Jacques Louis David's Copy of Color and Light by James Gurney

Color and Light:  A Guide for the Realist Painter is Dinotopia author James Gurney's 2010 art instruction book, the follow up volume to Imaginative Realism. Naturally, Gurney brought copies of it with him to the artists's gathering Baby Tattooville's Fifth Anniversary Celebration in 2011 and personalized a number of them. This is the story of one of those books.

Bladesmith (and, let me repeat, not French neoclassical painter) Jacques Louis David is the recipient of this personalized book. Gurney's wonderful drawing of a dinosaur riding a bicycle is just what any devotee of realist painting would want to see. In David's copy of the book, Gurney reassures him that "It's OK to be a dinosaur." Let this blog be a testament to that.

The signed book, with its drawing, was sold last year on AbeBooks.

James Gurney
AbeBooks listing accessed November 2, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/SIGNED-Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/32333976245/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook#&gid=1&pid=2h

James Gurney
AbeBooks item description

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Jacques Louis David's Copy of Imaginative Realism by James Gurney

Imaginative Realism:  How to Paint What Doesn't Exist is Dinotopia creator James Gurney's 2009 art instruction manual. Gurney teaches how to ground one's fantasy art in seeming reality, something he himself excels at. It is the first of two volumes. Did he have copies of this book with him at Baby Tattooville in 2011? Why, yes, he did, thanks for asking.

Jacques Louis David, it will be remembered from yesterday's post, is the unhyphenated Hollywood bladesmith and not the hyphenated painter friend of Marat, so don't go accusing me of committing any anachronisms. Gurney's dinosaur drawing in David's copy of the book is full of great lettering and imaginative . . . mischief.

This copy of the book was sold last year by Book_Mob on AbeBooks.

James Gurney
AbeBooks listing accessed November 2, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/SIGNED-Imaginative-Realism-Paint-What-Exist/32333978879/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook_low

James Gurney
AbeBooks item description

05213

Jacques Louis David's Copy of Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara by James Gurney

Dinotopia:  Journey to Chandara (2007) is the fourth book in James Gurney's Dinotopia series. An interesting copy was sold last year by Book_Mob of Santa Clarita.

At the artist gathering Baby Tattooville in 2011, Gurney met Jacques Louis David, not the hyphenated 18th century painter of The Death of Marat but a 21st century bladesmith whom he painted in profile. David posed wearing a pair of steampunk goggles made by his employer, Hollywood armorer Tony Swatton, that Gurney then borrowed for his own profile picture. Thus Gurney's drawing in David's copy of Journey to Chandara includes steampunk-inspired fantastical contraptions in the guise of a "cave exploration suit for a T. rex."

James Gurney
AbeBooks listing accessed November 2, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/SIGNED-Dinotopia-Journey-Chandara-Gurney-James/32333979854/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook_high

James Gurney
AbeBooks item description

05212

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #872

Two well-dressed Brontosauruses are out at a nice dinner. Or are they two Apatosauruses? Sauropod taxonomists can have a field day withThe New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #872 from the issue of October 30, 2023. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Tom Toro.

"How can we be sure it's plant-based?"

 

November 11, 2023 Update:  The Finalists

November 13, 2023 Update:  I voted for the caption from Novato.

November 23, 2023 Update:  The Winner

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Charles Addams: On the Run

A work of original Charles Addams art was sold this past weekend at Heritage Auctions. A man is seen running frantically across a lawn and the neighbors out raking the autumn leaves believe they know what that means.

"I'll bet he wants to borrow something."
Charles Addams
Original art
Out of This World, November 6, 1955, The McClure Syndicate
Nightcrawlers, 1957

It is not, as the auction house listing states, an "illustration" and it is not from The New Yorker. The drawing is actually a single-panel cartoon for Out of This World distributed by the McClure syndicate to newspapers for the date November 6, 1955. Two years later it was collected in the Addams book Nightcrawlers. The caption was not initially identified by Heritage, but the auction house located it before the sale—and very nearly got it right. I've provided the caption here exactly as it appears on page 86 of Nightcrawlers.

"I'll bet he wants to borrow something."
Charles Addams
Original art
Out of This World, November 6, 1955, The McClure Syndicate
Nightcrawlers, 1957

Starting the bidding early and low encourages bidder interest.

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions listing accessed August 28, 2023, twenty days before the sale

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/charles-addams-the-new-yorker-illustration-original-art-new-yorker-1955-/a/7341-95007.s?ic4=MyRecommendationsItem-071515

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions item description accessed August 28, 2023

The description was modified by the time of  the sale to add the (slightly incorrect) caption.

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions item description accessed September 16, 2023

Bidding as of August 28, 2023, twenty days before the auction

The final sale price was an even $10,000 plus the $2,000 buyer's premium:

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions listing at the close of bidding on September 17, 2023

The drawing, as it appears in Nightcrawlers, is cropped on both sides, eliminating the head of the rake on the left and most of the house over the hill on the extreme right. As a result the woman and the running man are at the very edges of the image. Not surprisingly, the composition works better as Addams originally drew it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115672404809?hash=item1aee9cd349:g:HDYAAOSwjSZjwcZY&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwNv%2FaQYkkasurSBCbIOeWRL
t2Kf3SHokdMeMMvQoENzi10Lu61gU4Ac3K15re8u4cV7iT80efn8ZYaXBLjF8HqmFSMoPtqAzlLI3bkw5ydxdWxy8PJf2O%2BUwrTLlAF%2
BKndIp2JN3EKFQtDLq9rlleJ8WMN4iDbgOHlKbvriH8RMKW2ChCNK7RKqiZ2PFO6KznXOqrGCx8HNYFEtWyO7%2FkkbgaEm7NJib
sU0YOGWBa9ed99hYtPo0dcVXCCbD5%2B600g%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_ztyobWYg

September 23, 2023 Update:  Blog reader and contributor David from Manhattan informs me that this piece was offered by Taraba Illustration Art back in 2019. Fred Taraba had the correct caption and knew where the cartoon was first published, so it's strange that this basic information wasn't passed along to Heritage. In 2019, the artwork's appearance was considerably different:

"I'll bet he wants to borrow something."
Charles Addams
Unrestored original art
Out of This World, November 6, 1955, The McClure Syndicate
Nightcrawlers, 1957

The paper has since undergone considerable restoration as was suggested by Fred Taraba in his listing and the overall look of the piece is now markedly improved. Some of the printer's pencil markings may have been removed as well. I've decided to give this conservation work my seal of approval, because the art can now be displayed fully as Addams drew it without the distracting rubber cement residue on either side of the crop lines. While I am unaware of the cost of the paper conservation, it appears to me the Heritage seller was perilously close to the break-even point.

Note:  There's a lot of outstanding original Charles Addams art out there. Send me images of what you've got and I just might dedicate a future blog post to it. Maybe I'll even let you borrow something. 

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Richard Oldden: Artist and Dinosaur

Two of the original cartoons by Richard Oldden recently offered for sale on eBay had been published in The New Yorker. They were both included in one lot and generated greater bidder interest than the other groupings of four cartoons from unknown publications. These drawings were published in 1969 and 1971. They depict moments of inspiration as experienced by dinosaur and artist. Neither has a caption but one has an unlikely thought bubble.

Versos with stamps and markings from the artist and from The New Yorker

Richard Oldden
eBay listing ended May 6, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374666199022?hash=item573bd87fee%3Ag%3AkpIAAOSw1XBkTawb&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwD5yWiArlcVN3dhbYucesmqZWQ3Jha95BUI2QBicXZkYn7huY0RPnTIgI5LVdEs93ohVHbjut577qfPkO%2BN8t1aHXfW1gNSg%2B%2FNd4E5gcrikdL8ULmrTAwS8mZmEE9JHbpEKxgYcdcTledKkAtJqBIH

NJhykHNMyMpFZ5fKZEMpbKoajY3A9eHXZrro%2FvCrK6w3G36NK%2FuIlogwDkbMHCSUp2Kt1KpO5W1%2Bt%2Fivb%2FFrPwe74Hb1T22q0a9nGiH9jtg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-KjnKeEYg&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Richard Oldden
eBay item description

Richard Oldden
eBay bid history
Six bidders place a total of ten bids and, as we so often see, the last bid wins.

Richard Oldden
The New Yorker, November 8, 1969, p. 203

Richard Oldden
Original art
The New Yorker, November 8, 1969, p. 203

A spot drawing by Chon Day and a cartoon by Richard Oldden

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1969-11-08/flipbook/202/

Richard Oldden
The New Yorker, March 20, 1971, p. 44

Richard Oldden
Original art
The New Yorker, March 20, 1971, p. 44

Cartoons by Richard Oldden and Robert Day

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1971-03-20/flipbook/044/

Note:  Over the past six days I've posted twenty-two cartoon originals by Dick Oldden. Most likely all of them were submitted to The New Yorker but only the two in today's post were published there. So how did the magazine do? Did they select the funniest cartoons? The cleverest? Your opinions welcome.

Addendum:  Chon Day's reader wears a bow tie!

Reader spot
Chon Day
The New Yorker, November 8, 1969, p. 203

Robert Day's cartoon isn't quite so funny if what it shows ever happens to you.

"Hey! Isn't that ours?"

Robert Day

The New Yorker, March 20, 1971, p. 45

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