Richard Oldden: Surf's Up!

An original cartoon by Richard Oldden was published, we are told, in True magazine sometime in 1970. Possibly the date is on the back of the artwork, possibly not. The drawing was sold on eBay earlier this month by  Anthony's Comic Book Art of Moonachie, New Jersey. The eBay sale occurred at the same time as another seller was offering larger groups of Oldden art, but it had first been listed in 2021.

Richard Oldden
eBay listing ended May 6, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233330560928?hash=item365395cfa0%3Ag%3AvWcAAOSw8HddYG5Y&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwEVYbfIDYjPYEPTT6IWqtVe0Rirplw2p2unQwZFcU%2BX9M4nh2FEnxwnfwoZ79FKyiI0DB4xU2tVnx9ZoZv4ZTOIMkD3u4FwnYOvZjV2TrwopvWsLpm7QaDafaO9YkYvZfOQj%2BmiusGDGyzTbliY

qYxOJ7dxcQlzy6s916bK1scZUDDxiATxvtgw3zb1JAtpolOqJGaSZGDpCF1vZ62t8Jfg4f8C%2BhdYNHiDk18AKHcfBXNDJt7P0yFp3dyBy0%2BikA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4aNt7eJYg&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Richard Oldden
eBay item description

Note:  For most people, knowing that a cartoon by Dick Oldden was published in True in the year 1970 is more than sufficient. Me, I'm a details guy. I like to know the exact issue and page number as well. Help me if you can, and I don't mean with psychotherapy.

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Richard Oldden: Call Me George

The final quartet of original drawings by Richard Oldden were sold on eBay earlier this month. The artist visits several well-traveled cartoon tropes and puts a new twist on each of them. One of the gags is wordless and in four panels on two sheets of paper. We aren't told where any of the cartoons were published.

          "My name is Kenzaburo Toramichi . . .           "At first we thought we would be swamped with tourists,

                 You may call me George."                           —but somehow it never caught on."

"What's this you've been telling my daughter?"                        Hunting the Lion                  

Versos with Dick Oldden's New York and Laguna Beach stamps

Richard Oldden
eBay listing ended May 6, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374666219984?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc

Richard Oldden
eBay item description

Richard Oldden
eBay bid history
Three bidders make seven bids over seven days. It's the last one that counts.

Note:  It's likely that many or all of the Dick Oldden cartoons in these eBay groupings of four were published somewhere in a mainstream magazine. But where? And when? It's questions like this that cry out for answers. Help if you can.

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #850

Death really rocks in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #850 from the issue of May 22, 2023 and one distraught neighbor has something to say about it. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby.

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

June 4, 2023 Update:  The Finalists

June 10, 2023 Update:  I voted for the caption from Montclair.

 

June 12, 2023 Update:  The Winner

04327

Richard Oldden: Artist and Dinosaur

Two of the original cartoons by Richard Oldden recently offered for sale on eBay had been published in The New Yorker. They were both included in one lot and generated greater bidder interest than the other groupings of four cartoons from unknown publications. These drawings were published in 1969 and 1971. They depict moments of inspiration as experienced by dinosaur and artist. Neither has a caption but one has an unlikely thought bubble.

Versos with stamps and markings from the artist and from The New Yorker

Richard Oldden
eBay listing ended May 6, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374666199022?hash=item573bd87fee%3Ag%3AkpIAAOSw1XBkTawb&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwD5yWiArlcVN3dhbYucesmqZWQ3Jha95BUI2QBicXZkYn7huY0RPnTIgI5LVdEs93ohVHbjut577qfPkO%2BN8t1aHXfW1gNSg%2B%2FNd4E5gcrikdL8ULmrTAwS8mZmEE9JHbpEKxgYcdcTledKkAtJqBIH

NJhykHNMyMpFZ5fKZEMpbKoajY3A9eHXZrro%2FvCrK6w3G36NK%2FuIlogwDkbMHCSUp2Kt1KpO5W1%2Bt%2Fivb%2FFrPwe74Hb1T22q0a9nGiH9jtg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-KjnKeEYg&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Richard Oldden
eBay item description

Richard Oldden
eBay bid history
Six bidders place a total of ten bids and, as we so often see, the last bid wins.

Richard Oldden
The New Yorker, November 8, 1969, p. 203

Richard Oldden
Original art
The New Yorker, November 8, 1969, p. 203

A spot drawing by Chon Day and a cartoon by Richard Oldden

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1969-11-08/flipbook/202/

Richard Oldden
The New Yorker, March 20, 1971, p. 44

Richard Oldden
Original art
The New Yorker, March 20, 1971, p. 44

Cartoons by Richard Oldden and Robert Day

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1971-03-20/flipbook/044/

Note:  Over the past six days I've posted twenty-two cartoon originals by Dick Oldden. Most likely all of them were submitted to The New Yorker but only the two in today's post were published there. So how did the magazine do? Did they select the funniest cartoons? The cleverest? Your opinions welcome.

Addendum:  Chon Day's reader wears a bow tie!

Reader spot
Chon Day
The New Yorker, November 8, 1969, p. 203

Robert Day's cartoon isn't quite so funny if what it shows ever happens to you.

"Hey! Isn't that ours?"

Robert Day

The New Yorker, March 20, 1971, p. 45

04326

Richard Oldden: Elephants and Submarines

Is this really the way to sell original cartoon art? Four more drawings by Richard Oldden changed hands on eBay on May 5 for a paltry $67.51 plus $20 shipping. Their publication history is unknown. In the space of a week, six distinct groupings of four original works each were sold on the online auction platform, along with another smaller group of two known to be from The New Yorker. Oldden's work doesn't come to the market all that often and this type of sudden mass sale only serves to commodify the art and overwhelm the potential buyers.

Oldden delighted in drawing all manner of complex things. The settings are exotic. In this group we see submarines in two drawings, Indian elephants, and a Middle Eastern oil refinery.

Two of the cartoons have captions . . . 

  "Ahoy there, fishing boat!"                          "Hold them until we find her other lens."

. . . and two do not.

Versos with New York stamps

Richard Oldden
eBay listing ended May 5, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374663675198?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc

Richard Oldden
eBay item description

Richard Oldden
eBay bid history
After seven days, two bidders place two last minute bids four seconds apart. The last bid gets it all.

Note:  If you can find any of these cartoons somewhere out there on the printed page, please send word.

04325