Bork! The Onomatopoetic George Booth

Two sequential gags—one in five panels and another in six—share a frame in the show "George Booth—A Cartoonist's Life" now on view at the Society of Illustrators. The exhibition is curated by animator J. J. Sedelmaier who knows a thing or two about how images work in sequence. On the right, one of George Booth's signature English Bull Terriers lets us know what it thinks of the cat's bowl in six panels. On the left, a caveman grabs a quick bite in five panels, including one gurgly sound effect and one very short punch line. That sound effect—BORK!—is fairly unusual in the cartoon repertory. Bork seems like a newly-coined example of onomatopoeia, one of those words, like beep or boom, whose sound imitates the thing it describes.

George Booth
"Fast Food!" and Dog Eating Cat's Bowl

But, not so fast. What if Bork isn't merely a random sound effect? What if it's also... a name? Could the caveman's satisfied eructation be something more insidious, a politically-charged hand grenade masquerading as a silly cartoon sound effect? What if Mr. Booth had submitted this cartoon to The New Yorker back in 1987 when President Reagan made Robert Bork his very controversial Supreme Court nominee? What then?

No way, you say. We're talking about The New Yorker, the apogee of urbane wit and sophistication. That magazine would never permit a Supreme Court nominee's name to appear in a cartoon as a base sound effect.

Ah, innocent reader! If only that were so...

Robert Weber
The New Yorker, October 5, 1987, page 33

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1987-10-05#folio=032

Note:  After the United States Senate rejected conservative Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court, liberal Justice Lewis Powell's seat went to Judge Anthony Kennedy. Robert Bork died in 2012.

Tonight the Society of Illustrators in New York will host "An Evening with George Booth." Tickets are available online. Come see the exhibition and hear what Mr. Booth has to say. Maybe he'll discourse on Constitutional originalism and caveman cartoons, but I doubt it. "George Booth—A Cartoonist's Life" will remain on view at the Society of Illustrators through December 30, 2017.

The original art shown in this post is part of the George Booth Collection via the Society of Illustrators. I'm always looking for scans or photos of original art by this one-of-a-kind cartoonist. Rare published cartoons are welcome too. Bork!


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National Library Week: Ronald Searle

What's that? It's National Library Week already?
Last year for National Library Week I attempted to get together a nice selection of artists, then found I had more material by Ronald Searle than anyone else. This year I'm putting together a much smaller selection, but to be consistent I'll start with some Searle artwork anyway. Look, it's what I do, and I make no pretense of objectivity in any of my choices.

This photograph of original artwork from the over-hyphenated Wilhelm-Busch-Museum was given the reasonable but incorrect title Onomatopoeia on the microblogging platform on which it appeared last September. The author and photographer was someone who preferred to be known by the tongue-twisting name MissMuthichcreamhilled and who has since vanished without a trace. Maybe that's a good thing. What's not good is that the image also has disappeared from the site that was hosting it, one of the more annoying things about the internet. Fortunately I saved a copy for you. You're welcome.

The cartoon is set in a personal library, which actually is the preferred subject for all my posts during National Library Week, even though that's not what we're supposed to be celebrating. Hey, it's my blog, all right?

The drawing, which actually goes by the title Vroomp!!! Crrakk!! Zok!!!—you know, some days I marvel at what I actually end up putting out there for general consumption—was reproduced in Searle's 1968 collection The Square Egg. He or his wife Monica sometimes set aside drawings of his that contained adorable mice and this became part of her personal collection. The Searles later donated their personal holdings to the Wilhelm-Busch-Museum in Hannover. Do you see how we've come full circle here?

Oh, did I forget to mention that this drawing is delightful?

Onomatopoeia by Ronald Searle 

zu sehen im Wilhelm-Busch-Museum Hannover

Photo and post on mobypicture.com by MissMuthichcreamhilled

http://www.mobypicture.com/user/creamhilled/view/13765052

OK, that's how MissMuthichcreamhilled did it. This is how I would do it:

Vroomp!!! Crrakk!! Zok!!! (1966)
Ronald Searle,
Pen and wash, 35.2 x 49.1 Collection Monica Searle
Le Figaro Littéraire, October 20, 1966
and
The Square Egg & The Vicious Circle (1968), Page 15
Ronald Searle (1973) Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Catalogue number 153
Searle & Searle (2001), Catalogue number 16, page 39

http://www.mobypicture.com/user/creamhilled/view/13765052

Ronald Searle (1973) Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Catalogue Number 153 (as Vroomp! Crrakk! Zok!)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ronald-Searle-1973-Cabinet-des-Estampes-Bibliotheque-National-Paris-/290951330292?pt=Antiquarian_Books_UK&hash=i

tem43be0cf9f4&nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

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