My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #985

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #985 from the issue of April 6, 2026, a couple stands in their backyard, wine glasses in hand, observing a bear playing a fife. The man speaks. My submission is below. The drawing is by Michael Maslin.

"Sooner or later we have to return him to Frontierland."

April 19, 2026 Update:  The Finalists

April 26, 2026 Update:  They are all good, but I voted for the caption from Boxborough.

May 2, 2026 Update:  The Winner

05239

Peter Arno: Former Femme Fatale

The life of Mata Hari informs our views of the alluring secret agent as seductress to this day. In 1917, the exotic dancer was convicted as a German spy and killed by firing squad in France.

Come 1940 and a second World War, cartoonist Peter Arno revisited the idea of the femme fatale as spy, giving her a new code name and her story a decidedly different ending.

"That's Q37, in her day one of the most effective secret agents this country ever had."
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, August 24, 1940, p. 17

The original art came to light at Halls in early 2016.

Halls, 16th March 2016

https://issuu.com/jammdesign/docs/h107-085_listing/44

Given a presale estimate of 600-800 GBP, it sold for a healthy 2,100 GBP.

https://www.lotsearch.net/artist/peter-arno/archive?orderBy=dollarBasedPrice-startPrice&order=ASC&perPage=50&page=1

The buyer, in all probability, was London illustration dealer Chris Beetles. The work was included in the catalogue for Beetles's annual The Illustrators sale for 2016:

Chris Beetles The Illustrators 2016 Catalogue

https://issuu.com/chrisbeetles/docs/the_illustrators_2016_cover_text_co

Michael Maslin's biography Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist had just been published, and it was cited by Beetles under Further Reading.

A scanned image shows some of the details. Arno's plaza seems German or Prussian. The two paired men, military and civilian, walk in lock step. That uniform of the man in front is impressive right down to the spurs. As we read left to right, the men lead our eyes to Q37 herself, in widow's garb, looking after her six children. The big joke is not merely the number of progeny but that they represent so many different races. Such racial caricatures were deemed acceptable in the pages of The New Yorker of 1940 by the editorial staff, the readership, and the advertisers. 

"That's Q37, in her day one of the most effective secret agents
this country ever had."
Peter Arno
The New Yorker, August 24, 1940, p. 17

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166922564572?mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l1120&ch=osgood&euid=d2fd7229aaae45b9

163679d70c0ff7d&bu=43186000575&ut=RU&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20240817013610&segname=11021

Here then is how the cartoon appeared in the magazine:

A spot drawing and a cartoon by Peter Arno

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1940-08-24/flipbook/016/

* * *

Horse in a blanket
Spot drawing
Artist Unidentified
The New Yorker, August 24, 1940, p. 1

Note:  I would appreciate hearing from anyone who retains a price list from the Chris Beetles 2016 catalogue for The Illustrators show. The item in question is no. 119. 

Also, the spot artist's initials may be recognizable to someone in the know.

Do I need to keep asking for original art by Peter Arno to display in these pages? Yes, I think I do.

05219

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #978

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #978 from the issue of February 9, 2026, a man opens his front door to let in an ocean wave while a woman inside the house stands on a surf board awaiting its arrival. The man speaks. The drawing is by Michael Maslin.

"I left the back door open."

These captions didn't hang ten:

"Cowabunga."
"Be back for dinner. I'm making fish."
"Is this one gnarly enough?"

February 28, 2026 Update:  The Finalists

March 6, 2026 Update:  I voted for the caption from Mertztown.

March 15, 2026 Update:  The Winner

Note:  In 2019, Michael Maslin wrote a Personal History about his (and other New Yorker cartoonists's) use of the versatile caption "It's for you." Read it here. After all, it's for you.

05198

Annals of Captioning: Hunting for The New Yorker in Print

My ascension to New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest finalist in Contest #969 this week has left me in the unaccustomed position of not having enough print copies of the current issue on hand. I have my subscription copy, of course, but the December 8 New Yorker is the very first time my name has appeared in the magazine and it couldn't hurt to buy a few extra copies, even at $9.99 apiece.

On Saturday, I headed for the Barnes & Noble on 3rd Avenue, figuring that store would be well stocked with magazines. And it was, though nothing like a few years ago when the place was housed in larger quarters on 86th Street. Still, the bookstore was stocked with about a dozen copies of The New Yorker right in front of the magazine section, appropriately, and at eye level. The problem was, only last week's issue was available, that of December 1, which should have been replaced Monday with the current one. 

Alas, there were no other options readily available. Street newsstands these days have only a few newspapers to sell, and old awnings advertise magazines for stores which now carry vaping supplies instead. You can still buy magazines in the greatest city in the world, but it isn't necessarily easy.

Note:  My quest has been chronicled and illustrated on Michael Maslin's Ink Spill here. 

05148

Huguette Martel: Babies Who Became Famous, and Why

In its November 4 sale of illustration art, Heritage Auctions offered the Irvin Greif Collection of New Yorker Art, four works by Charles Addams, Huguette Martel, Ronald Searle, and Edward Sorel. Of these, only the Martel cartoon did not find a buyer. It is an ink drawing with collage elements and it has the title Babies Who Became Famous, and Why. There are, count 'em, nine babies.

The work was offered at auction framed and matted:

The printed cartoon is affixed to the back of the frame. Only six of the nine baby panels were published in the magazine. Martel's drawings of Sigmund Freud, Christopher Columbus, and Julia Child did not make the cut.

Bidding started at $1,000 with a presale estimate of $2,000 - up. But as of the night prior to the sale, no bids had been received.

Huguette Martel
Heritage Auctions listing accessed the night prior to the sale

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/huguette-martel-american-20th-century-babies-who-became-famous-and-why-new-yorker-interior-januar/a/8224-71269.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-MyTrackedLots-101116

Huguette Martel
Heritage Auctions item description

Even in the sale, there were no bids.

Heritage offers the artwork with a Buy Now price of $1,250 through November 18. The auction house also entertains offers.

Here is the Martel cartoon as it appeared in The New Yorker:

Babies Who Became Famous, and Why
Huguette Martel
The New Yorker, January 20, 1992, p. 33

And again the original Martel art:

Babies Who Became Famous, and Why
Huguette Martel
Original art
The New Yorker, January 20, 1992, p. 33

With cartoons by Michael Maslin and Huguette Martel

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1992-01-20/flipbook/032/

* * *

The cartoon on the page opposite, here by Michael Maslin, balances out the layout with lighter lines, lighter shading, and lighter humor. 

"Gentlemen, I've asked Mr. Gilbert, a
four-in-hand expert, to join us."
Michael Maslin
The New Yorker, January 20, 1992, p. 32

 

05117

My Copy of Tom Toro's And to Think We Started as a Book Club . . .

My copy of Tom Toro's new collection And to Think We Started as a Book Club . . . was signed by the New Yorker cartoonist at Oblong Books on October 16. That appearance included a conversation with cartoonist Michael Maslin before the book signing.

05105 

Stan Hunt: Operating Room 3

In an undated ink drawing, cartoonist Stan Hunt reveals the secret of Operating Room 3.

It's all linework; there is no shading.

Stan Hunt's signature

Stan Hunt
Allure Auctioneers listing of July 13, 2025

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/209726956_/?from=alert&utm_source=LA_SavedAlert&utm_campaign=SearchAlert_20250627_B&utm_medium=email&utm_content=item

The item details for this lot provided by Allure Auctioneers identify the artist as Stanley Richard Hunt (1929-2006), a newspaper cartoonist, but this framed drawing is clearly the work of magazine cartoonist Stan Hunt (1912-1990?). The information seems to come from Stan[ley Richard] Hunt's Wikipedia page.

Stan Hunt
Allure Auctioneers item description

Previously, the lot was offered on eBay:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/226298113191

Note:  I am grateful to Michael Maslin for helping me to disambiguate—a Wikipedia term—the two Stan Hunts. I would be pleased if someone would start a Wikipedia page for the magazine cartoonist Stan Hunt.

If anyone knows where this cartoon was published, please inform the management.

05003

Peter Arno: The Whoops Sisters in Need of Mothballs

An eBay seller in El Paso has listed an original drawing of the Whoops Sisters by New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno. The sisters are so named because at least one of them invariably says "Whoops!" in the captions during their dialogue. In this drawing and others, they wear muffs to warm their hands. Here moths fly out of one of the sister's muffs, no doubt resulting in a raucous back-and-forth.The drawing is framed, but there is no matte.

A two-speaker caption is clearly intended, but none is provided on the art. The back of the drawing might contain a helpful notation, but that has not been shown to us. 

In the listing's title, the seller states that this was published in Whoops Dearie! (a 1927 novel ghostwritten by Philip Wylie, according to Arno's biographer Michael Maslin). A quick glance shows that this drawing is certainly not in that volume. Besides, the proportions are all wrong for a book page.

Peter Arno's signature

So where might it have been published? Was it published at all?

There was a Whoops Sisters comic strip syndicated by King Features, but the art here is shaded and not executed in linear comic strip format.

Judging from the elongated proportions, the drawing is likely meant to fill most of a column in The New Yorker. One may date it c. 1926-1927. It does not seem to have been published in the magazine, though.

In summary, then, we have an original Peter Arno Whoops Sisters drawing apparently missing its caption and with a doubtful publication history. The price is $1999.99, or best offer.

Peter Arno
eBay listing accessed May 28, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/365547484149?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20250324084645%26meid%3Db89a28491d414063b165abc863066fbe%26pid%3D101959%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D365547484149%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2WithMLRPboosterAndUpdatedFeatures_BP&_trksid=p4375194.c101959.m146925&_trkparms=parentrq%3A19dcb5701970a62e2b65507cffffcd12%7Cpageci%3A50fa6bf5-3c34-11f0-bbfa-0af78e789258%7Ciid%3A1%7Cvlpname%3Avlp_homepage

Peter Arno
eBay item description

Like so many things on eBay, the work is priced to be discounted:

Let's examine a published Whoops Sisters drawing from the same period for the sake of comparison:

The eBay drawing with the moths seems less interesting graphically.

With cartoons by Barbara Shermund and Peter Arno

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1926-11-20/flipbook/028/

* * *

Back in 1926, it was not unusual that both facing pages could have cartoons with two speakers. It is Arno himself who later would be generally credited with changing that.

"Women like you, Geoff."
"Say, did you notice that, too?"
Barbara Shermund
The New Yorker, November 20, 1926, p. 28

September 15, 2025 Update:  Price cut for all.

December 20, 2025 Update:  The price falls again.

Note:  Anyhow, if this Whoops Sisters drawing by Peter Arno was indeed published and some observant reader knows where and when, please let me know.

Whoops! I forgot to remind readers that almost all original Arno art is worthy of posting on this blog. Please send me some good images if, with any luck, the art isn't moth-eaten.

Further reading: "The Peter Arno Cartoons That Helped Rescue The New Yorker" by Michael Maslin.

Time magazine reviews Whoops Dearie!

04971