Milton Caniff: A Leprechaun

It's generally a good idea to avoid making unfounded assumptions, particularly online. Nevertheless, I would guess that a fan named Mike Mongan wrote to the popular comic strip artist Milton Caniff back in the day, and requested, perhaps, a souvenir. I further imagine he was not disappointed with the color artwork he received in reply. Whatever the story, though, the drawing of a winking leprechaun, pipe in mouth, seems a fitting work to bring out ahead of St. Patrick's Day. Caniff has embraced an unfortunate stereotype, and that leprechaun appears to be rather inebriated. What we have then is a smoking, winking, drinking leprechaun—or so I would assume.

Milton Caniff
AbeBooks listing accessed April 11, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Leprechaun-Sketch-Signed-CANIFF-MILTON/32177586780/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Milton Caniff
AbeBooks item description

05226

James Thurber: The Best Years

My maternal grandparents had separate beds like the ones in a 1935 James Thurber cartoon. I hope they didn't also have conversations like the one shown in the drawing which was just sold in Heritage Auction's Tuesday Illustration Art Signature sale. Thurber's caption underwent some considerable rewriting between his handwritten original and the drawing's appearance in The New Yorker. Was it thus improved upon? I'm not so sure.

"And after I've given you the best years of my life, too."
James Thurber
Original art
Published as "You've taken the best years of my life, that's what you've done!"
The New Yorker, March 23, 1935, p. 11
Thurber, James, and Rosen, Michael J., ed. People Have More Fun than Anybody: A Centennial Celebration of Drawings and Writings. Harcourt Brace, 1994

The woman's raised right arm is somewhat disturbing to me, as it articulates well below where the shoulder should be. But then, Thurber was no anatomist.

"And after I've given you the best years of my life, too."
James Thurber
Matted original art
Published as "You've taken the best years of my life, that's what you've done!"
The New Yorker, March 23, 1935, p. 11
Thurber, James, and Rosen, Michael J., ed. People Have More Fun than Anybody: A Centennial Celebration of Drawings and Writings. Harcourt Brace, 1994

James Thurber
Heritage Auctions, April 25, 2023

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/james-thurber-american-1894-1961-and-after-i-ve-given-the-best-years-of-my-life-too-ink-on-paper-8-3-8-x-10-7-8-inches-213/a/8114-71042.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Inventory-BuyNowFromOwner-ThisAuction-120115#auction-description

The lot sold for a $3,100 hammer price plus the 25% buyer's premium.

"You've taken the best years of my life, that's what you've done!"
James Thurber
The New Yorker, March 23, 1935, p. 11

"And after I've given you the best years of my life, too."
James Thurber
Original art
Published as "You've taken the best years of my life, that's what you've done!"
The New Yorker, March 23, 1935, p. 11
Thurber, James, and Rosen, Michael J., ed. People Have More Fun than Anybody: A Centennial Celebration of Drawings and Writings. Harcourt Brace, 1994

Cartoons by Alain (Daniel Brustlein) and James Thurber

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1935-03-23/flipbook/010/

What's wrong with the Alain caption? I bet I don't even need to tell you. Getting a laugh by stereotyping the Irish was a common practice back then. For the most part we rightfully condemn this sort of thing today, but it's important to also recognize how widespread the practice was—and how widely accepted. 

Note:  My thanks once again to New Yorker cartoonist and Ink Spill blogger Michael Maslin for his expert detective work in finding a nine-decade-old Thurber cartoon working from a caption that had been highly edited prior to publication.

I'm curious what others think about the two versions of the James Thurber caption seen here. As I indicated, I prefer the original, shorter, handwritten caption which has never before seen the light of day until this Heritage auction.

04304

E. Simms Campbell: Twofers?

...it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance...

—Macbeth, Act II, Scene 3

That, of course, is the Porter elucidating the effects of drink. The reveler in E. Simms Campbell's original cartoon would do well to recall Shakespeare's words as he orders "Two more quarts and two more hostesses!" Still, it must be to his credit that he prefers his female companions to be conscious.

Too many cartoons in this genre present women as commodities to be purchased. Many of the gags in Campbell's popular "Harem Girls" cartoons are overtly based on this suggestion. The humor here derives from drawing an unexpectedly apt parallel between ordering alcohol and ordering hostesses, and more specifically from the idea that a carouser could require refills on both.

We haven't seen too many originals that were actually labelled as such on the matte, but perhaps it's an idea whose time has come; so many eBay sellers can't seem to tell a print from an original. Happily that's not the case with Michelle of Hesse Fine Art, who very reasonably surmises that this original was probably done for Playboy or Esquire. We might be able to tell which by examining the art out of the frame, but who wants to risk harming a period matte that reads (Original).

A few details are worth noting. A screen in part separates this table from the rest of the dining area, affording some privacy. The color of the screen matches the color of the tablecloth in light, whereas the color of the slumping woman's dress matches the color of the tablecloth in shadow. The heads are placed along a straight line, and if one follows this line further there's the shadow of the waiter's head against the screen. The inebriated speaker's hair and his tie are equally disheveled. As if that weren't enough to reveal his condition, the speaker is drawn in the very act of knocking over the flowers.

E. Simms Campbell
"Two more quarts and two more hostesses!"
Original art

E. Simms Campbell
eBay Listing Ended February 24, 2018

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Watercolor-Elmer-E-Simms-Campbell-Painting-Illustration-1950s-Bar-/391981248465?hash=item5b43e72fd1%3Ag%3A3pYAAOSw4DxahH95&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

E. Simms Campbell
eBay Bid History
Ten days, eleven bidders, sixteen bids, and a retraction of a $4 bid. You can't make this up.
The bidding gets serious in the final 18 seconds.

Note:  Bottoms up! Attempted Bloggery is going to continue looking at the work of cartoonist E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971). Readers can help in this worthy cause by providing high-resolution scans or photographs of other original Campbell art or perhaps of obscure published works.

That keyword of mine that says published? refers to any post where the publication history is unknown or incomplete. If you can provide the publication name, date, and page number, I can get rid of that pesky keyword for you.

External Links:

E. Simms Campbell's Wikipedia Entry

E. Simms Campbell on Ink Spill

E. Simms Campbell in Christopher Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery 

E. Simms Campbell in Print: Insider Histories: Black Cartoonist E. Simms Campbell. Robert C. Harvey intervied by Michael Dooley. March 3, 2015

E. Simms Campbell on We Too Were Children, Mr. Barrie. October 6, 2012

E. Simms Campbell at American Art Archives

E. Simms Campbell on Eli Stein Cartoons.com:  "We All Have to Start Somewhere" Department. Case in Point No. 15. September 6, 2011

E. Simms Campbell in Potrzebie. October 10, 2007

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives

E. Simms Campbell

Esquire

Playboy

Attempted Bloggery's Clubby Index

Attempted Bloggery supports net neutrality.

02478

Peter Arno's Lost Horse—and Other Macy's Cocktail Napkins

A set of cocktail napkins designed by Peter Arno was offered on eBay in 2013. There are seven napkins here; presumably one has been lost. It seems a horse has been lost as well, but perhaps not irrecoverably. Both the drawing and the caption seem a bit simple, but the overall style is recognizably Arno's. Similar cocktail napkins were issued in other designs and colors, generally celebrating the aftereffects of alcohol.

"I've lost a horse! Have you seen a horse?"
Peter Arno cocktail napkin

"I've lost a horse! Have you seen a horse?"
Peter Arno cocktail napkins

A few others from the series were sold by an Etsy store.

Peter Arno assorted cocktail napkins

"Gad! Stop that screaming"
Peter Arno cocktail napkin

"An' now a dash o' bitters."
Peter Arno cocktail napkin 

"I've lost a horse! Have you seen a horse?"
Peter Arno cocktail napkin

April 11, 2023 Update:  For sale at Macy's in 1936 and advertised in The New Yorker:

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1936-12-05/flipbook/024/

May 12, 2024 Update:  More Macy's cocktail napkins in four of the five black on sea green designs were sold on eBay:

"Just one, Miss Fitch!"                   "I know when I've had enough."
"I've lost a horse! Have you seen a horse?"    "An' now a dash o' bitters."

Arno was the first cartoonist to depict the inebriated with X's for eyes:

Peter Arno's printed signature

A set of four from the same seller, not yet sold, remains on eBay. This set is missing "An' now a dash o' bitters" but it includes "Gad! Stop that screaming!" Thus two of the napkins from the presumptive original box of ten have been lost in the years since 1936.

"I know when I've had enough."       "Gad! Stop that screaming!"
"Just one, Miss Fitch!"      "I've lost a horse! Have you seen a horse?"

May 15, 2024 Update:  Sold!

Note:  An entirely different set of Peter Arno cocktail napkin designs, based on New Yorker cartoons, may be seen on Ink Spill.

Even if you haven't seen a horse, maybe you've seen these posts about Peter Arno.

Finally, don't miss Chris Wheeler's impeccable Arno archive.

01820