The National Hockey League (NHL) begins its 2017-2018 season today. Some forty years ago, cartoonist
Arnold Roth envisioned the sport besieged by an energy crisis limiting the availability of ice. Fortunately, he had a practical solution at the ready.
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Arnold Roth,Energy Crisis
Inscribed "for Peter & Maria Rathbone/June 4th 1977" |
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Arnold Roth
eBay Listing Ended May 17, 2017
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Arnold Roth
eBay Item Description |
An undated Roth drawing for TV Guide depicts the NHL as a number of "cops"—one a giant—policing the sport. This may be a reference to league efforts to curtail the violent fights that threatened the sport's popularity.
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Arnold Roth,NHL "Cops"
Original art, TV Guide |
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Arnold Roth
Chris Beetles Gallery Listing as of October 1, 2017
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Finally, a December 1999 illustration by Mr. Roth for Sports Illustrated depicts some wildly exaggerated Hockey Cheats with various nefarious implements of game disruption.
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Arnold Roth, Hockey Cheats
Original art, Sports Illustrated, December 1999 |
Note: It's hard to believe, but this is the first appearance of Arnold Roth on this blog. Careful readers may have noted the tantalizing appearance of a numeral 4 in the corner of the Energy Crisis artwork. This strongly suggests that there are at least three other drawings in the series out there somewhere! It also suggests, of course, that Energy Crisis was published as part of a set and not created specifically for the enjoyment of the Rathbones as the eBay seller seems to believe. Cartoon detectives, you know what you have to do.
To my mind, no blog post about illustration art is truly complete without specific and scrupulous publication information. Therefore I invite students of hockey illustration art and members of local Arnold Roth societies to provide this blog with the missing publication history for each of these hockey-themed illustrations. For that matter, I'm always eager to show scans and photos of other original art by Mr. Roth and by other New Yorker artists on just about any subject, hockey or otherwise.
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