Showing posts with label teddy bear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teddy bear. Show all posts

Saturday, February 15, 2025

Three Old Clippings

Our good friend Joel Jacobus is perennially occupied with the pursuit of Charles Addams memorabilia but he occasionally passes along to us other cartoonist material that is less altogether ooky. Today we have three clippings about newspaper cartoonists who were popular in the 1940's. He writes:
Anyway, there are three old newspaper clippings (one of them is dated March 27, 1949 and I suspect the other two are of a similar time period) about newspaper cartoonists Cliff Berryman (Pulitzer Prize winner and creator of the teddy bear), Ding Darling (also a Pulitzer Prize winner), and Jorge Delano. I suspect that there was once a fourth clipping about Charles Addams that has since been absorbed into the collection, leaving these three clippings, unloved, in a dark and lonesome box.
Unloved? We can't have that.

Clifford K. Berryman
Star Tribune (Minneapolis), March 27, 1949, p. 32

Ding Darling
Star Tribune (Minneapolis), May 20, 1945, p. 12

Jorge Delano
The Minneapolis Star, August 4, 1945, p. 14



Note:  My thanks to Joel Jacobus, of course, for all the new old information.




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Monday, November 25, 2024

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #923

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #923 from the issue of November 25, 2024, we have two bears sitting outdoors with two teddy bears. My submission is shown here. The drawing is by Ali Solomon.

"Nonsense, Ted—they're named for a president."




December 7, 2024 Update:  The Finalists




December 9, 2024 Update:  I voted for the caption from Sacramento.



December 23, 2024 Update:
  The Winner





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Sunday, October 6, 2024

A Signed Copy of E. D. Ward: A Mercurial Bear by Edward Gorey

E. D. Ward:  A Mercurial Bear was published in 1983 by Gotham Book Mart and its sixteen pages were bound with side staples. It was signed by the author Dogear Wryde, whom readers will recognize as one of Edward Gorey's anagrammatic pseudonyms. Now where did he come up with the bear's name?



Edward Gorey
Reilly Books listing accessed October 6, 2024







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Friday, July 5, 2024

Andrea Wirt's Copy of Teddy! Where Are You? by Ralph Steadman

Teddy! Where Are You? (1994) is the story of Christopher, an old and worn teddy bear who has gone missing. Ralph Steadman is both author and illustrator. The very special copy we see today was created in response to a supposed attorney's letter from one "Mr. Sprocket" of the law office Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, a firm name obviously borrowed from an old Marx Brothers radio program. This communication, then, alleged that Christopher is modeled too closely on another teddy named Sir Bear. Steadman responded good-naturedly with an original studio illustration in a presentation copy of the book made out to this Sir Bear and his owner, Andrea Wirt. It took Steadman two attempts to get her surname down. It happens.






Ralph Steadman
AbeBooks listing accessed July 4, 2024


Ralph Steadman
AbeBooks item description



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Thursday, December 3, 2020

Edward Gorey: Season's Greetings 1996 Bromer Booksellers

Edward Gorey's cover for the 1996 Bromer Booksellers holiday catalogue depicts nine teddy bears, eight of whom are paired around a Christmas wreath and one of whom rides a unicycle on a tightrope strung a bit too loosely across the wreath. The design was originally created for the cover of the 1994 Nieman Marcus Christmas Book and rejected by the high-end department store. The original artwork remains available from Bromer Booksellers.



Letter A signed copy

Edward Gorey
Bromer Bookseller listing accessed December 2, 2020




The Bromer Booksellers catalogue was printed in an edition of two-thousand copies, which, of course, is not in the same league as the three-million copies printed of the Nieman Marcus Christmas Book. Two-hundred numbered copies were signed by Mr. Gorey. There are also twenty-six signed lettered copies.

Signed copy from the edition of 200

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks listing accessed May 2, 2020



The Nieman Marcus Christmas Book cover for 1994 was illustrated instead by Mercedes McDonald.
Nieman Marcus 1994 Christmas Book
Mercedes McDonald

Nieman Marcus 1994 Christmas Book
Mercedes McDonald



Note:  I'm always happy to post original Edward Gorey art on Attempted Bloggery. Scans or photos are welcome. I'd also like to hear from any readers knowing of other rejected Nieman Marcus Christmas Book cover proposals of this caliber.
 
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Monday, November 9, 2020

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #732

Please don't take me to court over my entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #732 for November 9, 2020. The drawing is by P. C. Vey.

"If it please the court, may I take the defendant home?"


These captions were dismissed as hearsay:

"And what did little Johnny confess to in his sleep?"
"Your Honor, permission to treat the witness as cuddly but hostile?"



November 16, 2020 Update:  The Finalists





November 23, 2020 Update:
  I thought these captions were pretty good. I voted with the Big Apple.



November 30, 2020 Update:
  The Winner






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Saturday, October 8, 2016

Teddy! Where Are You? Signed by Ralph Steadman

EBay recently offered two signed copies of Ralph Steadman's Teddy! Where Are You? These copies of the 1994 children's book each have a full page original drawing of the teddy bear. Both copies are signed in red ink. For some reason, the listings disappeared from the online auction site almost immediately. Ordinarily they would have remained for about 90 days.






October 9, 2016 Update:  Another signed copy of this book with a full-page original drawing appears on The Oxen of the Sun blog:



Note:  Usually I like to post complete eBay auctions, but I thought it was worthwhile to get even a glimpse of these books. Anyone—buyers, sellers, lurkers—with better images from these two sales or from other similar copies of this book, please send them along to me. Together we can still make this post better.

I have news. "A Retrospective:  Ralph Steadman" is on view in New York at the Society of Illustrators. Catch it while you can.


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