Saturday, July 20, 2013

Great Cartoons of the World Volume IV, part 1

Got the second volume of this after the ninth one which is why I've been moving around in numerical order. So far the binding is such that I can scan something that goes across two pages but we'll see how that goes as I go further to the center of the book.

Here is the cover to this series, from 1970.  photo 7-20-1_zpsd957a3a2.jpg The front flap explains the book as well as some specific cartoons, which we'll get to as they appear. Says editor John Bailey:

The cartoonist is not the same as the rest of us. His eye is diagnostic, like the doctor who can tell what the problem is as soon as the patient steps over the threshold.

You and I see around us the honeymoon couple, the man with too many children, the husband and wife who hate each other, the TV repairmen who exaggerate and overcharge, and the deliveries that come too late, to which we merely say, “Oh yes, that's the way it is with me.” The cartoonist penetrates more deeply, seeking the ludicrous, searching for cartoon ideas.

The cartoonist knows what we are up to. He sees through the surface and status of fancy manners, and through the illusion and fakery of the facade we build up, and observes what is really going on. For example, that the married couple, with their arms around each other, lighting each others' cigarettes, are really out to kill each other. When he shows us this truth, we laugh. Nothing is quite as funny as the truth.


J. M. Bosc  photo 7-20-2_zps94e4f59f.jpg Vladimir Renčin for Dikobraz  photo 7-20-3_zps0d98f823.jpg Miroslav Barták for Dikobraz  photo 7-20-4_zpsf0a430ac.jpg Frank Modell for The New Yorker  photo 7-20-5_zpsfe699dd4.jpg Norman Thelwell in Punch  photo 7-20-6_zpsf188676b.jpg Two pages by Jean-Jacques Sempé for Editions Denoël  photo 7-20-7_zps45407825.jpg  photo 7-20-8_zpse2b1d4b2.jpg Ton Smits  photo 7-20-9_zpsfad19cde.jpg Chon Day for Saturday Evening Post  photo 7-20-10_zpse27a561f.jpg John Glashan  photo 7-20-11_zps989fc95b.jpg Jules Stauber  photo 7-20-12_zpsba6899a3.jpg Ed Arno for Look  photo 7-20-13_zpsaf8c0542.jpg

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