CARTOON BLOG

Showing posts with label magazines. Show all posts

1993

Art Spiegelman

Well, that's it for Valentine's Day this year. Come back next V-Day when we'll post a dozen more. Hope your day was love-ly.

There's something about a Freas cover that was always enjoyable—a certain spirit, a certain joi de sci-fi. He could combine realism and caricature in a way that felt balanced . . . and fun! I used to collect Freas stuff with a fervor. I've got some more coming up.

Frank Kelly Freas — July, 1977

Discharmament

Oliver Herford has been called America's Oscar Wilde. He was a humorist illustrator, cartoonist and writer, creating primarily in the early 20th century for magazines, children's books and such. This page from Life, the humor magazine, is an editorial cartoon that probably made even more sense back in its day of 1922.

When asked what his loftiest ambition was, Herford answered, 'I've always wanted to throw an egg into an electric fan.' A man after my own cart.

Lots of Inspiration

No matter how dated Rolf Armstrong's subjects may look, I still get lots of inspiration from his technique to bring to my pastel drawings.

Rolf Armstrong — Puck — March 27, 1915

January 1 — Stop This Theme

Below, another gritty Lady in the Red Dress Winter Fiction cover. And with this group I think I'll stop this theme of New Yorker holiday covers that you've had to put up with for almost a month. I could go on for several more days with New Year covers, but really, I think we've had enough for now. That doesn't mean I won't return to my New Yorker stash every now and then, cuz there are bee-you-tiful covers throughout the year.

Anyway, once again, I'm wishing for a year we can all feel good about, but let's compare notes in 365.

December 31

Directly below, I do believe Charles Addams' New Year baby was reflecting the attitude of America, facing Kennedy's New Frontier. It was the birth, not only of a new year and a new decade, but of a new post-war era.

In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention earlier in the year, Kennedy said:

We stand on the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams, a frontier of unknown opportunities and beliefs in peril. Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.

In the words of Robert D. Marcus: “Kennedy entered office with ambitions to eradicate poverty and to raise America’s eyes to the stars through the space program"