Rob's Copy of The Art in Cartooning

The book is The Art in Cartooning:  Seventy-five years of American Magazine Cartoons, published in 1975. The original owner was named Rob and he had the good sense to get his copy at a signing with multiple cartoonists present. The four who signed and decorated his book were Gahan Wilson, Sam Gross, Marvin Tannenberg, and Bill Woodman. The cover art is, of course, by Charles Saxon.

Inside the book, the cartoonists play off each other's sketches, top to bottom. Wilson starts it off in his macabre manner with a drawing of a waiter serving his customer: "This what you asked for, sir?" Gross changes the culinary subject to frog legs, a convenient reference to his most famous cartoon, which appeared in the National Lampoon: "No, you yo-yo / He asked for frogs legs." Tannenberg supplies a missing frog leg on his self-portrait with "What's this craziness with frog's legs[?]"

What's on the menu? Woodman takes us out of the dining room and into the kitchen where a chef is in the preliminary stages of preparing dinner. With a full page (or at the very least half of one) to himself, Woodman shines.

The Art in Cartooning
eBay listing ended August 2, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204890575268?epid=2911644&itmmeta=01J4AZMZ64DACWYWKGTV6M9R3X&hash=item2fb46e11a4:g:WtwAAOSwzFtk1BCX&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8Oz%2F1S0dmyDe7H2Y4X6i22p5vCV7MZPCQyGxvEkZG5ra%2FNVuozwauT2KyCj15RYCcZGnvvG%2BHesoDlO%2BeCG1o6lb7%2Fd9YyEpCAFKBEWvVU7MMJ%2FMfcu97t

ufa%2FsdO6hSiLkl%2BWilTk1Y812aAo4LHrmgo%2BbaDGqVtOvcBiuoCKhRgjaDlZXYAgeErEl1GOGEUE1SeZ5S2jyjWegGW4LCNAq604XGAk6g5ic%2Bir6deftQunh03Mz5%2BI5VINWjXvFa9PU8vjP6leJfp56vbEzI9ujeR%2BrJtxG7Wpwl%2F%2ByFVNLqmZPiYMo2t0WgvtCOHKL9DQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5Tz09-iZA

The Art in Cartooning
eBay item description

A best offer of $175 was not accepted. A counteroffer of $195 nevertheless sealed the deal.

Note:  This is the tenth very special copy of this book to appear here on the blog. Scans or photos of other personalized copies from book signings of yore are welcome.

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Stan Cohen's Copy of The Art in Cartooning

I have no idea whether the Stan Cohen who obtained a personalized copy of The Art in Cartooning: Seventy-five Years of American Magazine Cartoons (1975) was also the sociologist  who coined the term moral panic. The original drawings in the book added at a signing by cartoonists George Booth, Sam Gross, Gahan Wilson, and Bill Woodman don't necessarily shed any light on the possibility. If there's panic in any of these four drawings, it isn't particularly moral.

The dust cover illustration is The Closed Mind, an experimental drawing by Charles Saxon. The interior drawings dedicated to Cohen are the work of Booth (a flea-ridden cat sitting in a corner), Wilson (a flea-ridden "Horrible Thing" sitting in a Boothian corner), Gross (a disturbed man pointing out a "cockeroach (sic!)"), and Woodman (something buggy fleeing the bottom of a birdcage while the bird's delighted owner listens in). Or, as the listing from Rare Book Cellar, the rare book seller who offers this unique copy for sale, succinctly puts it, "Signed by multpiple [sic] cartoonists with muliple [sic] cartoons." I couldn't have written it better.

The Art in Cartooning
Rare Book Cellar listing accessed August 1, 2024

https://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/307389/mort-gerberg-edwin-fisher-ron-wolin/the-art-in-cartooning-seventy-five-years-of-american-magazine-cartoons-signed

Note:  There are now nine—go ahead, count 'em—unique copies of The Art in Cartooning posted in the archives here, a claim no other blog can match. Is this then a good place to stop? Of course not. Collectors in possession of their own interesting copies of the book are urged to forward images of the interesting parts to the proprietor of this blog. With a little luck, there won't be any more cucarachas.

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Jack Markow: On the Construction Site

Construction was always a part of New York City life. A century ago, in the Roaring Twenties, this was especially true. Jack Markow's 1928 cartoon celebrates the city's ongoing reinvention of itself. Was it possible, in that permissive era, for a wiseacre and a police officer to engage in conversation right in the middle of a construction site? It seems doubtful. Whatever the case, the interaction of the two figures is wonderfully staged by the artist. The charcoal drawing was reproduced on page 29 of The Art in Cartooning (1975). The word but handwritten on the matte does not appear in the published caption.

"Pardon me, officer, [but] can you tell me where they moved Hudson Street?"
Jack Markow
Original art
The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 30

"Pardon me, officer, [but] can you tell me where they moved Hudson Street?"
Jack Markow
Original art
The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 30

Jack Markow's signature

Caption on matte with a superfluous but

Jack Markow
Auctions at Showplace:  New York City Estate Auction held March 3, 2024

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/jack-markow-pardon-me-officer-charcoal-on-paper-241-c-069480a807?objectID=186172998&algIndex=archive_prod&queryID=dbd42784902e423c9124f6cc84faf963

"Pardon me, officer, can you tell me where they moved Hudson Street?"
Jack Markow
The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 30

"Pardon me, officer, [but] can you tell me where they moved Hudson Street?"
Jack Markow
Original art
The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 30

A cartoon by Jack Markow and an illustration by V. E.

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1928-03-17/flipbook/030/

Illustration by V. E. 

The New Yorker, March 17, 1928, p. 31

Note:  Who then is V.E? Anybody?

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Jack and Betty's Copy of The Art in Cartooning

Bauman Rare Books of Philadelphia offers a second copy of The Art in Cartooning (1975) for $3,200, making this book that once belonged to Jack and Betty the most expensive copy yet on the market. Jack could indeed be the same Jack Herbert whose copy of the book listed by the same rare book dealer we saw in yesterday's post. Cartoonist Henry Martin graced the book with a drawing of Betty painting Jack's portrait. Bill Woodman depicts the older couple roller skating together. Cartoons by Marvin Tannenberg and Roland Michaud both allude to golf and perhaps to the couple's differing opinions of it. Curiously, Michaud has not signed or drawn in any of the previous seven copies of this book we have seen here. Sam Gross gives the couple a cat cartoon with an unseen but talkative mouse.

On the next page, Lou Myers shows the couple to be doting grandparents and adds an unusual bit of color to the hats. George Booth provides the half-title with a complicated double-drawing, the wheels of an old-time car in profile doubling as a driver's goggles and eyes seen en face. He includes an eight-line verse. The whole thing seems to have a lot of moving parts and surely must have been worked out by him in advance.  

 

The Art in Cartooning
Bauman Rare Books listing accessed April 13, 2024

https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/booth-george-new-yorker/art-in-cartooning/126825.aspx

Note:  Has anything like George Booth's light verse been encountered before? Do tell.

For that matter, this blog would benefit from additional images of drawn-in copies of The Art in Cartooning—why would I stop at eight?—or of other books drawn upon by any of these seven artists.

04621