The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 173

I'm not entirely sure what's going on in the CartoonStock Caption Contest #173, but in many ways it looks like just another day at the office. There's a man sitting at a laptop in his cubicle talking to a female coworker while in the background the imposing landscape burns as if consumed by the fires of hell. The rules of the monthly cash prize contest are the same: 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 $90 into the first eighteen pay-to-play contests and this nineteenth one brings my total cash outlay up to $95. After two previous runner-up entries, I've collected $200, so I'm still doing very well. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds are generally quite favorable for all. My three entries are shown below. The cool cartoonist is Drew Panckeri.

"Even so, it beats telemarketing."
"Before I get up, are you wearing anything today?"
"What I really can't take is that calendar."

November 23, 2023 Update:  The Winner

The Judges Deliberate

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All Set for 2023

I just bought my copy of the Cartoons from The New Yorker 2023 Calendar, which offers fans of the art form a cartoon a day. Will that be sufficient? What is the optimal number of cartoons to encounter each day, anyway? To get some idea, let's take a look at The New Yorker magazine itself, which has been publishing many of the finest single-panel cartoons since 1925. The current weekly issue provides only eight cartoons, which some may deem adequate but I see as some sort of dereliction of duty. Nevertheless, eight cartoons over seven days is still fractionally more of a daily ration than the calendar offers. So with the calendar alone, I figure I'm all set for the year—provided I can get by on one cartoon a day. Keeping up my subscription to the magazine should allow me to effectively double that. And if I should want any more, well, I might have to resort to writing a blog or something.

Cover cartoon by Will McPhail

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The Ronald Searle Calendar: 1959

The Ronald Searle Calendar for 1959 collects some of the English cartoonist's popular gags from the 1950s and doles out two each month. The calendar's cover reuses the illustration on the dust jacket for Merry England, etc. (1956), but this time without any red ink. At least one drawing of St. Trinian's schoolgirls is included. The drawings are reproduced in two tones, black and shades of blue. The item is uncommon today which is surprising as it must have been difficult to throw away when 1960 came around.

The Ronald Searle Calendar:  1959
eBay listing ended November 27, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-RONALD-SEARLE-CALENDAR-1959-Illustrated-VINTAGE-24-CARTOONS-St-Trinian-039-s-/133581720040?hash=item1f1a1749e8%3Ag%3Ag4UAAOSwJiBftoY%7E&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

The Ronald Searle Calendar:  1959
eBay item description

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Gorey Endings: A Calendar for 1979 Signed Broadside

Anyone who thinks a new year and with it a new calendar are all about new beginnings should consider Gorey Endings: A Calendar for 1979. The calendar's cover, as depicted here on a promotional broadside, looks as if it must have taken Edward Gorey a couple of weeks to crosshatch. Listed on AbeBooks in June at $150, the price of the signed sheet has since been reduced to $75. Is that a Gorey ending or a Gorey beginning?

Gorey Endings
AbeBooks Listing Accessed Jun16, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/Gorey-Endings-Calendar-1979-Broadside-Signed/30660698313/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

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The Sultan of Sweet: 1945 Pepsi-Cola Calendar by Otto Soglow

Seventy-five years ago, New Yorker cartoonist Otto Soglow (1900-1975) illustrated Pepsi-Cola's calendar for the year 1945. In that year, like 2020, New Year's Day fell on a Wednesday. Unlike 2020, 1945 was not a leap year. So you can use this calendar in 2020, but only until February 29. After that, all the 2020 calendars should be deeply discounted.

Otto Soglow
1945 Pepsi-Cola calendar

https://picclick.com/Pepsi-Cola-Ad-1945-Calendar-Otto-Soglow-143194608824.html#&gid=1&pid=1

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Mystery Fan: 1943 Pepsi-Cola Calendar by Whitney Darrow, Jr.

Who doesn't love a good mystery? New Yorker cartoonist Whitney Darrow, Jr. (1909-1999), illustrates Pepsi-Cola's promotional calendar for 1943 with a cola-loving Mystery Fan. The image was reused as late as 1945 in newspaper advertising. A little escapist reading during wartime never hurt.

Mystery Fan
Whitney Darrow, Jr.
1943 Pepsi-Cola calendar

https://picclick.com/1943-Pepsi-Cola-Calendar-Mystery-Fan-202669723411.html#&gid=1&pid=1

Mystery Fan
Whitney Darrow, Jr.
1945 Pepsi-Cola newspaper ad

https://picclick.com/1945-Newspaper-Pg-lj7459-Pepsi-Cola-Mystery-Fan-352665567696.html

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New Year's Resolution: Don't Overpay

Those who don't have an infinite reserve of capital backing them up are advised to exercise care in spending money unnecessarily. Remember, just because something is scarce doesn't mean it's automatically of great value. So even if you are a New Yorker completist who absolutely has to have that hard-to-find copy of the Cartoons from The New Yorker 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar currently offered on Amazon, you might want to think twice before spending an obscene $7,794.01 for it. If thinking twice isn't enough, think three times.

Cartoons from The New Yorker 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar

Cartoons from The New Yorker Day-to-Day  2010 Calendar
Amazon Listing Retrieved January 1, 2019

https://www.amazon.com/Cartoons-New-Yorker-Day-Day/dp/0740782444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546371678&sr=8-1&keywords=the+new+yorker

So why not shop around, like Momma told you? AbeBooks lists the very same calendar and offers the option of paying as much as $11,206 or as little as $4,000. The disparity is ridiculous but even the lowest price is still insulting!

AbeBooks Listings Retrieved January 1, 2019

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?cm_sp=sort-_-SRP-_-Results&ds=20&kn=Cartoons%20from%20the%20New%20Yorker%202010%20Day-To-Day%20Calendar&sortby=1

My New Year's resolution is to refrain from overpaying, particularly for mass-produced items. Yours should be too. Be patient, wait for your price, and realize you can get along just fine without obsolete publications like the Cartoons from The New Yorker 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar no matter how rare they may now seem to be. Cheaper copies will probably come along. Even if they don't, there are better uses for $4,000. I'll bet you can think of some.

Oh, I could also stand to lose a couple of pounds...

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Leo Cullum

Calendars

The New Yorker

Happy New Year!

Attempted Bloggery's Bargain Basement Index

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Cartoons from The New Yorker 2017 Calendar

Today in my local Barnes & Noble I spotted the Cartoons from The New Yorker 2017 Calendar. Pictured on the outside of the box is a modern masterpiece by cartoonist Jack Ziegler. On the inside, who knows?

Cartoons from The New Yorker 2017 Calendar

November 6, 2016 Update:  My wife bought me a copy.


Note:  Jack Ziegler is the subject of a brand new interview on Ink Spill. Catch Part 1 and Part 2.

I'm always looking for original artwork, souvenirs, doodles, and variants by Jack Ziegler and others of his ilk. If you've got something you'd like to share publicly, get in touch. Did I really just say ilk?


Attempted Bloggery's quick links:

Jack Ziegler

Easter Island

Calendars

Barnes & Noble

Attempted Bloggery's Timely Index

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Without Compensation or Attribution: The Afterlife of Caption Contest Captions

A copy of the Office Cartoons from The New Yorker 2017 Calendar caught my eye last week in a bookstore. The cover cartoon by David Borchart struck me because it was not originally published as one of the magazine's many office-themed gag cartoons. Rather, it is a former Caption Contest cartoon now bearing the winning caption, but without being acknowledged as such. That caption—"We're tabling the motion."—is the clever work of Patti Smart of Chicago who composed it for Contest #450 dated November 10, 2014. Although I didn't purchase a copy of the calendar, I don't see that she is credited anywhere, at least not on the outside.

Office Cartoons from The New Yorker 2017 Calendar

https://www.calendarclub.ca/products/prd201702284

Instead the calendar credits the cover cartoon to artist David Borchart and to no one else:

Published Attribution of Cover Cartoon Authorship

https://www.amazon.com/Cartoons-Yorker-2017-Mini-Calendar/dp/1449476554/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472356535&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Office+Cartoons+from+the+New+Yoker+2017

Should Patti Smart be credited too? Of note, the Caption Contest Rules allow the entrant to retain the copyright to the submission, while granting the New Yorker the broad right to use that entry in all media "without compensation or attribution." To confuse matters, this right is specifically elucidated as one which allows the New Yorker to "...display the Submission and the entrant's name and city and state..." It is not clear to me from this possibly contradictory legalese whether or not the entrant should expect to be credited every time the successful caption is subsequently republished.

Excerpt from the Caption Contest Rules

http://www.newyorker.com/about/caption-contest-rules

As a matter of good sense, it seems to me then that when former Caption Contest cartoons are published in a general New Yorker cartoon collection, it might be awkward or distracting to include the names of the successful entrants with each caption. Therefore I do not believe Ms. Smart's name belongs on the cover of this calendar with the cartoon, although I would certainly not forbid its use altogether. Yet where a specific credit is given to the artist, such as on the back cover of this calendar, it seems appropriate to credit the Caption Contest entrant as well and to acknowledge the process by which the finished gag was created. The caption contestants are not to be treated the same as gag writers who work in anonymity as a condition of their trade; instead they are uncompensated problem-solvers, three of whom compete for the public recognition that their caption more than any other has resolved a specific cartoon conundrum. The resulting cartoon comes about by a very unique process and the caption author deserves much credit when there is an outstanding result.

I should note that the Condé Nast store routinely offers prints of Caption Contest cartoons but does not credit the Contest winners:

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/We-re-tabling-the-motion-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i13154731_.htm

On a further note, the Contest rules allow the New Yorker to use any submission in any manner, not just the winning entry. I am not aware of any instances yet where caption entries aside from the winning caption were published except in the context of a discussion of the Caption Contest itself.

Here are images from the first two months of the 2017 calendar with cartoons by Zachary Kanin and Tom Toro. For the record, they are not Caption Contest cartoons.

January cartoon by Zachary Kanin

February cartoon by Tom Toro

Note:  For the record...

Attempted Bloggery's quick links:

Caption Contests

David Borchart

Zachary Kanin

Tom Toro

Attempted Bloggery's uncredited blog index

01949

New 2016 Calendars: The New Yorker and Edward Gorey

The new wall calendars for 2016 have arrived. They are probably on sale just about everywhere by now but I came across them over the weekend at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The New Yorker's 2016 entry calls itself The New Yorker Covers Poster Calendar 2016 which is nearly as awkward to read to yourself as it is to say out loud. The calendar's cover reproduces the 2012 Innovators Issue magazine cover "The Cloud" by Bob Staake. On the calendar's back cover, we get to see the magazine describe itself as "Iconic design. Iconic New Yorker." Apparently they left out the part about humble. Calendar covers are by Mark Ulriksen, Charles E. Martin, Maira Kalman, Jacques de Loustal, Birgit Schössow, Adolph K. Kronengold, Garrett Price, Christoph Niemann, Eric Drooker, Arthur Getz, Jorge Colombo, and once again Bob Staake. Helpful advice is offered for those who wish to "First hang it as a calendar--then frame it as art!" Let's face it: you could do worse.

The New Yorker Covers Poster Calendar 2016

The New Yorker Covers Poster Calendar 2016

Now the Edward Gorey 2016 Calendar describes the artist as "famous for masterful pen-and-ink cross-hatched drawings and ironic, offbeat humor."  While I might quibble a bit with the use of "cross-hatched" to describe the great variety of detailed pen-and-ink work for which Edward Gorey is acclaimed, I nevertheless find this calendar's blurb to be pretty accurate and without pretense. The cover illustration is a wonderful set-piece called "An Exhibition." I certainly would have no quibbles about gazing at an image of this quality every month.

Edward Gorey 2016 Calendar

Edward Gorey 2016 Calendar

Note:  You're in luck! This blog has a few posts on many of these artists:

Arthur Getz

Edward Gorey

Maira Kalman

Jacques de Loustal

Charles E. Martin

Christoph Niemann

Garrett Price

Bob Staake

Mark Ulriksen

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May

Welcome to the merry, merry month of May!

Eugène Grasset, Mai, 1894, reprinted 1895

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=2349++++++88+&refno=++684683&image=0

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Saul Steinberg: The 1965 Calendar

Here is the cover for Saul Steinberg's sixth Hallmark calendar dating from 1965. It is lifted shamelessly from Steve Frenkel's flickr photostream.

Saul Steinberg, 1965 Calendar

https://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_frenkel/7337463186/in/photostream/

And here are a few scans of pages inside the calendar:

Saul Steinberg, 1965 opposite title page

Saul Steinberg, May 1965

Saul Steinberg, August 1965

Saul Steinberg, December 1965

Note:  It would be good to see more of what's inside these calendars, no? In the meantime, my most recent posts about Saul Steinberg do have some at least a few images from his calendars.

Dr. Seuss was born on this day in 1904. Check out my blog posts on the good doctor.

I have a couple of posts about Purim, which is coming up at sundown on Wednesday.

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Saul Steinberg: The 1969 Calendar

Hallmark's final calendar by Saul Steinberg was published in 1969. This copy did not find a buyer after three weeks on eBay.

Saul Steinberg, 1969 Hallmark Calendar

Saul Steinberg, May1969

Saul Steinberg, 1969 Hallmark Calendar

Saul Steinberg, 1969 Hallmark Calendar

EBay Listing Ended February 20, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-The-American-Album-Calendar-13-Drawings-by-Steinberg-/201286486548?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2edd9c0a14&nma=true&si=MY%252BVlM1DDf4MNMNGGnCdh3m%252FHQQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Note:  There's more here to see by Saul Steinberg.

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