My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #991

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #991 from the issue of May 25, 2026, a castle is under siege. One of the warriors, sword in hand, does a ballet leap above the battle. Up in the turret, one of the castle's defenders speaks. My submission is shown below. The drawing is by Hartley Lin.

"That's another way to keep above the fray."

I don't think this one quite works:

"They said to prepare for battle, but he's dyslexic."

June 7, 2026 Update:  The Finalists

June 13, 2016 Update:  I voted for the caption from Boston. 

June 21, 2026 Update:  The Winner

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Ronald Searle: Interests

A man and a women are dancing together in an unseen ballroom, barely moving actually, while the man's attention is focused instead on the day's newspaper. His partner's face is hidden from us. Ronald Searle's droll drawing Interests, sold at auction on July 20 in Spain, could certainly be read as a comment on the emotional distance between men and women. It could also be read as an acknowledgment that the postwar world was changing faster than the British aristocracy could keep up with it. The cartoon is clearly related to a series of formal dance cartoons that appeared in Merry England, etc., Searle's 1956 collection published by his imprint Perpetua. Therefore it very likely dates to 1954 or 1955. Searle would occasionally return to the subject of men lost in mundane newspaper headlines while there are better things to be appreciated, notably in a 1974 cover for The New Yorker.

Ronald Searle
Goya Subastas Listing Accessed July 19, 2020

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ronald-searle-england-1920-2011-interests-179-c-bda40df9d9?rfa=true

Ronald Searle

Merry England, etc. Perpetua, 1956

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Merry-England-Etc-RONALD-SEARLE-1956-1st-Edition-/264757539173?hash=item3da4c77165%3Ag%3Ac64AAOSwrZVe3mP2&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Merry England, etc. Perpetua, 1956

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30196013717&searchurl=an%3Dronald%2Bsearle%26fe%3Don%26sortby%3D20%26tn%3Dmerry%2Bengland%2Betc&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image2#&gid=1&pid=2

from Merry England, etc. Perpetua, 1956

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Merry-England-Etc-RONALD-SEARLE-1956-1st-Edition-/264757539173?hash=item3da4c77165%3Ag%3Ac64AAOSwrZVe3mP2&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ronald Searle
The New Yorker, March 18, 1974

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1974-03-18/flipbook/CV1/

May 7, 2022 Update:  Searle returned to the formal dance motif in a 1975 lithograph, Whatever Happened to the Romanoffs? Searle is widely know for his cat drawings, but here it is a dog that provides the perfect musical accompaniment to a romanticized fantasy that never was. This is #44 from the edition of 99:

Ronald Searle
Whatever Happened to the Romanoffs?
Edition of 99, 1975

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/Ronald-William-Fordham-Searle-CBE,-RDI-British-438-c-A3C4D95A6C?utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=artistalerts&utm_content=default

Note:  This year is Ronald Searle's centenary. It's unclear whether 2020 will be remembered for anything else.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

Dancing

Attempted Bloggery's Well-Read Index

03338

Dancers: Etchings by Garrett Price

Six rarely-seen etchings of dancers by Garrett Price, two of them duplicates, were sold in February by Rachel Davis Fine Arts. The price: $30.

Dancers
Etchings by Garrett Price

Garrett Price pencil signature

Garrett Price
eBay Listing Ended February 11, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Garrett-Price-6-etchings-Lot-290-/152420099175?hash=item237cf22467%3Ag%3AM5EAAOSwjDZYkqVr&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Garrett Price
eBay Item Description

eBay Bid History
It takes one bidder three bids to reach the starting price.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Garrett Price

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Dance

Tax Day

Attempted Bloggery's Side-Stepping Index

02159

Peter Arno: Once a Year~The Mid

The stag at eve had drunk his fill, Where danced the moon on Monan’s rill, And deep his midnight lair had made In lone Glenartney’s hazel shade; But, when the sun his beacon red Had kindled on Benvoirlich’s head, The deep-mouthed bloodhound’s heavy bay Resounded up the rocky way, And faint, from farther distance borne, Were heard the clanging hoof and horn. —Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake, Canto 1

These lines by Sir Walter Scott were at one time part and parcel of a good education. Peter Arno, back when he was still known as Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr., was familiar with them when he attended the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. At age 17 in 1921, he created a full page, six-panel illustration for a school publication, possibly The Mischianza, the school's yearbook. Entitled Once a Year~The Mid (short for the midterm dance), Arno shows off his budding command of illustration and his—shall we call it sophomoric?—sense of humor. Thus the panel titled "The stag at eve had drunk his fill, etc." is set at the punch bowl table. "The last belle for breakfast" is a verbal and visual pun on the school breakfast bell. "Divine Services," has the two sexes distractedly eying each other in chapel, a focus that would serve Arno well for his entire cartooning career.

It's a nice energetic piece reminiscent of the mainstream illustration of the time. It's still a work of juvenilia though and probably shouldn't be offered at a price commensurate with that of the artist's later classic New Yorker work.

Peter Arno, Once a Year~The Mid, 1921

AbeBooks Listing as of November 19, 2016

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=574388564&searchurl=bx%3Don%26tn%3D%2522original%2Bart%2522%2Bor%2B%2522original%2Bpainting%2522%2Bor%2B%2522original%2Bwatercolor%2522%2Bor%2B%2522original%2Bwatercolour%2522%2Bor%2B%2522original%2Bsketch%2522%26sortby%3D1%26n%3D201000221

Item Description

Peter Arno, Once a Year~The Mid, 1921

Note:  This artwork is reproduced in Michael Maslin's biography Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist, New York: Regan Arts, 2016, p. 13.

Speaking of Michael Maslin, he was kind enough to mention my post "Peter Arno: Wedding Belle" on the Ink Spill blog.

Attempted Bloggery's quick links:

Peter Arno

Yearbooks

A Drawing by the 10-Year-Old Charles Addams

Attempted Bloggery's Truly Sophomoric  Index

02021

Patrick McDonnell's Dancing Frankenstein

This lively, original artwork by Patrick McDonnell of a dancing Frankenstein monster will be sold at auction Wednesday evening. The auction will take place at BookExpo America in New York.

Patrick McDonnell, Original Artwork

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/silent-auction/sets/72157633528373545/

Image added May 30, 2013 
http://abffesilentauction.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/event-program-2013.pdf

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