Vaughn Bodé: Real Time Truth

Steven D. Brewer reports purchasing a pencil rough to Vaughn Bodé's "Real Time Truth" at the Words & Pictures Museum of Fine Sequential Art back around 1999. That would be close to the time the museum was to close its doors forever. Bodé's preliminary art does not include narrative text or dialogue; he must have worked that out elsewhere. The abbreviation DBE stands for Deadbone Erotica.

Vaughn Bodé
"Real Time Truth"
Preliminary art
Cavalier, December 1971, page 55

Scan by Steven D. Brewer

https://images.bierfaristo.com/view.php?p=16108326721614

Vaughn Bodé
"Real Time Truth"
Cavalier, December 1971, page 55

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cavalier-magazine-dec-1971-vaughn-903719315

Vaughn Bodé
"Bail Out"
Cavalier, December 1971, page 56

Vaughn Bodé
"Love is Thee"
Cavalier, December 1971, page 57

Cavalier, December 1971

Note:  My thanks to Steven D. Brewer for providing the scan of Bodé's original rough. This is his first contribution to this blog. A Cheech Wizard hats off to Steven!

Obviously, I could use higher resolution scans of the published Bodé art. If anyone has a copy of the December 1971 Cavalier under the bed and a working scanner, please think of me.

My understanding is that real time as an adjective was not written as one word back in 1971. Clearly Bodé didn't intend it to be hyphenated either, so I've left it as two separate words.

Would I be willing to accept scans of other Vaughn Bodé original art for this blog? You have to ask?

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Ronald Searle's China Shop

In 1977, Ronald Searle published Zoodiac, a series of full-color illustrations, a different animal appearing on two facing pages for each sign of the zodiac. The illustrations were all created specifically for the book and are among the funniest and most technically-brilliant ever created by the artist. It could have been Searle's last word on the subject—but it wasn't.

More than twenty years later, Searle revisited the same territory—one full-color, full-page illustration of an animal for each sign of the zodiac—and the series appeared in Town and Country magazine. In the case of Taurus in the China Shop, we can now compare the original magazine art published in 1998 with an alternative version offered last month at Sotheby's London. The published version of the art has a more physically-active and more casually-dressed bull, a more concerned saleswoman, and a more varied collection of animal figures.

Ronald Searle, Taurus in the China Shop, 1998
Original art, Town and Country, 1999

http://www.ronaldsearle.co.uk/taurus.htm

Ronald Searle, Taurus, 1998
Alternative version to that in Town and Country, 1999

Ronald Searle
Sotheby's London
July 11, 2017 Lot 231
Unsold

Ronald Searle
Sotheby's London
July 11, 2017 Lot 231
Details and Cataloguing

Taurus, from Ronald Searle's Zoodiac, 1977:

Ronald Searle, Zoodiac, 1977, title page

http://ecc-cartoonbooksclub.blogspot.com/2014/01/zoodiac-by-ronals-searle.html

Ronald Searle, Zoodiac, 1977, endpaper

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1st-American-Edition-Hardback-Jacket-ZOODIAC-Ronald-Searle-Pantheon-Books-1977-/332103140502?hash=item4d52e3c496:g:yfYAAOSw-0xYiPJu

Ronald Searle, Zoodiac, 1977, procession

http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2012/03/arty-farty-friday-two-march-3rd.html

Which version of the 1998 illustration do you prefer?

Ronald Searle, Taurus in the China Shop, 1998

Original art, Town and Country, 1999

Ronald Searle, Taurus, 1998

Alternative or preliminary version to that in Town and Country, 1999

Note:  Attempted Bloggery is looking for submissions of published and unpublished original book and magazine illustrations by Ronald Searle and other New Yorker artists. Alternative or preliminary versions are especially welcome. You break it, you bought it.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

Preliminary Art

Attempted Bloggery's Fragile Index

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George Price's Sideshow Simplified

Why did cartoonist George Price keep returning to the subject of carnival sideshows? I suspect it was the colorful cast of characters he got to draw, the so-called sideshow freaks. That would explain the original artwork sold at Illustration House on July 6, 2008, which has an interesting assortment of carnival and circus performers. The odd thing is, for the most part these odd characters add little to this cartoon; they are a bit distracting. The gag works better without them and that's how it was published.

George Price, "What sort of a job?"
Preliminary artwork for the New Yorker, April 18, 1942, page 17

http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/Search_Repeat.aspx?searchtype=AUCTION_RECORDS&artist=68261

http://www.prices4antiques.com/Price-George-Drawing-signed-The-New-Yorker-Cartoon-15-inch-D9817484.html

http://www.findartinfo.com/search/listprices.asp?keyword=3078&name=George%20Price

Only two of the figures were retained in the published version, the ones having the conversation, and the setting was changed.

George Price, "What sort of a job?"
The New Yorker, April 18, 1942, page 17

George Price, "What sort of a job?"
The New Yorker, April 18, 1942, page 17

The published version also appears in Price's collection Who's in Charge Here? (1943).

George Price, "What sort of a job?"
Who's in Charge Here? New York:  Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1943

Note:  Comparing preliminary artwork for the New Yorker with the final published version says a lot about the thought processes and intentions of the artists, art directors, and editors involved. I've been lucky enough to collect a few examples of preliminary New Yorker work on the blog which you can see here. I'd love to be able to show more. Please contact me if you have any roughs or variants of published cartoons to share.

My ongoing run of blog posts on George Price tend to go in several different directions, but they usually start out with my finding an example of original artwork, and I'm quickly running out of those. If you're sitting on any original George Price artwork, by all means consider letting the world see it here. Some older auctions like this one tend to vanish from the auction house's website and disappear behind paywalls. Just look at the contortions I've gone through to report on this auction. If you have access to old auction material, I'd love to hear about that too. In the meantime, check out my series of posts on this artist here.

I don't have many blog posts here that can be considered about President's Day per se, but a few do deal with aspects of the Presidency in a way you just don't see every day. See them here.

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