In Esquire's July 1952 installment of E. Simms Campbell's"Harem Girls" cartoon, we are treated to an awkward moment between father and son during a break from college. The caption doesn't exactly make a joke, but it clarifies the fraught scenario with "Pop, I asked some of my American college friends home for the holidays." So the sultan is asked to extend his hospitality to a group of his son's college friends who have shown up with him unannounced. The sultan has improbably surrounded himself exclusively with women his son's age and abruptly he realizes he is not the only rooster in the henhouse.
Alcohol, of course, is forbidden in Islam, but whether or not he knew of the prohibition, it does shows up in Campbell's harem cartoons. The college students seem utterly stunned; the Harem Girls seem...intrigued. Usually these women appear as passive figures merely to be ogled, but here, while this is still true, there is also a suggestion they may have desires of their own. The men are encountering semi-clad women who must be considerably more experienced than they are. The sultan's young son, wearing a college beanie rather than a letter, is oblivious to the confusion he has stirred all about him.
The composition is a bit odd, with the sultan's exaggerated reaction off too far to the extreme right. He is meant to be the last thing we see as we take in the busy scenario bustling with fifteen figures.
Note: Welcome home! Attempted Bloggery continues its revue of the work of prolific cartoonist E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971). Ambitious readers may wish to send in high-resolution scans or photographs of original Campbell art or of rare published cartoons and illustrations.
Alcohol, of course, is forbidden in Islam, but whether or not he knew of the prohibition, it does shows up in Campbell's harem cartoons. The college students seem utterly stunned; the Harem Girls seem...intrigued. Usually these women appear as passive figures merely to be ogled, but here, while this is still true, there is also a suggestion they may have desires of their own. The men are encountering semi-clad women who must be considerably more experienced than they are. The sultan's young son, wearing a college beanie rather than a letter, is oblivious to the confusion he has stirred all about him.
The composition is a bit odd, with the sultan's exaggerated reaction off too far to the extreme right. He is meant to be the last thing we see as we take in the busy scenario bustling with fifteen figures.
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| "Pop, I asked some of my American college friends home for the holidays[.]" E. Simms Campbell Esquire, July 1952, page 39[?] |
Note: Welcome home! Attempted Bloggery continues its revue of the work of prolific cartoonist E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971). Ambitious readers may wish to send in high-resolution scans or photographs of original Campbell art or of rare published cartoons and illustrations.
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