In 1967, cartoonist Paul Peter Porges obliged collector Paul P. Goldberg with a signed drawing on one side of a self-addressed postal card. Porges is best known for his work in Mad magazine but he also appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere. Come along for the ride.
 |
| Paul Peter Porges eBay listing ended December 15, 2024 |
 |
| Paul Peter Porges eBay item description |
 |
| Paul Peter Porges eBay bid history In the event of simultaneous last minute bids, the auction goes to the higher one. |
04579
 |
| "City Bank--!! I'd like to stop payment on a check...!" Paul Peter Porges Original art |
Credit cards, of course, were not yet in significant use, the Diners' Club card just being introduced in 1950. The woman of the household would traditionally do most of the shopping, relying on her husband to provide her with cash or, as depicted in this cartoon, a personal check. Gags of the time frequently portrayed this apportionment of money as a point of marital conflict. Now you might think a loving husband, particularly a frugal one, would want his wife to take advantage of the local sales. This cartoon depicts an unnecessarily mischievous, if not cruel, episode in the battle of the sexes. Yet we are expected to laugh...
 |
| Paul Peter Porges AbeBooks listing accessed on or about May 4, 2022 |
Note: A great many midcentury magazines are filled with sexist cartoons much like this one, most of them long forgotten cultural artifacts. When and where might the cartoon by Paul Peter Porges have been published? Perhaps someone reading this will be able to say.
Remember, it's Peter Paul Rubens, but Paul Peter Porges.
04050
If one were fortunate enough to obtain an original "layout for a published project" (so we are told) illustrated by Mad's Antonio Prohias of an agitated White Spy sitting in a movie theater, should one have other artists and luminaries of the magazine also sign—and draw on—the page? Perhaps not, but it's hard to argue that a "jam page" fitting this description didn't turn out extremely well. Sergio Aragonés put his contribution (including a sketch of Alfred E. Neuman) on the projected screen. Kelly Freas, Marie Severin, and Peter Kuper added other faces: respectively, of Freas himself, of William M. Gaines, and of one of the spies. That's quite a coup: having spies drawn by both Prohias and Kuper, his successor, on the same page. As a bonus, there are signatures by Jack Davis, Will Elder, Mort Drucker, Kyle Baker, Al Feldstein, Angelo Torres, Annie M. Gaines, Al Jaffee, and Paul Peter Porges. Is it any wonder the eBay seller is asking $1,600 for this? 
 |
| The usual gang of idiots eBay listing accessed July 1, 2022 |
 |
| The usual gang of idiots eBay item description |
Note: I'd love to hear from anyone who can identify the published source of this Spy vs. Spy layout drawing.
04004
 |
| Johnny Carson Ronald Searle TV Jibes Scan by Tom Bloom |
 |
| Johnny Carson Ronald Searle TV Guide, August 31-September 6, 1968 |
 |
| TV Jibes The Young Set J. B. Handelsman Claude Smith Henry Martin Charles Rodrigues Charles Rodrigues Chon Day |
 |
| TV Jibe: Debatable Tactics TV Jibes Brian Savage Copper[?] Hageman[?] Al Kaufman |
 |
| TV Jibes TV Jibe: The Younger Set Charles E. Martin Sidney Harris Henry Martin Charles Rodrigues |
 |
| TV Jibe: It Must Be Football My Fellow Americans... Paul Peter Porges Brian Savage |
 |
| TV Jibe: And Now a Pause for the Program... TV Jibe: An Evening at Home Sidney Harris Charles Rodrigues Paul Peter Porges Larry [Terence Parkes] |
 |
| TV Jibes TV Jibe: Poor Reception Charles Rodrigues Larry [Terence Parkes] Mort Gerberg Joseph Farris Val Charles Rodrigues |
Note: First off, my sincere thanks to Tom Bloom for this contribution. As I've already called his scanning heroic, I haven't left myself too much else to add. This is Tom's seventeenth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.
We are not alone. Postino writes informatively about this very TV Jibes cartoon booklet in the blog Insomnia Notebook here.
Numerically speaking, Ronald Searle's centenary closed on March 3, which marked 101 years since the artist's birth. Nevertheless, since the pandemic interrupted any proper recognition of his achievement, I have taken the lead from the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover, Germany, and will continue to celebrate his centenary. Indefinitely.
Three of the cartoonists shown above in the pages of TV Jibes are unfamiliar to me. I will tentatively identify them as Copper, Hageman, and Val, although I am not sure I'm reading the first two signatures correctly. Does anybody recognize the cartoonists or know a little something about them? Do tell.
Also--can anyone tell me with which issue this insert was distributed? I'm kind of a stickler for these things, especially when they're of no importance.
03573
