Charles Addams's First Published Cartoon?

An eBay listing offers a rare 1927 Westfield High School yearbook, the Weather Vane. The eBay seller contends that it holds Charles Addams's first published cartoon, a plausible enough statement. This would have been Addams's sophomore year and the fifteen-year-old is credited as one of three art editors on the yearbook staff. The Addams cartoon in question, dated 1927, appears on page 94 in a section dedicated to the foreign languages—and it's in Latin!

Logic

Terentia:  "When the man began to speak, he did not stop to think."

Cicero:  "But when the woman began to speak, he did not think to interrupt."

It's actually funnier in Latin where the parallel wordplay is more explicit. I don't believe for a minute that this Latin exercise was Addams's idea; he merely illustrated it. He said/she said cartoons were still common back then, but they were soon to be replaced in The New Yorker and later everywhere else, by single-speaker cartoons. The characters, Terentia and her husband Cicero the orator, are vaguely drawn in the style of 1920s newspaper comics. She is drawn as a beautiful flapper and he is drawn as a caricature a little reminiscent of Jiggs from George McManus's comic strip Bringing Up Father. Addams attempts to invoke Ancient Rome with the sandals and those ponderous Roman column table legs. It's rare to see him have any trouble with perspective, but the stool and table leg sit lower on Cicero's side while Terentia's stool is floating just above the tile line. Addams will outgrow all this soon.

Addams may be seen in the yearbook staff photo, I believe, standing to the right of center in the sweater vest.

"IS IT POSSIBLE THAT: . . .                                                         
Charles Addams has learned to play Bethune Jones' Piccolo?"

The yearbook's previous owner observes of Addams, "The neat thing is you can already see his unique, macabre style." And where might that be?

Say it isn't so!

Charles Addams
eBay listing accessed June 10, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175763869365?hash=item28ec57ceb5:g:-eAAAOSwiipkWV-S

Charles Addams
eBay item description

The Westfield Memorial Library has digitized a copy of the 1927 Westfield High School yearbook here. It reveals that Charles Addams had a second published drawing just four pages after the first, an illustration for the Sports section dated 1926. As with the Latin cartoon, he's already signing his name Chas.

I confess I'm not entirely sold on this Addams kid yet. Let's come back in a few years and see what he comes up with.

Image added June 28, 2023

Note:  Is the Latin drawing truly Charles Addams's first published cartoon? Very likely, unless he was previously published in some school or local newspaper. I'd like to hear from anyone who can confirm or refute this. Submissions of other Addams juvenilia, Latin or otherwise, would be welcome too.

04346 

Bob Staake's High School Yearbook

It is not unusual for the artwork of budding illustrators to appear in their high school yearbooks. Bob Staake, to give an example, illustrated the cover of his class yearbook. It is, on the other hand, probably very unusual to find an illustrator voted by his class most likely to succeed, as Mr. Staake was. That he was in the Cartoonists Club is not a surprise; that he was in the Apathy Club—well, that must have been a joke.

A copy of his high school yearbook has been listed on eBay for the past two years. The volume is marketed to take advantage of Mr. Staake's fame as a New Yorker cover illustrator. The title of the listing specifically mentions his "Obama cover." This was the cover published on November 17, 2008 when Barack Obama had won the Presidential election, making history as the first black man to be elected to America's highest office. Mr. Staake chose to illuminate the Lincoln Memorial and, significantly, the O from the magazine's logo.

Bob Staake, "Reflection"
The New Yorker, November 17, 2008

Most likely to succeed indeed!  Here's the eBay listing:

EBay Listing ended June 26, 2013

EBay Item Description

[End of eBay Listing]
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BOB-STAAKE-HIGH-SCHOOL-YEARBOOK-NEW-YORKER-MAGAZINE-OBAMA-COVER-ARTIST-AUTHOR-/400497963358?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d3f89f15e

A YouTube video demonstrates Bob Staake illustrating in PhotoShop:

Bob Staake Illustrates in PhotoShop

Note:  You're in luck! This hard-to-find yearbook is still available on eBay.

I have more blog posts about Bob Staake here, and they are not so hard-to-find.

Paul Giambarba's blog has an excellent post about Bob Staake's New Yorker covers, among other things. Check it out.

Meanwhile Mike Lynch shows us Bob Staake's TV commercial for Intel.

Whatever else you need to know about Bob Staake should be available at bobstaake.com,

Cue up the Elgar, don your cap and gown, and check out my other yearbook posts.

01584