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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #416
Here is my entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #416 for February 24, 2014. The cartoon is by Danny Shanahan. The caption is mine."I'm married to my work."Hmm. Perhaps these are better...
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N. C. Wyeth's White Admiral in the Woods
Illustration House will be holding its next auction of fine illustration art on March 15. The featured lot is N. C. Wyeth's illustration to Herbert D. Ward's "The White Admiral of the Woods" which...
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Apologies from Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss was born 110 years ago on this day. Here he sends an illustrated apology for a scheduling...
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Ronald Searle: Two for the New York Times, Almost
These two illustrations by Ronald Searle for the New York Times are examples of just how good commercial illustrations can be. As it happens, they were never published, but that's not so unusual in the...
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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #417
Here is my entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #417 for March 3, 2014. The cartoon is the work of Corey Pandolph. I suppose the caption couldn't be anyone's but mine."So now de Blasio has...
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New Yorker Cover Color Separations
A rare and quite possibly unique collection of New Yorker cover color separations dating from the 1950's through part of the 1970's has been offered on eBay. There are a total of 1025 examples, but not...
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Drew Friedman: Keith Richards' Malady
Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards is quoted in the September 2011 Reader's Digest."I'm free of hypochondria--although I have everything else."Drew Friedman's illustration shows the aging Stones...
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Drew Friedman's Old Jewish Comedians
Those familiar with this blog may recall the first opening I ever attended was a Drew Friedman show. Well, I guess I haven't learned my lesson. Last night I went to the opening of "Drew Friedman's Old...
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Gardner Rea: Is Wife-Beating Funny?
Well, it's International Women's Day, and perhaps it's a good time to reflect on how bad things have been. This cartoon was drawn by Gardner Rea and was published in my beloved New Yorker in 1936....
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Michael ffolkes: Spanking the Maid
Here's another sad example of violence against women being used as the basis for a not-very-funny cartoon. The cartoonist is Michael ffolkes, usually a favorite, and the watercolor appeared half a...
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My Entries in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest for January/February 2014
The first three times I entered the Moment magazine Cartoon Caption Contest, I was selected by the New Yorker's cartoon editor Bob Mankoff as a finalist. Unless it's beginner's luck, this must mean I...
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Pretentious Krazy
"Mary's a Grand Old Name" was a song in George M. Cohan's "45 Minutes from Broadway" which had its premier in 1906. The chorus states:For it is Mary, MaryPlain as any name can beBut with propriety,...
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Groucho's French Order of Arts and Letters
Steve Stoliar is the author of Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House, now in its second edition. When Groucho Marx's French Order of Arts and Letters was offered on eBay last October, the...
View ArticleTwenty-Five Years of the Internet
Early in our marriage when my wife first suggested getting a computer, it was mostly a word-processor she was after. We certainly had no awareness of the internet then, and as a practical matter it had...
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Esther
This illustration of Esther for Radio Times was a part of artist Eric Fraser's estate. It was included by Chris Beetles Gallery in a 2013 exhibition of the illustrator's graphic work and was sold for...
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George H. Wright in the Boudoir
This cartoon by George Hand Wright from the old Life may date from the 1920's. Captions were generally a ponderous affair in those days, large chunks of dialogue with little payoff. The single-speaker...
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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #418
Here is my entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #418 for March 10, 2014. The cartoon is by Tom Cheney, but I created the comfy caption all by myself."Was it your stomach that growled?"These...
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Dorothy McKay: Due Diligence
A piece of original color cartoon art by Dorothy McKay is being offered at auction today at 1 p.m. The sale is being held at Illustration House in New York City. The drawing was published in Esquire...
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Barbara Shermund's Scathing Letter
In the 1950's and for decades before and afterward, color cartoons were simply never published in the New Yorker. Nevertheless, on eBay it is tempting for sellers to describe any original cartoon art...
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Barbara Shermund at the Zoo
A Barbara Shermund color cartoon is dated August 1955. The New Yorker, of course, was published weekly at the time and Esquire, with which Shermund was then associated, was a monthly magazine. The...
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