden of Eden and is a rather freewheeling flight of fancy which nevertheless captures the spirit of the song from Broadway's "Oh, Kay!" (1926). The original artwork came up for sale in 2010.

Constantin Alajálov
Original artwork for "Do Do Do"
George Gershwin's Song-Book, 1932

Constantin Alajálov
Original artwork for "Do Do Do"
George Gershwin's Song-Book, 1932, framed

This original illustration was later sold by the Grapefruit Moon Gallery with a new frame and no doubt for considerably more.
Constantin Alajálov
Original artwork for "Do Do Do"
George Gershwin's Song-Book, 1932
http://grapefruitmoongallery.com/9425

Constantin Alajálov
Original artwork for "Do Do Do"
George Gershwin's Song-Book, 1932, framed

Constantin Alajálov
"Do Do Do," George Gershwin's Song-Book, 1932
Constantin Alajálov's signature and the handwritten title on the original matte
Image added November 25, 2018

Detail
Image added November 25, 2018


Gertrude Lawrence sings Gershwin

"Do Do Do" from "Oh, Kay!" (1926)


Constantin Alajálov
Original artwork for "Do Do Do"
George Gershwin's Song-Book, 1932


Note:  You can find much more about the artwork of Constantin Alajálov on this very blog.

Not surprisingly, there's more on George Gershwin here as well.

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