Charles Addams's First Published Cartoon?

An eBay listing offers a rare 1927 Westfield High School yearbook, the Weather Vane. The eBay seller contends that it holds Charles Addams's first published cartoon, a plausible enough statement. This would have been Addams's sophomore year and the fifteen-year-old is credited as one of three art editors on the yearbook staff. The Addams cartoon in question, dated 1927, appears on page 94 in a section dedicated to the foreign languages—and it's in Latin!

Logic

Terentia:  "When the man began to speak, he did not stop to think."

Cicero:  "But when the woman began to speak, he did not think to interrupt."

It's actually funnier in Latin where the parallel wordplay is more explicit. I don't believe for a minute that this Latin exercise was Addams's idea; he merely illustrated it. He said/she said cartoons were still common back then, but they were soon to be replaced in The New Yorker and later everywhere else, by single-speaker cartoons. The characters, Terentia and her husband Cicero the orator, are vaguely drawn in the style of 1920s newspaper comics. She is drawn as a beautiful flapper and he is drawn as a caricature a little reminiscent of Jiggs from George McManus's comic strip Bringing Up Father. Addams attempts to invoke Ancient Rome with the sandals and those ponderous Roman column table legs. It's rare to see him have any trouble with perspective, but the stool and table leg sit lower on Cicero's side while Terentia's stool is floating just above the tile line. Addams will outgrow all this soon.

Addams may be seen in the yearbook staff photo, I believe, standing to the right of center in the sweater vest.

"IS IT POSSIBLE THAT: . . .                                                         
Charles Addams has learned to play Bethune Jones' Piccolo?"

The yearbook's previous owner observes of Addams, "The neat thing is you can already see his unique, macabre style." And where might that be?

Say it isn't so!

Charles Addams
eBay listing accessed June 10, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175763869365?hash=item28ec57ceb5:g:-eAAAOSwiipkWV-S

Charles Addams
eBay item description

The Westfield Memorial Library has digitized a copy of the 1927 Westfield High School yearbook here. It reveals that Charles Addams had a second published drawing just four pages after the first, an illustration for the Sports section dated 1926. As with the Latin cartoon, he's already signing his name Chas.

I confess I'm not entirely sold on this Addams kid yet. Let's come back in a few years and see what he comes up with.

Image added June 28, 2023

Note:  Is the Latin drawing truly Charles Addams's first published cartoon? Very likely, unless he was previously published in some school or local newspaper. I'd like to hear from anyone who can confirm or refute this. Submissions of other Addams juvenilia, Latin or otherwise, would be welcome too.

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My Entries in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for September/October 2016

You can just imagine some of the entries submitted to the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for September/October 2016. The captions were funny all right, but the humor tended to be about infirmities of the elderly. The couple can't hear the starting gun. They can't seem to make out the track. The race is just to see who can stand up first. Or they just have to cross the starting line. That sort of thing. I laughed, but I was determined to try a different approach, one that didn't mock impairments in seniors. Then I wrote that first caption...

All told, I submitted five entries. The fourth, involving a dispute going back to the beginning of the relationship, is my favorite. A schlep, not that you need to ask, is a Yiddish word for a tedious or burdensome journey. That's perfectly kosher to use here because Moment Magazine calls itself "North America’s premier Jewish magazine." The drawing is by Benjamin Schwartz.


"Okay, let's see how you roll!"
"You may begin the 20 yard schlep!"
"With this race we launch the Turner Classic Sports channel!"
"And now, to finally settle who was the better catch in 1954..."
"And the winner gets permanent control of the remote!"



November 8, 2016 Update:  The Finalists

December 21, 2016 Update:  I voted for the third caption.


January 25, 2017:  Winning Caption

Note:  In a hypothetical race to draw the greatest number of caption contest cartoons on this blog, Benjamin Schwartz must have the gold medal.

If for some reason you want to relive every caption contest I ever entered, you just need to click that aqua link. Or perhaps you'd like to see just the Moment Magazine contests. Either way, you really have no idea what you're in for.

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Abe Birnbaum: On Your Mark...

Fifty-six years ago Abe Birnbaum illustrated A. J. Liebling's "Letter from the Olympics" for the New Yorker. The drawing is noteworthy for it's simplicity; you might think it is the product of a few minutes' effort. The four runners seem to be caught in the act of springing forward from their crouched positions at the starting line. A single curving line delineates the arm, shoulder, and head of each. Their trunks take on a rubbery, almost abstract quality as the reader's eye scans from left to right. Together the figures have a rhythmic, dance-like energy and seem to recall the work of Henri Matisse.

Abe Birnbaum, Illustration to "Letter from the Olympics" by A. J. Liebling
The New Yorker, September 10, 1960, page 85

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1960-09-10#folio=084

Note:  The New Yorker's illustrations and spot drawings don't get the attention they deserve. For that matter, neither does Abe Birnbaum's work. I would love to hear from collectors with original artwork of this type who would be willing to share what they have and what they know on this blog. Write to me at my email address with AB—for Abe Birnbaum—in the subject line.

Attempted Bloggery's quick links:

Abe Birnbaum

The Olymtpics

Illustration

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's olympian index

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