Cancer Vixen Signed by Marisa Acocella Marchetto

Cancer Vixen is author Marisa Acocella Marchetto's signature work. I now have a copy of the paperback edition signed and inscribed by the cartoonist. It's official:  She is the first author to refer to me in an inscription as "Doc Nad." I can't imagine why she thinks that's my name. She has also drawn a high-heeled shoe, something of a trademark for the fashionable cartoonist.

Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Cancer Vixen, 2006

Signed and inscribed to "Doc Nad" of all people, with a drawing of a shoe

My copy is the softcover edition. A signed copy of the hardcover edition  is currently available on eBay.

Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Cancer Vixen, 2006

Signed with a drawing of a shoe

EBay Listing Copied October 4, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-CANCER-VIXEN-NEW-YORKER-CARTOONIST-MARISA-ACOCELLA-SIGNED-UNREAD-BOOK-/391275328196?hash=item5b19d3b2c4

EBay Item Description

EBay Item Description, Continued

Another exampe a page from an autograph album recently sold on eBay. You get the idea.

Marisa Acocella Marchetto's autograph and shoe drawing

EBay Listing Ended July 27, 2015http://www.ebay.com/itm/Marisa-Acocella-Marchetto-ORIGINAL-hand-signed-A5-autograph-page-/291519635245?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43dfec9f2d&nma=true&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

EBay Bid History.  One bid.

Note:  There is another post in the archives about Marisa Acocella Marchetto. She was also at the The Best of the Rejection Collection Event.

There are also a lot more signed books with original drawings.

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Attempted Blogger

I'm privileged to write this blog, Attempted Bloggery, and to be active on Twitter, but that does not make my Twitter handle Attempted Blogger. That honor goes to someone else, someone unrelated to me or to my blog's activities in the cultural landscape. Attempted Blogger writes about many things, including pizza and pizza box design. The individual is, I believe, Lena Webb, and her blog is called The Lower Crust. She has been on Twitter since April of 2011, a couple of months before this blog was realized, although I can't be sure she used the same name from the start.

I myself don't spend a lot of time on the topic of pizza box design, but as it happens I was recently struck by one particular box and I photographed it for the ages. I don't believe The Lower Crust's readers have seen it yet:

Pizza box

This blog is written under the name of docnad, of course, and my personal Twitter account is @doc_nad. Why the underscore, you ask? Well, the name @docnad on Twitter already has been taken by a generally inactive account started in March 2009 which now has a grand total of five followers and four tweets to its name. So it goes.

Note:  I am present on various social media but I don't necessarily know what to do with them. Far more people follow these accounts than follow my blog. Join them if you must...

Follow me on Google+.

Follow me on Instagram.
See what folks have posted on Pinterest.

Follow me on Tumblr.

Follow me on Twitter.

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New to Instagram

I have a new Instagram account which I just learned how to use. While I'm not much of a photographer, what I do snap looks much better with this application.

I don't think this account will have very much to do with Attempted Bloggery, but who knows? My Twitter account, on the other hand, should keep you up to date on both this blog and the Instagram account.

My photo of the Verrazano Bridge on Instagram

Note: You can follow me on Instagram here.

Follow me on Twitter here.

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Jack Ziegler Doesn't Draw Henry

Cartoonist Jack Ziegler doesn't draw "Henry." Hey, don't take my word for it:

Jack Ziegler, "I Don't Draw 'Henry.'"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JACK-ZIEGLER-hand-drawn-hand-SIGNED-sketch-/321113838659?nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

So who does draw "Henry?" How about Don Trachte?

Don Trachte, Henry, Inscribed "All the Best from Henry + Don Trachte"

http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1059&lotNo=504#Photo

But then what is Henry painting?

Jack Ziegler, "I Don't Draw 'Henry.'"

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Attempted Bloggery: Two Years and Counting

It was two years ago today that I unleashed my spanking new blog on an unsuspecting world. Beforehand, I had produced no trial posts and I had no master plan. I just began doing it and I suppose that was a good enough approach for me. The very earliest posts here are perhaps a little bit clunkier than what I'm creating now, but the overall taste and temperament of the blog haven't changed very much because my taste and temperament haven't changed very much. In fact, I still like the same stuff I liked in the 1970's.

Over these two years I have produced, on average, slightly more than one post per day, for a running total of 785. Although I have only a scant 20 public followers, there have been over 225,000 page views since inception, and that number is currently growing by about 10,000 a month. For a blog that's anything but universal in its appeal, that seems to me to be a pretty reasonable number. Of course, I'd always be pleased to have more readers. In fact, most nights I go to bed wondering whether tomorrow will be the day this blog finally goes viral.

Even without that, I'm having a pretty good time here. Do you know what I love about blogging? I love not having an editor! Anyone who has read, for example, my New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest entries has to be aware that I don't have proper supervision. I'm the only boss here. There is no imperious blog committee urging me to push things in a new and more popular direction. With obscurity comes freedom.

My blog, then, reflects my freedom to write pretty much whatever I want. One thing that I have been astonished by is the reaction of the Chinese people, who as far as I can tell have no pressing reason whatsoever to visit this blog. Nevertheless, they have been coming in droves--well, very small droves--and despite an authoritarian government placing harsh restrictions on internet access, many have exercised a new-found freedom to bypass central censorship by coming here, of all places. Over the past month, China very briefly placed sixth here among page views by country before lapsing back to seventh place behind Canada. I find that remarkably refreshing and encouraging even though I don't fully understand it.

So what does the future hold? I can't really say. After all, I didn't know I'd be entering The New Yorker's Cartoon Caption Contest until I actually tried it back in April and decided to go public with my unlikely efforts. It really wasn't planned.

What I do anticipate is relocating Blog Central to a suburban refuge, but I don't yet have a clue in what fashion this will alter the content of my blogging. I certainly don't expect to compose any posts with useful tips on outdoor grilling, but who knows? We shall see together, won't we?

Note:  You can read my very first blog post here. See how it all got started.

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The Alliterative Jack Ziegler

When my children bring up the contemporary cultural phenomenon Zombie Apocalypse, I point out to them that it is the repetition of the o sounds in both words that gives this particular phrase its resonance and makes it memorable. The repetition of vowel sounds is called assonance and is a type of alliteration.

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon terrorist bombings, the phrase Boston Strong has come to be used quite often as a rallying cry. It is a noble pairing of words, simple and eloquent, relying on the repetition of the o sound for its power and dignity.

There are two types of alliteration, one with repetition of consonant sounds and one with repetition of vowel sounds. Consonance is obvious to the ear ("March Madness") and can be very catchy. It is also easily overdone, e.g., Spiro Agnew's famous "nattering nabobs of negativism" penned by speechwriter William Safire. Assonance generally is more subtle but can still make phrases remarkably compelling.

Cartoonist Jack Ziegler makes excellent use of assonance with the very memorable words Hamburger Madness. Note the repeated a sounds. These words were first used by Ziegler in a gag cartoon but were just too good not to became a book title. This copy of Hamburger Madness with an original drawing is in my collection. It sounds good, it looks good, and I bet the burger tastes good too. Take that, Zombie Apocalypse!

Jack Ziegler, Hamburger Madness, 1978

Jack Ziegler, Hamburger Madness, 1978
Signed and Inscribed with Original Drawing

Note:  Look, I can't collect everything myself. If you are lucky enough to have a book with an original drawing by a New Yorker artist and would like to share it with the world right here on this very blog, please contact me.

0712

Out-Drawn by Kenneth Mahood

Back in 1990, I submitted a half-batch of original cartoons to the New Yorker. They were, I freely admit, not very good, and they were returned to me quite speedily and efficiently and without undo ceremony. I don't believe I kept my rejection letter, but who knows? I have not felt tempted, over the past 23 years, to try again, but the experience nevertheless gave me, some months later, the tantalizing sense that I may not have been all that far off in one of my efforts.

During the 1980's the stock market had shot up dramatically, and people were beginning to get the unrealistic sense that prosperity was going to continue unabated forever. My idea was to liken this attitude to that of the dinosaurs shortly before they became extinct. Totally original and hilarious, right? Maybe not. Well, anyway, this is what I came up with:

"To the glorious Jurassic period!  May it last forever!"
September 11, 1990

Notice that nothing in my caption or my drawing indicates that the subject matter is the economy. I was apparently counting on the viewer to be able to read my mind in order to get the joke. I had the self-assurance of youth that others' brain waves would be totally in synch with my own and that it wasn't necessary for me to clarify my brilliant social commentary in the slightest.

Of course, even if I had refined the caption to make it clear that I was referring to the soaring market, there was no guarantee that anything drawn this crudely could ever be published in The New Yorker. The anachronistic lifeboat (get it?) and champagne aren't necessarily the sort of things the magazine's editors find endearing. As with any of my dinosaur drawings, identifying the precise species they belong to is challenging, to say the least. This cartoon was a long way off the mark, and it's fruitless to speculate now whether fixing any or all of its flaws could have altered its fate.

The thing that tantalizes me to this day, though, is that Canadian cartoonist Kenneth Mahood had a similar idea, and a few months later he had it published in the magazine. Unlike me, he seems to have gotten everything right in his cartoon The Age of Innocence! Mahood's word balloon discusses the ecology before going on to the food supply and only then the economy:"...we've got inflation licked"--no ambiguity there, and finally "...we can go on like this forever!" which drives home the point of their shortsightedness. In my caption, I seem only to have gotten the word forever correct.

Kenneth Mahood, The Age of Innocence
The New Yorker, December 24, 1990, page 44

Kenneth Mahood, The Age of Innocence
The New Yorker, December 24, 1990, page 44

Note:  So while I've been leaving the cartooning to the cartoonists, from time to time I have used this blog to publish examples of how the great illustrators run rings around me. It doesn't really bother me because I know I have only limited talent in this area and my amateur status seems to suit me quite well. You can see examples of how I have been stunningly out-drawn by James Gurney here and by Dr. Seuss here.

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Richard Taylor's Wrong Bag

The original artwork to Richard Taylor's 1959 Wrong Bag cartoon was sold on eBay in June. I don't usually go in for medical humor, particularly humor making fun of doctor's incomes, but this one I happen to like. The 1961 cartoon collection R. Taylor's Wrong Bag derives its name from this classic cartoon.

Many gags of this era mocked physicians for their wealth, but note that the doctor is making a house call, something that today is nearly nonexistent. No doubt Taylor and others thought that financial remuneration was a good reason for going to medical school. In tomorrow's post, I'll set the record straight by showing an even better reason to attend medical school.

"Pshaw!  I grabbed the wrong  bag."
Richard Taylor, Original Artwork for The New Yorker, September 19, 1959, Page 35
R. Taylor's Wrong Bag. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961, Page 5

"Pshaw!  I grabbed the wrong  bag."
Richard Taylor, Original Artwork for The New Yorker, September 19, 1959, Page 35
 R. Taylor's Wrong Bag. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961, Page 5

R. Taylor's Signature

Doctor Detail

Patient Detail

Doctor Detail

Patient Detail

Richard Taylor's Wrong Bag eBay Item Description

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230800807344?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_574wt_1413

[End of eBay Listing]

My Battered Copy of R. Taylor's Wrong Bag (1961) Cover

R. Taylor's Wrong Bag (1961) Back Cover

http://hairygreeneyeball2.blogspot.com/2010/06/r-taylors-wrong-bag.html

The back cover illustration was originally a cartoon in The New Yorker.

Richard Taylor, "The poor dear was one of the world's greatest big-game hunters until

the Gaekwar of Baroda mistook him for a water buffalo."
The New Yorker, February 18, 1956, Page 31

Image added May 9, 2013

R. Taylor's Wrong Bag, Page 5

http://hairygreeneyeball2.blogspot.com/2010/06/r-taylors-wrong-bag.html

Richard Taylor, "Pshaw!  I grabbed the wrong bag"
The New Yorker, September 19, 1959, Page 35

Richard Taylor, "Pshaw!  I grabbed the wrong bag"
The New Yorker, September 19, 1959, Page 35

"Pshaw!  I grabbed the wrong  bag."
Richard Taylor, Original Artwork for The New Yorker, September 19, 1959, Page 35
 R. Taylor's Wrong Bag. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961, Page 5

March 27, 2016 Update:  The discovery of a cartoon by Irwin Caplan very similar to this one  has led me to write a new post revisiting this cartoon.

0628

Blog Post No. 600: What I Do When I'm Not Blogging

Welcome to my 600th blog post. I think I've earned the right to pretend I know what I'm doing.

To date, this blog has had some 180,000 page views, which averages out to 300 views per post, or approximately one page view per post per day in aggregate. That's mildly interesting mathematically, but it isn't at all the way the distribution really works. Some posts are extremely popular and many I'm sorry to say are not. I'm the last to know which posts will prove to be a hit, but I think it's safe to say this will never be one of them.

Nevertheless, I can't resist the urge to publish just one little example of my own amateur doodling, which is what I do when I'm not working and not blogging, which is to say very rarely. This is the third time I've published one of my drawings here and it's the most rudimentary example yet. It's not here because I think it belongs here or is any good, but rather because I get a kick out of posting it alongside the likes of the world-class artists who typically appear on this blog. Take that, Rembrandt!

600

The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse

I took this photo of the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse this morning, hoping to take advantage of the foggy weather.

The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse

May 15, 2013 Update: The tree in the foreground has been cut down. It was on the grounds of Gracie Mansion.

0581

George Booth's New Procedures

Just what the doctor ordered, here is cartoonist George Booth's decidedly retro take on the latest medical technology. Mr. Booth, as you can see, also mastered cut-and-paste technology back when you had to do it by hand with paper and scissors.

George Booth, "Doctor Lillywall has authorized new procedures."
Original Artwork for The New Yorker, 1994

George Booth, "Doctor Lillywall has authorized new procedures."
Original Artwork for The New Yorker, 1994

George Booth, "Doctor Lillywall has authorized new procedures."
Reverse of Original Artwork, The New Yorker, 1994

George Booth, "Doctor Lillywall has authorized new procedures."
Backing, The New Yorker, 1994

George Booth, eBay Winning Bid

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/George-Booth-Original-Cartoon-The-New-Yorker-Magazine-1994-/271120912414?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f2010d01e&nma=true&si=VJo29%2F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%2FkT80%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

George Booth, eBay Item Description

http://www.ebay.com/itm/George-Booth-Original-Cartoon-The-New-Yorker-Magazine-1994-/271120912414?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f2010d01e&nma=true&si=VJo29%2F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%2FkT80%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

January 27, 2012 Update:  Despite repeated attempts, I am unable to ascertain any publication history for this cartoon.

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