William Steig: Mother and Child

Original art by William Steig celebrates that special relationship between mother and child. A woman is shown sleeping in bed with her baby. It is a published piece, with printer's marks, from an unknown publication. The splendid drawing is unsigned; perhaps it is a book illustration. It is available from Argosy Book Store in New York.

William Steig

William Steig
Argosy Book Store item description accessed May 10, 2025

https://www.argosybooks.com/pages/books/288062/william-steig/untitled-original-drawing

Note:  If you know where this drawing by William Steig was published, please let me know. After you've called your mother.

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Gert and Dave Cooper's Charles Addams Library

No home should be without a Charles Addams library. Of course, some Addams libraries are more special than others. Gert and Dave Cooper were fortunate enough to have five books personalized for them by the master between 1976 and 1982. These five books were sold together at Bonhams last year for $4,845. Two months later they were relisted individually with Raptis Rare Books of Palm Beach for a combined total price of $7,750.

Three of these books have original Addams drawings. The featured characters are Grandmama for Mother's Day 1976 in The Chas Addams Mother Goose (1967), Pugsley for Father's Day 1978 in The New Yorker Album of Sports & Games (1958), and Wednesday for no particular 1976 occasion in that year's collection Favorite Haunts. Who says Addams wasn't a family man? There are also personalized copies of Monster Rally (1950, inscribed 1978) and Creature Comforts (1981, inscribed 1982). Here they are, in no particular order. A couple of Bonhams images and numerous images from the Raptis website are interspersed with the listings from AbeBooks.

https://www.raptisrarebooks.com/product/creature-comforts-charles-addams-first-edition-signed/

Title page

Listed on AbeBooks August 20, 2021 and subsequently sold

Charles Addams AbeBooks listing posted August 20, 2021 and sold by January 1, 2022 https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Creature-Comforts-Addams-Charles-Chas-Simon/30985552688/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore_low

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26890/lot/96/?category=list

Title page

Peter Arno https://www.raptisrarebooks.com/product/the-new-yorker-album-of-sports-and-games-charles-addams-first-edition-signed/

Listed August 20, 2021

Charles Addams AbeBooks listing posted August 20, 2021 and sold by January 1, 2021 https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/New-Yorker-Album-Sports-Games-Addams/30985552690/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_high

Title page

https://www.raptisrarebooks.com/product/monster-rally-charles-addams-first-edition-signed/

Charles Addams AbeBooks listing posted August 14, 2021 and accessed January 1, 2021 https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Monster-Rally-Addams-Charles-Chas-Simon/30980895133/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_low

Title page

https://www.raptisrarebooks.com/product/the-chas-addams-mother-goose-charles-addams-first-edition-signed/

Charles Addams AbeBooks listing posted August 14, 2021 and accessed January 1, 2021 https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Chas-Addams-Mother-Goose-Charles-Windmill/30980895134/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_high

As mentioned, we have an image from Bonhams of the copy of Favorite Haunts with the drawing of Wednesday. While I haven't seen this one listed on AbeBooks, Raptis does have it available on their own website:

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26890/lot/96/?category=list

Raptis may need to acquire a bigger scanner if they want to match Bonhams.

Title page

https://www.raptisrarebooks.com/product/favorite-haunts-charles-addams-first-edition-signed/

The original Bonhams sale:

Charles Addams Bonhams, June 17, 2021 https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26890/lot/96/?category=list

Note:  Now it's time to check your own Charles Addams library for books with original drawings. I'll be right here should you find something good.

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Don Tobin: Special Mother's Day Dinner

Dick Buchanan delves back seventy-two years in his Cartoon Clip Files to bring us a postwar Mother's Day gag by cartoonist Don Tobin. The baby boom began in 1946, just two years before the Saturday Evening Post published this cartoon. Dick writes, "Don Tobin was a Disney animator who left after the 1941 strike, as did Partch, Ketcham, Dedini and others, to become a very successful gag cartoonist."

Don Tobin
The Saturday Evening Post, May 8, 1948

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  My thanks to Dick Buchanan for his fifty-fourth contribution to Attempted Bloggery. Dick maintains the invaluable Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files. He also contributes regularly to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a scholarly post entitled "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Puck Magazine Cartoons 1879 - 1890." I, for one, 
learned a lot.

Don Tobin is brand new to this blog.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Mother's Day

Dick Buchanan

Attempted Bloggery's Nurturing Index

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A Robert Day Mother's Day

Friend and contributor Dick Buchanan writes, "Just in the nick of time, a Mother's Day gag—sort of." Robert Day's 1955 cartoon for True magazine depicts two adventurous men gathering Andean condor eggs on an isolated cliff. One of them experiences an understandable pang of regret, but seemingly only on account of the calendar date.

"I feel like a heel. Today is Mother's Day."
Robert Day
True, May 1955, page 117

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  My thanks to Dick Buchanan for providing Attempted Bloggery with another fine scan right out of the storied Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files. Dick contributes regularly to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently an essential post entitled "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Perry Barlow 1932 - 1961."

Attempted Bloggery seeks images of original art by Robert Day as well as other scans of long-forgotten published rarities like the one shown here.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Robert Day

Dick Buchanan

Mother's Day

Condor Eggs

Attempted Bloggery's Inaccessible Index

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Mort Walker: A Touching Mother's Day Card

Today, the late Mort Walker is best remembered for his Beetle Bailey comic strip which began publication in 1950. In 1952, he was still actively creating gag cartoons for Collier's, which was to cease publication after 1956. A Mother's Day cartoon by Walker is disarming in its approach to the contrasting sentiments of mother and son. The son is rather nonchalant about it all, possibly even mocking, but there is no doubt the mother's tear is genuine. The furniture, it will be noted, like the sentiment, accurately reflects its time. The doorway arch unobtrusively directs the eye into the center of the cartoon toward the oversized Mother's Day card on which this gag hangs. All together now: Aw!

"We had to make them in class today. Sort of
touches your heart, doesn't it, Ma?"
Mort Walker
Collier's, May 17, 1952, page 73

Scan by Dick Buchanan

Note:  Shucks! My thanks to Dick Buchanan for providing us with this heartwarming scan from the legendary Dick Buchanan Cartoon Clip Files. Dick contributes regularly to Mike Lynch Cartoons, most recently a post entitled, "From the Dick Buchanan Files: Syd Hoff 1936 - 1958." Syd Hoff has long been a favorite cartoonist around here so be sure to check it out. And to call your mother.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Mort Walker

Mother's Day

Collier's

Dick Buchanan

Attempted Bloggery's Sentimental Old Index

02546

E. Simms Campbell: In the Harem Maternity Ward

As we prepare for tomorrow's celebration of Mother's Day, let's first take a look back at one depiction of new mothers in the popular "Harem Girls" series by cartoonist E. Simms Campbell. This gag was published in Esquire magazine sometime in the year 1939 and is an over-the-top male fantasy view of female availability, not to mention male stamina. The harem hospital ward, we here learn, serves almost exclusively as a maternity ward. The sultan has proved to be not only exceptionally fertile, but he somehow has been responsible for a prodigious number of concurrent multiple births—and this in the era before fertility drugs, not to mention Viagra!

"This one was appendicitis[.]"
E. Simms Campbell
Esquire, 1939

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1939-Original-Vintage-E-Simms-Campbell-Sketch-Illustration/323146331751?hash=item4b3d05b667:g:gdoAAOSwOtVaqJls

Note:  Attempted Bloggery seeks your scans and photographs of obscure published gag cartoons by E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971) and by other New Yorker artists. Make Mom proud.

This cartoon was published in Esquire in the year 1939, but in what issue and on what pages? Obstetrical science needs to know. 

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives

E. Simms Campbell

Esquire

Attempted Bloggery's Fruitful Index

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William Von RIegen in College Humor, October 1937

Eighty years ago in College Humor, a cartoon by William Von Riegen depicted a young man facing his first paternity challenge. And people think this blogger doesn't know how to celebrate Mother's Day!

"But we only met last night!"
William Von Riegen, College Humor, Vol. 6, No. 2, October 1937, page 37

May 20, 2017 Update: There is also an unsigned cartoon in the issue that possibly could be the work of Von Riegen:

"Gordon wouldn't think of my being without a maid."
William Von Riegen [?], College Humor, Volume 6, No. 2, October 1937, page 57

Note:  I had the privilege of photographing highlights of the October 1937 issue of College Humor, which proudly resides in the Steven Boss humor magazine collection at Columbia University. It's right there in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library—you can't miss it. Or, rather, you can miss it if you don't have the assistance of Karen Green, the Curator for Comics and Cartoons, who showed me the ropes of cartoon and humor research at Columbia.

This marks William Von Riegen's first appearance on this blog. He's somewhat obscure despite his New Yorker work, but he seems remarkably competent when it comes to gesture, facial expression, shading, and even clothing folds. Anyone with access to original drawings or further examples of his published work who would like to share them here, please send a note. My blog is your blog.


Quick Links to Attempted Bloggery's Archives

Mother's Day

College Humor

Attempted Bloggery's Index That Wasn't Born Yesterday

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Ramona Fradon: Five Superheroines

On Mother's Day, it's time to celebrate the amazing women in our lives:  the superheroines. From the pencil of Ramona Fradon, these five talented women remind us how important it is to look and dress like fashion models in order to fight evildoers.

Ramona Fradon, Power Girl, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and Supergirl

eBay Listing Ended November 17, 2013

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ramona-Fradon-Original-Comic-Women-Art-Sketch-Wonder-Woman-Batgirl-Power-Girl-/190964935416?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D2767938400540539736%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D290987085694%26&nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Ramona Fradon, Power Girl, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and Supergirl

Note:  Here's a little more for Mother's Day.

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Ronald Searle: The Joys of Housework

"Searle is surely one of the finest (if not indeed the very best) of all-around cartoonists and illustrators in our day. Searle's work continues to be the despair of all black-and-white men everywhere, and I say this without fear of being called a segregationist."

--Walt Kelly, as quoted on the dust jacket of From Frozen North to Filthy Lucre (1964)

The great Walt Kelly himself, easily one of the very best "black-and-white men" ever in the comic pages, recognized Ronald Searle's singular gift with pen and ink. While Searle's watercolor technique was absolutely formidable, his black-and-white work showed if anything an even greater level of mastery. Searle came to use more and more color for magazine illustrations in the course of his career, but newspaper illustrations, with a few exceptions for new color presses, remained black-and-white and were always exceptional work.

The illustration for Mary Blume's "Action Menagere" ["Action Housewife"] is inscribed "Superwoman" by the artist, according to the Chris Beetles Gallery. It depicts a frenetic homemaker terrorizing her daughter and house pets with a vacuum cleaner. The illustration appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Paris on October 11, 1997. An English translation of the essay appeared on that same date in the New York Times with the title "Joys of Housework: The Way We Clean." The original artwork was sold by Chris Beetles no later than March of 2014 for 3,500 GBP.

Ronald Searle, Superwoman,
International Herald Tribune, Paris, October 11, 1997

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/11/style/11iht-kauf.t.html

Note:  The blog archives are replete with posts about Ronald Searle. Would I steer you wrong?

You can never get enough Searle, right? Check out Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute Blog.

There are many posts here about the great Walt Kelly as well. Try a few. Not only is he quotable, he handles a mean brush.

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