Panel Cartoon Cornucopia

Hallowe’en Countdown, Day 28

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« I hope I will not be accused of undue vanity if I publicly thank Mr. Addams for immortalizing me in the person of the witch’s butler, to say nothing of the rather hairy gentleman whose clothes are strangely cut and who appears to subsist on a diet of bananas. » — Boris Karloff, from his foreword to the Addams collection Drawn and Quartered (Random House, 1942)

At the risk of being obvious, the ghoulish wit of Charles Addams brings us Hallowe’en on any old day of the year… but it’s no reason to take him for granted when the proper season slinks into view. Here’s a small selection of favourites. I’ve noticed that many latter-day collections have been plagued by terrible reproduction (heads should roll for that particular crime against art!), so I’ve gone back to the original collections in my library. Enjoy, fiends!

AddamsWitchesA
A lovely piece originally featured on the cover of The New Yorker‘s November 2, 1963 issue. This logo-free version was reprinted in The Groaning Board (Simon and Schuster, 1964.)
AddamsBusA
Addams at his understated best. A 1953 cartoon collected in Homebodies (1954, Simon and Schuster.)
AddamsSewerA
« Well, here’s where I say good night. » A Morticia prototype from an undated cartoon collected in the first Addams collection, Drawn and Quartered (Random House, 1942.)
AddamsSqueakyA
« While you’re here, there’s a squeaky trap-door I’d like you to look at. » That’s the Morticia we’ve come to know. Also reprinted in Drawn and Quartered (Random House, 1942.)

-RG

Hallowe’en Countdown, Day 20

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On a damp and chilly night, is there a finer way to keep warm than huddling with your beloved?

DeckerGhostsA
From The New Yorker 1955-1965 Album, published by Harper & Row.

Richard Decker, (b. Philadelphia, PA, May 6, 1907, d. November 1, 1988) fruitfully spent four decades as a contract cartoonist for the New Yorker. His association with the magazine began in 1929.

Along the same ordre d’idées, here’s a bonus piece about the evocative magic of old time radio, by long-time Gasoline Alley cartoonist (and bluegrass fiddler) Jim Scancarelli (b. 1941), from the April, 1979 issue of Child Life Magazine.

ShadowKnowsA

Care to fully capture and bask in this delicious melancholy? Go ahead, pour yourself a snifter of your favourite poison, hunker down in your coziest chair, and enjoy an episode or three of the classic The Shadow radio show, starring Orson Welles.

– RG

Life is too short to be living somebody else’s dream.

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A quick post in salute of Hugh Hefner (1926-2017), who truly was a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me, he remains, chief among these, one rare and precious thing: a steadfast, lifelong friend and patron to great cartoonists, a man of taste, at least in that particular area.

Here are a few relevant pieces. Mere drops in the bottomless bucket. All in good time, we’ll return to this topic.

BenDenisonCorvetteA
« I’ve been thrilled by the dazzling breakaway of your four-speed, close-ratio, synchromesh, manual transmission, and the lusty surge of your 315-horsepower, fuel-injection, high-lift cam engine… »

It’s astonishing how much toil an artist will put in, just to sell a simple gag. It doesn’t hurt if he’s recompensed decently, of course. Case in point: Ben Denison, for Playboy Magazine’s November, 1961 issue. Hugh Hefner has always known the value of his contributors, bless his great big heart.

Sokol103A
Erich Sokol (b. Vienna, 1933 – d. Mödling, 2003), originally published in Playboy’s September, 1960 issue.
DinkAliensA
« This is nothing, wait until you see the women. »

Dink Siegel (1910-2003), from Playboy’s May, 1968 issue.

Happy trails, dear Mr. Hefner!

– RG