The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 203

In the CartoonStock Caption Contest number 203, a girl lying in bed looks down from her cellphone at a monster on the floor. The creature is the speaker. The cartoonist is Sofia Warren.

The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed: Five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $240 into the first forty-eight pay-to-play contests and this forty-ninth challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $245. Having achieved runner-up status with three previous entries, I've collected $300 from CartoonStock, so I'm still playing with the house's money, thank you very much. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds may generally be considered favorable even for less-gifted caption writers. My three entries this round are shown below.

"There was no room in your closet."
"I can't be as scary as whatever it is you're doing."
"Well, thanks for finally noticing."

March 21, 2026 Update:  The Winner

The Judges Deliberate

05216

The Gambler's Nightmare: Original Abner Dean New Yorker Cover Art

Two of Abner Dean's five published New Yorker covers showed up on the auction block last week. The first of these was given the title Gambling Nightmares by Heritage Auctions. I've modified this to The Gambler's Nightmare because I'm very competitive.

Abner Dean
Original art
The New Yorker, February 23, 1935

Making the playing card figures transparent allows Dean to crowd them around his beleagured gambler.

Abner Dean
Original art
The New Yorker, February 23, 1935

Verso

Abner Dean
The New Yorker, February 23, 1935
Faded cover

Abner Dean
Heritage Auctions listing of May 2, 2025

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/abner-dean-american-1910-1982-gambling-nightmares-the-new-yorker-magazine-cover-february-23-1935ink-and/a/8199-71092.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116#8199-95001

Abner Dean
Heritage Auctions item description

[End of Heritage Auctions listing]

Abner Dean
The New Yorker, February 23, 1935

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1935-02-23/flipbook/CV1/

Abner Dean
Original art
The New Yorker, February 23, 1935

04934

Constantin Alajálov: Warning All Wives!

An article called "Warning All Wives!" published in McCall's was reprinted in the Reader's Digest issue of February 1964. Part II of a feature with the same name appeared in a February magazine issue, possibly McCall's, along with Constantin Alajálov's illustration, the original of which is reproduced here. The husband appears exhausted, the wife frustrated. What could possibly have gone wrong in the marriage bed?

Warning All Wives! (Part II)
Constantin Alajálov
McCall's[?], c. February 1964[?], p. 129

Verso

An undated, unsigned inscription on the back of the illustration board lists the price of this work at $1,250. The sale of the art at Stephenson's Auction in Southampton, Pennsylvania, on New Year's Day had the bidding start at $1,500, with an estimate of $3,000 to $6,000. No bids had been received as of two hours prior to the sale.

Constantin Alajálov
Stephenson's Auction listing accessed two hour before the sale

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/195157904_constantin-alajalov-gouache-illustration-on-board

At the drop of the hammer, there was no sale:


Page 48 of the February 1964 Reader's Digest may contain a clue to this piece.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333964401291

Note:  I'd like to hear from anyone with an image of this illustration in print—or with some advice for this poor woman.

04845

Peter Arno's Side-Show for November 1936

Chances are, if you didn't catch Peter Arno's "Side-Show" cartoon feature when it first appeared in the November 1936 issue of College Humor, you didn't get a second chance. Until now, that is.

"Here's a hot one, lambie—'Dear sir: As an old friend, I feel it my duty to warn
you to keep an eye on your new chauffeur.'"
Peter Arno
College Humor, November 1936, p. 18

"Now?"
"She keeps asking for you! She's delirious."
Peter Arno
College Humor, November 1936, p. 19

Peter Arno's "Side-Show"
College Humor, November 1936, pp. 18-19

The original College Humor artwork for that third cartoon appeared on a contact sheet prepared by the Nicholls Gallery back in 1985.

"She keeps asking for you!  She's delirious."
November 1936

Note:  I'd like to hear from the current owners of Peter Arno's original art for College Humor. Now? Yes, now.

04701

The Art of the Redraw: George Booth Drops the Other Shoe

A curious six-panel original drawing by New Yorker cartoonist George Booth looks very much like a cartoon published in the issue of June 30, 1975. Indeed, a notation on the verso in the artist's hand cites this issue as if the work were actually published there, although it gets the page numbers wrong (if only by one). But there are no publisher's markings on the art and it deviates slightly but significantly from the published cartoon. This is clearly a finished drawing, not a rough. It is executed in felt tip pen, now a bit faded, over pencil. Apparently, then, it must be a redraw created by Booth for someone who wished to have the original art but for one reason or another was not able to obtain it.

George Booth's signature

George Booth
eBay listing ended June 30, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166183881215?hash=item26b154c9ff:g:1PgAAOSw73BkkeUz&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwN%2B6Z1s%2FTq5Flw848jQmjh%2Br0xteC9RWRUWN8O4uUYqeS6pxIYOLuPXx7c5bWt7Q4GDyF%2BXVc3vf7cjM%2BUdR3MSjR3A52BlC%2Fr6Fd2AMldUfg%2

FLGshF5bjevL58JwQwkyvtqC8IujLIFtLrcKC1f15s6W%2FnGYi4qhze3jvumD%2FS%2Bbtu%2FxpDYf1TK%2BkOvuLJx9h8B%2Fz4AwrWoy16AkCMNkmfiF4x9w6ahuKUJfjfrerjdwVoe171PuPctk5KQFFke%2Fw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4TCwtHaYg

George Booth
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

George Booth
The New Yorker, June 30, 1975, pp. 40-41

George Booth
Redraw
The New Yorker, June 30, 1975, pp. 40-41

A six-panel cartoon by George Booth

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1975-06-30/flipbook/040/

Note:  My thanks go to Steve Stoliar for first bringing this auction to my attention. Steve is the author of Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House, which I highly recommend.

Thanks too to Michael Maslin for discussing this complicated piece with Steve and me. Michael is a New Yorker cartoonist and the author of the world's first and only biography of Peter Arno. Do I really need to say I highly recommend Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist too?

Before you get to the reading assignments, I could use some new content for the old blog. Redraws and other variations on original New Yorker cartoon art by George Booth and others are sought after here as the potential subject matter of future posts.

04455

A Macy's Ad . . . and a William Steig Cartoon

A 1943 ad for Macy's crudely imitates The New Yorker's well-known cartoon style without employing any of its well-known cartoonists. A wife awakens to her bedside alarm which is set for six a.m. Her husband turns his head towards her and says, "Can't they open Macy's in the morning without your help?" The advertising copy informs us that Macy's opens at 9:30. The husband, we don't need to know, is named Egmont. His value-hunting wife is just "The little woman."

The New Yorker had a reputation for keeping its advertising and editorial content completely separate, and usually it did. Six years later, whether it was done knowingly or not (almost certainly it was not), cartoonist William Steig revisited the ad's scenario in his own published New Yorker cartoon. Steig demonstrated why Macy's should have hired him on the first go round.

"Macy's is closed!"

William Steig

The New Yorker, June 4, 1949, p. 22

A floral spot by Suba, a cartoon by Alan Dunn, and an advertisement from Macy's

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1943-01-16/flipbook/046/

Cartoons by William Steig and Alan Dunn

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1949-06-04/flipbook/022/

Alan Dunn
The New Yorker, June 4, 1949, p. 23

Floral spot drawing

Susanne Suba

The New Yorker, January 16, 1943, p. 46

"I have a message for you here somewhere, sir,

from field headquarters."

Alan Dunn

The New Yorker, January 16, 1943, p. 46

04294

The CartoonStock Caption Contest #160

Some might say I'm not fit enough to enter the CartoonStock Caption Contest #160, but all it really takes is a credit card. Here's how the contest works: Three entries cost $5. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of the five runners up. As of this writing, I've invested $30 in this my sixth contest, with no success whatsoever to report in the first five. My three entries are shown below at the top of the list; the lower captions were considered but not entered. The drawing is unsigned, but I'm going to guess it's by Jeremy Nguyen.

"My housekeeper hates me."
"I don't date."
"Mostly I sleep at my desk."
***
"I can't go to bed drunk."
"I always go to bed sober."
"I avoid fluids after 8."
"I'm looking for a twice-a-day spotter."
"My girlfriend wanted more excitement."
"My housekeepers keep leaving me."
"My housekeeper keeps charging me more."
"In the back, there's a slide."
"My dates have to pass a fitness test."
"I wear sneakers to bed."
"I believe in the reward system."
"I date only Division 1 athletes."
"I'm going to put in an elevator."
"It seemed like a good idea."
"That's just for show. I have a sleeping bag."

November 26, 2022 Update:  The Winner

There is some icing on the cake as well. Eight-time New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest winner Lawrence Wood included all three of my captions in his commentary, a first:

To update the accounting, I am now $70 ahead on this contest so at last I'm playing with the house's money.

04139