A Treasury of TV Jibes

During the heyday of TV Guide magazine, TV Jibes was a popular feature, consisting of television-themed cartoons created by some leading practitioners of the art. A dozen pages of these cartoons were collected in A Treasury of TV Jibes, which was included as an insert with the magazine. Hence there is no price on the cover. Alas, there is also no copyright date.

Johnny Carson
Ronald Searle
TV Jibes

Scan by Tom Bloom

Even without a date of publication, we know TV Jibes couldn't have appeared before Ronald Searle's TV Guide cover of 1968 featuring Johnny Carson, and most likely it didn't appear immediately afterward either. Hence, a reasonable estimate for the publication date is 1970.

Johnny Carson
Ronald Searle
TV Guide, August 31-September 6, 1968

Here then is the rest of this issue of TV Jibes, the whole kit and kaboodle, as heroically scanned by Tom Bloom.

   TV Jibes                                   The Young Set
J. B. Handelsman                                  Claude Smith       
Henry Martin                              Charles Rodrigues
Charles Rodrigues                                   Chon Day        

TV Jibe:  Debatable Tactics                                   TV Jibes     
             Brian Savage                              Copper[?]          Hageman[?]
                                                                 Al Kaufman

         TV Jibes                                 TV Jibe:  The Younger Set
Charles E. Martin                                       Sidney Harris      
Henry Martin                                                          
Charles Rodrigues                                                        

TV Jibe:  It Must Be Football                                  My Fellow Americans...
Paul Peter Porges                                                 Brian Savage

TV Jibe:  And Now a Pause for the Program...             TV Jibe:  An Evening at Home
          Sidney Harris                                             Charles Rodrigues
                                                                     Paul Peter Porges
                                                                     Larry [Terence Parkes]

TV Jibes                                     TV Jibe:  Poor Reception
Charles Rodrigues                       Larry [Terence Parkes]
Mort Gerberg                                       Joseph Farris
Val                                           Charles Rodrigues

Note:  First off, my sincere thanks to Tom Bloom for this contribution. As I've already called his scanning heroic, I haven't left myself too much else to add. This is Tom's seventeenth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.

We are not alone. Postino writes informatively about this very TV Jibes cartoon booklet in the blog Insomnia Notebook here.

Cover artist Ronald Searle's extensive TV Guide work is surveyed in Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog, here. There's no mention of TV Jibes, though, but that could change. 

Numerically speaking, Ronald Searle's centenary closed on March 3, which marked 101 years since the artist's birth. Nevertheless, since the pandemic interrupted any proper recognition of his achievement, I have taken the lead from the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover, Germany, and will continue to celebrate his centenary. Indefinitely.

Three of the cartoonists shown above in the pages of TV Jibes are unfamiliar to me. I will tentatively identify them as Copper, Hageman, and Val, although I am not sure I'm reading the first two signatures correctly. Does anybody recognize the cartoonists or know a little something about them? Do tell.

Also--can anyone tell me with which issue this insert was distributed? I'm kind of a stickler for these things, especially when they're of no importance.

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An Al Kaufman Self-Portrait

Who can blame New Yorker cartoonist Al Kaufman for choosing to depict himself with his family on his mind? In addition to the more surreal aspects of this cartoon, the eyeballs have been drawn as twin smiling faces. This unusual self-portrait bears printer's markings and came out of a Princeton estate. It was sold last year on eBay.

Al Kaufman
Self-Portrait

Detail

Al Kaufman
eBay Listing Ended October 31, 2017

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cartoonist-AL-KAUFMAN-034-Ink-Spill-New-Yorker-Magazine-034-Orig-Pen-amp-Ink-Self-Portrait-/232544945938?hash=item3624c24712%3Ag%3AEAsAAOSwjkdZ7oeE&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Al Kaufman
eBay Item Description

The illustration is featured—and explained—in Ink Spill's capsule biography of the artist:

Al Kaufman's capsule biography on Ink Spill
The New Yorker Cartoonists A-Z

http://michaelmaslin.com/new-yorker-cartoonists-z/

What do you know? The new owner announced his acquisition on Twitter:

Al Kaufman tweet

https://twitter.com/broomewithaview/status/928406743805317122

Al Kaufman
Self-Portrait

Note:  Alas, I did not look up the eBay auctions of the other seven self-portraits by New Yorker cartoonists from the same estate. Does anyone by chance have pictures of these?

I would also like to hear from anyone who can identify where this drawing was originally published.

Readers are referred to the post "Al Kaufman Photos Surface" from December 3, 2013 on Ink Spill for more about this artist.

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