W. B. Park: The Balanced Meal

W. B. Park's drawing The Balanced Meal is fairly diagrammatic and has no shading. Purchased by The New Yorker in 1981, it saw print in the magazine only in 1984. The original art was sold on eBay in July.

The Balanced Meal
W. B. Park
Original art
The New Yorker, April 23, 1984, p. 113

Detail

W. B. Park's signature

W. B. Parke
eBay listing ended July 14, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196479726826_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01J9T2QP6CHYTEKK6J334MGDTZ&hash=item2dbf1ab4ea:g:0vcAAOSwoS9mhJAG&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV

3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKlYz3l%2F5CrxAPhfrl1uJsYUWq%2BNGry7ikyy23LuxniHkqihCI55VZ8mefOScd4ILuvKT1NC9OIGkvs6cDgzv7L0AZimxrHmKvUDydBw

Gk164JC93Yh7qdT%2B4nE7VbkQ40OcwlEDx4A9gZsGu6yOzrYjF9WrvLzfZB4Amzk53Ws0fGvyLWOKXNmZTetaBljj0V%2B44qp36j3w0lBuri

VELhCnMq9fDf%2BFFkBS43CfN5Rfk%2BvXQAayl5Q%2BPEMsLkfF3Uc%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6bj3sLOZA

W. B. Parke
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

The Balanced Meal
W. B. Park
The New Yorker, April 23, 1984, p. 113

The Balanced Meal
W. B. Park
Original art
The New Yorker, April 23, 1984, p. 113

With cartoons by Eldon Dedini and W. B. Park

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1983-06-20/flipbook/076/

Eldon Dedini's cartoons frequently poked fun at the generally unfunny Soviet Union. Whatever shading the Park drawing may have lacked, the Dedini on the opposite page makes up for. Neither has a spoken caption.

Lenin, Up Early, Freshly Showered, Makes His List for the Day
Eldon Dedini
The New Yorker, April 23, 1984, p. 112

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John's Copy of Ronald Searle's Russia for Beginners

John's copy of the humorous Cold War classic Russia for Beginners (1960) by Alex Atkinson and Ronald Searle is inscribed by Searle with a lively drawing of a dancing Cossack. There is also a curious ALS included noting that the book was mistakenly sent to the wrong John, lucky guy.

"John with best wishes/for 1961/Ronald"

Ronald Searle
AbeBooks Listing Accessed October 10, 2018

https://www.abebooks.com/Russia-Beginners-SEARLE-Ronald-ATKINSON-Alex/30091411672/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

"Dance of the Cossacks"

The Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble (1965)

Music by Boris Alexandrov

Dance production by P. Virsky

Note:  Mark your calendar: March 3 will mark Ronald Searle's centenary. You can help me celebrate by forwarding original Searle works, especially ones new to the internet.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

Russia

Books with Original Signed Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Index for Beginners

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May Day for Tintin

The first collected Adventures of Tintin book, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets from 1929 is scarce and it remained out of print for many years. The phenomenal price achieved for this volume at auction is a testament to the importance of Tintin, particularly in the French and Belgian markets. (I'm an American and my first and only encounter with Tintin was the Spielberg movie. I liked it, by the way.)

The book may be anticommunist propaganda and no doubt is historically inaccurate, but, hey, it's a comic book. While I haven't read it, it's flaws seem trivial, especially given the ubiquitous falsehoods of Soviet propaganda and the Communist Party's systematic denial of the awful realities of life under the brutal Joseph Stalin. And this book did get the whole Tintin thing started, after all.

Oh, yeah. Happy May Day, Comrades.


Hergé, Les Aventures de Tintin au pays des Soviets, No. 477/500, 1929

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/bande-dessine-comics/lot.12.lotnum.html

Hergé, Les Aventures de Tintin au pays des Soviets, No. 477/500, 1929

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