The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #45

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #45 is set at the scene of a bizarre crime. Although there is no limit to the number of captions one can submit, I submitted only the first caption here of the twelve I wrote. I plead caption contest fatigue. The drawing is by Pat Byrnes.

"No, nothing like that. I was just having some fun with the chalk."
"It's quite a puzzle."
"You must dismember this."
"It's the return of the Colorforms killer."
"Davis, how are you with Colorforms?"
"What a horrible thing to do to a marionette."
"So this is the body of evidence?"
"This reminds me of a hilarious cartoon."
"We're looking for someone tall with a medium build and a hatred of department store mannequins."
"What makes you think our victim was a contortionist?"
"Something about this gives me the willies."
"The crime scene unit has got to get sober."

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Pat Byrnes

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

All These Cartoon Caption Contests and More

Attempted Bloggery's Diabolical Index

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My Entries in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for September/October 2019

How many caption contest entries are too many? Whatever the number, I've clearly achieved it in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for September/October 2019. Fortunately, there's no earthly limit to the number of entries permitted. The unsigned graven image is by Benjamin Schwartz.

"What in Creation is that?"
"I'll take the Impossible Burger."
"Go back to the old caterer."
"I could use the Halo Top."
"How do you like Manna 2.0?"
"Give me your lunch and earn your other wing."
"Here we just don't say 'better than sex.'"
"You're hiding something in that bag. Is there a cheeseburger in paradise?"
"Like WHOSE mother used to make?"
"This reminds me of one of those Moment cartoons by what's-his-name."
"Are you sure the K isn't for KFC?"
"They may be kosher but I think wings are in poor taste."
"Even up here we have ground rules."
"Would it kill them to serve kasha?"
"Okay, but I'm not adding any Golden Arches."
"This you call Shabbat dinner?"
"I love Mexican food, but what I said was I could use some nachas.”
“I’m afraid this calls for a whole new set of Commandments.”
“Well, no one needs to ask your cause of death.”
“I distinctly said to hold the mayo.”
“Five-thousand years of dieting down the drain.”
“With this meal, I can’t get no satisfaction. Get off of My cloud.”
"Would you like some skies with that?"

November 10, 2019 Update:  The Finalists

December 31, 2019 Update:  The Winner

Note:  Last year's Moment profile of some of the Caption Contest contestants may be read here.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Benjamin Schwartz

Angels

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Cartoon Collections Cartoon Caption Contest

All These Caption Contests and More

Attempted Bloggery's Heavenly Index

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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #681

Grab a hold of my entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #681 for the issue of October 14, 2019. The drawing is by Hartley Lin, who is new to this blog.

"Why did I ever think you'd do in a pinch?"

This caption didn't amuse anyone in my household except me:

"Why don't you just go and scuttle across the floors of silent seas?"

October 21, 2019 Update:  The Finalists

October 28 2019 Update:  I voted with Burien, although I do admire the ingenuity of Isleton.

November 4, 2019 Update:  The Winner

Note:  Last week cartoonist Danny Shanahan gave us a sopping wet bear taking a restaurant order. Towel off before reading Contest #680.


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Lobsters

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

All the Above Cartoon Caption Contests and More

Attempted Bloggery's Fishy Index

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Was a Hitchhiking Cartoon by Charles Saxon Killed by a Fact-Check?

Last week Michael Maslin's Ink Spill published a photograph of an original Charles Saxon cartoon hanging on the wall of the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The drawing shows a couple seated in a car approaching a nattily-dressed hitchhiker eager to be driven toward Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra located in Lenox and Stockbridge.The drawing gives every appearance of having been created for the New Yorker, but there is no evidence it was published in the magazine.

"Couldn't we break our rule about hitchhikers just this once?"
Charles Saxon
Unpublished?

Photo by Bruce Crocker

https://michaelmaslin.com/livenew-yorker-cartoonson-late-night-with-seth-meyers-and-david-remnick-a-saxon-in-stockbridge-mon-tues-wed-s-daily-cartoonists-cartoons/

I have a thought, just a speculation really, that this cartoon may have been readied for publication in the New Yorker and then subjected to a routine fact-check. Such scrutiny would have revealed an earlier gag cartoon by Syd Hoff from 1959, a different yet related hitchhiking scenario with a strikingly similar caption. Could the discovery of this similarity effectively have killed the Saxon drawing, rendering it unsuitable for publication in the New Yorker?

"I suppose we could relax our rule about never picking up hitchhikers."
Syd Hoff
The New Yorker, June 6, 1959, page 44

Note:  I would like to hear from anyone with additional information about the history of this drawing.

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Charles Saxon

Syd Hoff

Proposed New Yorker Cartoon Art

Gluyas Williams at Tanglewood

Attempted Bloggery's Thumbs-Up Index

  

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Dana Fradon: Down on the Beach and Up in the Clouds

A work of original cartoon art created for the New Yorker by the late Dana Fradon (1922-2019) has been available on eBay since April of 2018, if not earlier. It was published in 1988 and mentions the Clamshell Alliance, an anti-nuclear organization founded in 1976 to protest the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire. The drawing is framed and in generally good condition. Of note, the artist omitted the closing quotation mark on his caption. The original art has a rectangular stain, perhaps from glue, on the lower left.

"The sounds of the sea come to you through the courtesy of the Clamshell Alliance.["]
Dana Fradon
Original art
The New Yorker, July 11, 1988, page 37

Dana Fradon's signature

"The sounds of the sea come to you through the courtesy of the Clamshell Alliance.["]
Dana Fradon
Original art
The New Yorker, July 11, 1988, page 37

Dana Fradon
eBay Listing Retrieved October 11, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Yorker-Cartoonist-Dana-Fradon-Original-Signed-Matted-And-Framed-Cartoon/123080303460?hash=item1ca8286364:g:GdMAAOSwGTFayrMP

Dana Fradon
eBay Item Description

"The sounds of the sea come to you through the courtesy of the Clamshell Alliance.["]
Dana Fradon
Original art
The New Yorker, July 11, 1988, page 37

https://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1988-07-11#folio=036

Twenty-four cartoonists contributed to the outstanding cartoon set in the issue of July 11, 1988, but it was Dana Fradon alone who actually had two cartoons in the issue.

His other cartoon, from page 20, again shows the artist's deeply-held environmental concern.

https://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1988-07-11#folio=020

Note:  Attempted Bloggery is eager to publish privately-held original art by Dana Fradon.

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Original New Yorker Cartoon Art

Dana Fradon (1922-2019)

Attempted Bloggery's Unsponsored Index

  

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My Copy of Have I Got a Cartoon for You!

On Sunday, October 6, in Washington, DC, there was a signing event for Have I Got a Cartoon for You!: The Moment Magazine Book of Jewish Cartoons edited by Bob Mankoff and just recently published. It seemed like a good idea to order a signed and personalized copy and forego the trip to the Capital. It wasn't cheap:  the full $19.95 published price for a slim paperback—just 86 cartoons, no discount—plus $7.25 for shipping, a Priority Mail price for shipping via media mail. I requested that Bob Mankoff personalize the copy to me and I have an email receipt that confirms this; you can see for yourself just how well that went.

https://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/bob-mankoff-have-i-got-cartoon-you-moment-magazine-book-of-jewish-cartoons

Bob Mankoff's signature

Moment magazine, by the way, does not publish freestanding cartoons. Rather, the cartoons in this book are licensed through Mr. Mankoff's Cartoon Collections venture and the collection is published under the MomentBooks imprint. Moment does have a caption contest, though, and one of Benjamin Schwartz's cartoons from the November/December 2015 contest does in fact appear here. The caption is not a finalist from the contest and may very well be Mr. Schwartz's own.

"I forgot my wig."

Reader, would you care to know who won that long-ago caption contest? I'll give you a hint: It's the person to whom this copy of the book is not personalized.

Note:  You can revisit the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for November/December 2015 here.

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Bob Mankoff

Benjamin Schwartz 

Signed Books

Dana Fradon (1922-2019)

Attempted Bloggery's Furshlugginer Index

  

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Charles's Copy of Insincerely Yours by Dana Fradon

Charles's copy of the late Dana Fradon's cartoon collection Insincerely Yours, 1978, is inscribed with the same words as Marjorie and Mastin's copy:  "I hope you enjoy/ my book!/Sincerely yours,/ Dana," although here he signs his first name only. Instead of the redrawn cartoon he created for Marjorie and Mastin, he provides Charles with a self-portrait. The book is offered by History for Sale for $162 with a Make-an-Offer option.

Dana Fradon
History for Sale Listing Retrieved October 9, 2019

https://www.historyforsale.com/dana-fradon-inscribed-original-art-signed-1978/dc9053

Dana Fradon
History for Sale Item Description

Note:  Original artwork by cartoonist Dana Fradon is eagerly sought here. Readers are encouraged to forward scans or photos of original Fradon art.

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Dana Fradon (1922-2019)

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Sincere Index

  

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The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #44

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #44 is set in a bowling alley and features a unique approach to the problem of the 7-10 split. The drawing is by Robert Leighton.

"That was a killer shot."
"Of course I'm okay with it. Now put away the gun."

October 18, 2019 Update:  The Winner

October 21, 2019 Update:  Seven-time New Yorker cartoon Caption Contest winner Lawrence Wood, in his analysis of the contest, once again picks apart one of my entries:

https://more.cartooncollections.com/bowling-caption-contest-commentary-with-lawrence-wood/

Thanks for paying close attention, Lawrence.

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Robert Leighton

Bowling

Guns

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

All These Cartoon Caption Contests and More

Attempted Bloggery's Ballsy Index

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Marjorie and Mastin's Copy of Insincerely Yours by Dana Fradon

Cartoonist Dana Fradon, who passed away last week in Woodstock, New York, was born in Chicago in 1922 and had his first cartoon published in the New Yorker in 1948. His signature collection, Insincerely Yours, was published in 1978. A copy of this book, personally inscribed by him with an original drawing, was sold on eBay in 2015.

His approach to this souvenir drawing is unusual: he has provided the recipients with a redraw of a cartoon which appears in the collection. He even cites the page number (35) for ready reference. The cartoon depicts a courtroom scene in which the judge throws the book at the guilty party with the words "Lock him up and throw away the key!" It was originally published in 1973 as the Watergate scandal was coming to a full boil. We have no way of knowing whether the artist chose to make the drawing on his own or whether the recipients requested it.

Dana Fradon
eBay Listing Ended May 28, 2015
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dana-Fradon-Insincerely-Yours-first-edition-Signed-and-Doodled-New-Yorker-/231576904853?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35eb0f2495

Dana Fradon
eBay Item Description
For the record, the book is not a "collection of comics." It is a collection of cartoons.

The buyer offered $35.99 and the seller responded with a counteroffer of $39.99, which was accepted.

https://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1973-09-10#folio=044

Note:  Considering how prolific a cartoonist Dana Fradon was, this blog has come across relatively little of his original art. Readers are invited to remedy the situation and honor a great cartoonist by submitting scans or photos of original Fradon work.

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Dana Fradon (1922-2019)

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Judgmental Index

  

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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #680

Dry off and enjoy my entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #680 for the issue of October 7, 2019. The drawing is one of many by Danny Shanahan with a setting in the Market St. restaurant in his home town.

"I asked for a dry martini."

These captions were too soggy:

"Then how about finding me some iceberg lettuce?"
"That reminds me: I don't have a napkin."

October 14, 2019 Update:  The Finalists

October 21, 2019 Update:  I voted with LA.

October 28 2019 Update:  The Winner

Note:  Last week cartoonist Drew Dernavich presented us with a king on his throne surrounded by cacti and attended by a knight. Grab a spade and dig into Contest #679.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives

Danny Shanahan

Bears

Restaurants

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

All the Above Cartoon Caption Contests and More

Attempted Bloggery's Waterlogged Index

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