Attempted Bloggery: Esquire

Showing posts with label Esquire. Show all posts

Saturday, July 11, 2026

Barbara Shermund: Of Another Stripe

By the Christmas season of 1942, the United States was a full year into the Second World War. Like other cartoonists, Barbara Shermund had adapted her subject matter to meet the moment. Her color cartoon for the December issue of Esquire, for example, has both the holiday season and the war for its setting.

The gag is tame by today's standards, but Shermund's adventuresome young woman still manages to scandalize the staid sales clerk. The original art was sold on eBay in May.

"Do you have any with sergeant's stripes on them?"
Barbara Shermund
Original art
Esquire, December 1942, p. 47

Shermund nicely contrasts the flatness of the pajamas with the roundness of the woman's figure. Compare the sales clerk's big, awkward hands with her petite, gloved ones.

The fur coat befits the season while establishing her as a woman of means. Note the very different stripes on the pajamas and on the fur.

The salesman reacts with surprise to the woman's request, but his expression isn't overdone.

Pajamas are $4.95—not exactly cheap back then. Perhaps there will be a January white sale.

They are making eye contact.

She has donned makeup and jewelry for her outing.

And, of course, she wears heels as any fashionable woman would.

Barbara Shermund's signature

The December issue drawing received its OK on October 16, 1942.

"Sergeant stripes" became "sergeant's stripes" in print—an improvement.

And let's assume that stamped E is for Esquire.

Barbara Shermund
eBay listing ended May 9, 2026

https://www.ebay.com/itm/137294137303?

Barbara Shermund
eBay item description

Shermund's original works sold in rapid succession.

"Do you have any with sergeant's stripes on them?"
Barbara Shermund
Esquire, December 1942, p. 47

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334479935671

"Do you have any with sergeant's stripes on them?"
Barbara Shermund
Original art
Esquire, December 1942, p. 47

"Do you have any with sergeant's stripes on them?"
Barbara Shermund
Esquire, December 1942, p. 47

https://classic.esquire.com/article/1942/12/1/do-you-have-any-with-sergeants-stripes-on-them

Note: Readers can earn their stripes by submitteing orignal art by Barbara Shermund to the blog.

05296

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Barbara Shermund: All Politics is Local

The third and final lot of original Barbara Shermund color cartoon art from the collection of Angela Gross Folk was published on a full page in Esquire's January 1948 issue. The work was sold on February 22 in Lincoln Park for a hammer price of $700, the high estimate. Amusingly, the auction house misread the caption as "400 mean little men, a senate investigation."

"You mean little me? A senate investigation?"
Barbara Shermund
Original cartoon art
Esquire, January 1948, p. 73

Detail

Barbara Shermund's signature

Handwritten caption: "You mean little me? A senate investigation?"

Verso

Received by Esquire, Inc., on July 30, 1947 and paid on July 30, 1947

"Pg. 81," but actually published on page 73

Barbara Shermund
Willow Auction House listing ended February 22, 2024

https://willowauctionhouse.hibid.com/lot/185191944/barbara-shermund-esquire-cartoon?ref=catalog

Barbara Shermund
Willow Auction House listing ended February 22, 2024
"400 mean little men . . ."

"You mean little me? A senate investigation?"
Esquire, January 1948, p. 73

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314254546015

"You mean little me? A senate investigation?"
Barbara Shermund
Original cartoon art
Esquire, January 1948, p. 73

https://classic.esquire.com/article/1948/1/1/you-mean-little-me-a-senate-investigation

04593

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Mischa Richter: Eleven Esquire Cartoons

A group of eleven full-page Esquire cartoons by Mischa Richter was sold on eBay in November. The early drawings, to my eye, show the influence of Syd Hoff and George Grosz.