My Entries in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for September/October 2018

Here are my entries in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for September/October 2018. Unlike The New Yorker's caption contest, multiple entries are permitted. Just like The New Yorker's contest, Jewish humor is encouraged. The nutty drawing is by Benjamin Schwartz.

"Two words:  acorn latkes."
"Why, no, I didn't see your eggs. Where do you think you put them all?"
"Now, now. You know better than to call them deplorables."
"I say winter, shminter."
"I have 100 good reasons for you to accept my marriage proposal."
"When I say, 'Nuts to you' it's a good thing!"

November 10, 2018 Update:  The Finalists

January 16, 2019 Update:  Winning Caption

Glossary of Jewish Humor:  Latkes are fried potato pancakes traditionally associated with the holiday of Chanukah. Or is it Hanukkah?

Note:  Moment has just published a profile of some of its Caption Contest contributors here.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Benjamin Schwartz

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

All My Caption Contests

Attempted Bloggery's Bonkers Index

02716

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #636

It's time to unwrap my entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #636 for October 22, 2018. The drawing is by Tom Chitty after a famous (staged) photograph by Charles C. Ebbets publicizing the construction of Rockefeller Center.

Charles C. Ebbets
Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, 1932

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/movies/lunch-atop-a-skyscraper-uncovered.html

"Ninety-nine days without an accident. Why?"

October 29, 2018 Update:  The Finalists

November 5, 2018 Update:  I cast my vote for the first caption.


November 12, 2018 Update:  The Winner

Note:  Last week cartoonist Christopher Weyant took some of the luster off finally meeting that knight in shining armor. I neglected to submit my finished caption, but you can still enjoy the joust as if I had. Take a shine to Contest #635.

Then you might want to hang with my older post about Tom Chitty. 

02715

Barbara's Copy of Last Laughs

Reader David from Manhattan has sent photographs of the collection Last Laughs: Cartoons About Aging, Retirement...and the Great Beyond signed by three New Yorker cartoonists. Marisa Acocella Marchetto has signed it with her usual drawing of a shoe, one she uses practically as a monogram or personal logo. The late Jack Ziegler has inscribed the book "For Barbara, Best Wishes..." while editor Mort Gerberg wrote "Best wishes Barb[a]ra—Thanks for remembering the piano...." The piano? David reports snagging this copy of the book recently for a very reasonable $10.

Mort Gerberg, editor
Last Laughs: Cartoons About Aging, Retirement...and the Great Beyond
(New York:  Scribner, 2007)

Signed by Marisa Acocella Marchetto (with a drawing of a shoe), and inscribed to Barbara by Jack Ziegler and editor Mort Gerberg

Note:  You can add books signed and/or drawn in by multiple New Yorker cartoonists to your long list of items that can be submitted to this blog and which will (very likely) be received with favor.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Mort Gerberg

Marisa Acocella Marchetto

Jack Ziegler

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Graceful Index

02714

David's Copy of Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan

Blog contributor David from Manhattan has scanned his copy of Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth for our benefit. He writes:

The year (2000) the book came out his publisher set up a table at "New York is Book Country." I was late (I think the time slot was 3-4), but no one was there, so he was quite happy to indulge me with his white pen... The black page with stars is on the other side of the free endpaper. Opposite that is a page with planet Earth getting closer and closer, and Jimmy's mom calling him.

Inscribed "To David. Hope you like this book okay. C. Ware. 2000 A.D." With a drawing of Jimmy Corrigan. 

Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan:  The Smartest Kid on Earth, 2000.

Note: I have not had Chris Ware on the blog before, but this copy of his book seems like an excellent place to start. My thanks to David from Manhattan for sharing it. David has now contributed to this blog twenty-seven times!

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

David from Manhattan

New York is Book Country Poster Art

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Okay Index

02713

Edward Gorey: A Signed Copy of The Dream World of Dion McGregor

"No one wrote this book"—it consists of "tape-recorded dreams of a man who talks in his sleep," after all—but it was definitely illustrated by a wide-awake Edward Gorey. A copy of The Dream World of Dion McGregor is also signed by Gorey in "slightly faded ink" according to the bookseller asking $400 for it. Still, it's a really nice copy.

The Dream World of Dion McGregor, 1964
Signed by Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved September 4, 2018

https://www.abebooks.com/Dream-World-Dion-McGregor-Talks-Sleep/30025490704/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_low

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Edward Gorey

Dreams

Signed Books

Attempted Bloggery's Slightly-Faded Index

02712

Sight Unseen: Rien n'est simple by Jean-Jacques Sempé

Should one by a book containing a souvenir drawing one hasn't seen? For my Sight Unseen series, I locate some object, usually a signed book, that intrigues me but that lacks a photograph in the listing, often on AbeBooks. I take my chances, shell out the money blindly, and wait to see whether I am pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised. In today's case study the title of Jean-Jacques Sempé's book Rien n'est simple—Nothing is Simple—should have clued me in. The listing is in French but the book, priced at $47.67 plus shipping, boasts an original Sempé drawing. For me, that's a no-brainer.

AbeBooks Listing Retrieved June 29, 2018

https://www.abebooks.com/Rien-nest-simple-SEMPE-Jean-Jacques/22902922175/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

The arrival of the volume confirms that it does indeed have an original drawing and it is indeed by Sempé. The listing also mentioned a tenth anniversary dedication in German, and that is there as well in red and black ink on the facing page. What was not mentioned is that the author of this dedication took the red pen and added a heart to Sempé's delightful drawing. Truthfully, it's not the worst defilement of a drawing I've seen. Indeed, nothing is simple, but you don't need me to tell you that no one can improve on Sempé's work.

Note:  Despite everything, I am happy to keep this book.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Jean-Jacques Sempé

Sight Unseen

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Overembellished Index

02711

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975 Signed by Four New Yorker Artists

In previous posts I have identified eleven New Yorker artists who group-signed The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975. I have grouped these eleven cartoonists into three distinct quintets based on the three signed copies of this book I have previously posted on the blog. The first two groupings differ by only one cartoonist. The third grouping has five different cartoonists.

Alphabetical autograph groupings:

1.  Edward Frascino, Herbert Goldberg, William Hamilton, Warren Miller, Everett Opie

2.  Edward Frascino, Herbert Goldberg, Warren Miller, Everett Opie, Al Ross

3.  Charles Addams, Charles E. Martin, Frank Modell, James Stevenson, Barney Tobey

A new copy of the book, and by new I mean sold on eBay in 2013, is signed by only four cartoonists, but they are clearly a subset of the third group, missing James Stevenson. Perhaps he had to leave the signing early. As I've noted, this latter grouping is probably the most desirable signature set for most book collectors, as it includes the signature of Charles Addams. Once again, as in previous copies of the book, there are no little sketches or inscriptions, only unadorned signatures.

I have suggested in my previous posts on this book that eBay sellers might want to show photographs from this collection which include cartoons by the book's individual signers. For what it's worth, I'll suggest it again.

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975
New York:  Viking, 1975

Signatures of Frank Modell, Charles E. Martin, Barney Tobey, and Charles Addams

Cartoons by Gilbert Bundy, Whitney Darrow, Jr., and Syd Hoff

Perry Barlow, George Price, and Peter Arno

William Steig

Kenneth Mahood, William O'Brian, Donald Reilly, and Mort Gerberg

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975
eBay Listing Ended November 14, 2013

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-1975-CHAS-ADDAMS-SIGNED-Copy-THE-NEW-YORKER-ALBUM-OF-DRAWINGS-/360786188898?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item5400885a62&nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975
eBay Item Description

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975
eBay Bid History
Five bidders duke it out over seven days, yet the price doubles in the last seven seconds.

Note:  I am curious about any New Yorker collections that may have been group-signed prior to 1975. Surely there must have been something in the magazine's first fifty years signed by more than one cartoonist. Let me know what you know.

As always, I'm also looking for images of signed New Yorker collections which contain original drawings by New Yorker artists.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Charles Addams

Peter Arno

Gilbert Bundy

Whitney Darrow, Jr.

Syd Hoff

Kenneth Mahood

Charles E. Martin

Frank Modell

William Steig

James Stevenson

Barney Tobey

Signed Books

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's Anonymous Index

02710

Paul H. Elliott-Smith's Copy of A Golden Trashery of MAD

Under what circumstances were Paul H. R. M. Elliott-Smith's copy of A Golden Trashery of MAD (1960) signed in 1981 by publisher William M. Gaines, Al Feldstein, Nick Meglin, and a clutch of "the usual gang of idiots?" Was this hard-to-find book brought to a signing event or simply to the New York offices of MAD? Elliott-Smith (1919-1999) was a marketing and economics consultant, according to the sales listings below. He would have been around 62 in 1981, certainly not the typical age for a MAD fanboy. But at that age he could well have been retiring from whatever sort of consulting he did for EC, and the drawing by Paul Peter Porges on the lower right has a "Good-By'" that suggests this may have been the case. In this context, the book might have been a presentation copy prepared in advance and given to Elliott-Smith, which would explain why Gaines wrote "Free Sample!" The unique book is being offered for $1,000 on AbeBooks, or you can have it for just $900 on eBay. Hey, it's your money.

A Golden Trashery of MAD
New York: Crown, 1960
Cover by Norman Mingo

Twelve signatures, eight sketches

George Woodbridge

Jack Rickard takes the real estate under the dust jacket flap and makes the most elaborate drawing.

Inscribed "Free Sample!
Bill Gaines"

Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, Al Feldstein

Lou Silverstone, Dick DeBartolo, Paul Peter Porges

Sergio Aragonés

Bob Clarke, Nick Meglin

Introduction by Sid Caesar

A Golden Trashery of MAD
eBay Listing Retrieved October 16, 2018

https://www.ebay.com/itm/A-GOLDEN-TRASHERY-OF-MAD-signed-with-sketches-autographs-by-12-MAD-Men-1st-dj/372443318384

A Golden Trashery of MAD
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved October 16, 2018

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22895479821&searchurl=bi%3D0%26ds%3D20%26bx%3Doff%26sortby%3D1%26kn%3DSergio%2BAragones%26recentlyadded%3Dall%26sgnd%3Don&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image1

Note:  It should come as no surprise that this is the first and only copy of A Golden Trashery of MAD to appear on this blog. I am, of course, open to showing other MAD books here, particularly if they have interesting inscriptions or original drawings.

Today I broke with my internalized style book and capitalized all three letters of MAD even though I know better. For some reason it felt right. Shouldn't I stick with the lower-key Mad?

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Sergio Aragonés

Jack Davis

William M. Gaines

Al Jaffee

Norman Mingo

MAD Magazine

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Retiring Index

02709