New Yorker cartoonist Joe Dator, operating under the eBay handle joedatornewyorker, has been listing some of his wonderful, original art on the website for several months now. Here is The Centaur Scale as imaged and described by the cartoonist. It was sold on July 27 for an undisclosed best offer.
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| Joe Dator's signature |
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| Joe Dator eBay listing ended July 27, 2025 |
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| Joe Dator eBay item description |
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Collectors of original art by Charles Addams were presented with an unusual opportunity at Doyle New York yesterday. A drawing of his is set at a picnic in the Canadian mountains. A Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman comes by with an apprehended prisoner. The publication history of the drawing was initially unknown to the auction house, but that was corrected prior to the sale. The drawing illustrated "The Royal Canadian Mounted: The magnificent story of one of the great police forces on earth" by James Warner Bellah in Holiday magazine for June 1958. It was collected in Black Maria, Addams's 1960 collection. So it's technically a story illustration, but in style it's more of a typical Addams cartoon.
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| Charles Addams Holiday, June 1958, p. 76 Black Maria, 1960, p. 28 |
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| https://www.ebay.com/itm/235039994169 |
Note: My thanks to Charles Addams memorabilia expert Joel Jacobus for his guidance.
If the purchaser of this drawing chooses to restore it, I would be happy to post an image of the refreshed art afterwards.
Collectors of original Addams art are welcome to submit images of their holdings to this blog.
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The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #849 from the issue of May 15, 2023 takes us to a tailor who is waiting on an unusual customer. My caption is shown below. The well-groomed drawing is by Felipe Galindo, that is, Feggo.
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| "Why do I still feel like a horse's ass?" |
This caption wasn't a good fit:
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| "How do I look in tails?" |
May 27, 2023 Update: The Finalists
June 4, 2023 Update: I voted for the caption from New York City. I hope it's from the Garment District.
June 10, 2023 Update: The Winner
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What collector wants to see a desired book with separation of the cover board? An AbeBooks seller uses the words "unfortunately but not tragically" to relate the relative seriousness of the book's condition. That unfortunate but not tragic separation may account for the modest $50 price tag on a signed copy of Art Spiegelman's Co-Mix: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps (2013). Yvonne's copy—her name is in the dedication—has Spiegelman's sketch of a centaur, apparently a standard addition of his to the preprinted self-portrait.
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| Art Spiegelman AbeBooks listing accessed October 20, 2022 |
A search of other listings turns up Nigel's copy of the same book, which has a similar drawing and no such cover separation. Thus it sells for twice the price of Yvonne's copy:
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| Art Spiegelman AbeBooks listing accessed October 20, 2022 |
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| "Your insurance doesn't cover mythological conditions." |
These captions I'm even less proud of:
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| "I'm afraid I can only fill half your prescription." "Your insurance only covers half." "How do I know your condition is preexisting?" "Do you think you can swallow these horse pills?" "Do you prefer horse pills or horse suppositories?" "These will have you prancing about in no time." "Should I call your doctor or your veterinarian?" |
You can tell the background story, if you like. That he was a family friend, always hanging with the same very civilized bathers on the beach of Rowayton, Conn during the 60’s. Not that such idleness was characteristic of him. He once told my father that he’d been up the whole night previous just getting the expression correct on someone’s face. They had a nice rapport, the cartoonist and the psychiatrist, and Carl drew the cartoon you see here and gave it to my father after one of their animated conversations on the sand. It ended in 1971 when my father received a phone call hastening him to the house — Carl was dying. My father rushed over but was too late. He had the sad honor of declaring Carl dead at the age of 68.
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| "You think you're the only one around here with an identity crisis?" Carl Rose, original art The New Yorker, April 3, 1971, page 107
Photo courtesy of Daniel Asa Rose
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| "You think you're the only one around here with an identity crisis?" Carl Rose, original art The New Yorker, April 3, 1971, page 107
Photo courtesy of Daniel Asa Rose
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| Carl Rose The New Yorker, April 3, 1971, page 107 |
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| http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1971-04-03#folio=106 |
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| "I find the days drag." |
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| "You can't say Zeus doesn't have a sense of humor." |
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