The Art of the Redraw: Leslie Starke, et al., From the Collection of Paul P. Goldberg

A group of ten postcards collected by Paul P. Goldberg and sold on eBay last month caught my notice because one of the ten cartoonists providing small sketches was Leslie Starke, whose work appeared in The New Yorker and Punch, among other publications. I mean no disrespect to the other nine cartoonists represented, but Starke's drawing was the only one of the lot which looked like a realized single panel cartoon. Could it be a redraw?

Starke's cartoon depicts a monk gazing into a lit fireplace and seeing demons. The central demon's face is unfortunately overprinted with a cancellation mark, a well-known potential hazard of mail art.

Starke's postcard has to be the one with UK postage added. Perhaps Goldberg mailed a self-addressed US postal card to some American publication in which he saw the cartoonist's work and the magazine forwarded it overseas.

Leslie Starke, et al.
eBay listing ended December 14, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176086792220?hash=item28ff97381c:g:oAgAAOSwAGRlcnlp

Leslie Starke, et al.
eBay item description

Leslie Starke, et al.
eBay bid history
Ten bidders go after ten autograph drawings with fifteen bids. The one who places the last bid wins it all.

Starke's sketch, it turns out, is indeed a quick redraw of a cartoon that may well have been published, only one can't easily determine where or when. The original drawing was sold on eBay and the sale is archived behind a paywall on Worthpoint. I wonder if Goldberg knew of the other version.

Sketch for Paul Goldberg

Leslie Starke's signature

Some important information may or may not have been removed from the backing.

Leslie Starke
Worthpoint archived eBay listing accessed January 24, 2024

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/monk-leslie-starke-original-comic-art-1863242860

Note:  Perhaps someone familiar with Leslie Starke's prodigious output will recognize the monk drawing and let us know where, if anywhere, it was published. Punch perhaps? If you know, please quote chapter and verse. 

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Charles Addams: Rarities

An original 1963 New Yorker cartoon by Charles Addams was sold in 2013 at Bonhams for $4750, a price that today seems like a coup for the buyer. Addams shows off his formidable ability to render convincing medieval architectural detail. He gives us a couple with an interest in rarities about to discover more than they bargained for. Addams had a gift for finding humor in the disturbing.

"It's an unusually rare fourteenth century manuscript, and over here I think we have the author."
Charle Addams
Original art published as:
"It's an unusually rare fourteenth-century manuscript, and over here we think we have the author."
The New Yorker, November 16, 1963, page 49

"It's an unusually rare fourteenth century manuscript, and over here I think we have the author."
Charles Addams
Original art published as:
"It's an unusually rare fourteenth-century manuscript, and over here we think we have the author."
The New Yorker, November 16, 1963, page 49

Charles Addams
Bonhams, New York, June 25, 2013

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20981/lot/3001/

"It's an unusually rare fourteenth century manuscript, and over here I think we have the author."
Charles Addams
Original art published as:
"It's an unusually rare fourteenth-century manuscript, and over here we think we have the author."
The New Yorker, November 16, 1963, page 49

A spot drawing by Henry Martin and a cartoon by Charles Addams

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1963-11-16/flipbook/048/

Henry Martin

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