And now farewell

...to cartoonist David Langdon. I posted some of his cartoons in 2009 to wish him a happy 95th birthday and now comes the sad news that he died this week.

He contributed to the New Yorker from 1948 and to many other newspapers and perodicals during and after World War II. The bulk of his cartoons, however, were published in Punch for more than half a century, from 1937 until it folded in 1992. They include these three, which appeared in 1968, 1976, and 1982.

'No, I think he's all right to ask the way. It's the chaps in round black helmets who knock your teeth in.'

'He wants twenty-five per cent of the gross, with an agreed minimum advance guarantee, plus doing our own tidying up.'

'Sorry, madam—the chef says he cannot reveal his sauces.'

Technical support

On the train

"I'm just ringing to let everyone know I'm an arsehole..."

Private Eye

First aid

"I'd say loosen his flies but who listens to sex therapists?"

Arnold Frederick Wiles, Punch, 1982

He's behind you!

Young Richard Whittington has a prophetic

nightmare of the way posterity will picture him

George Morrow, Punch 1925

On the banks of the cool Shalimar

By special request, another hippopotamus. This one is James Thurber's.

"What have you done with Dr Millmoss?"

The old ones are the best

Paul Crum (Roger Pettiward) drew this for Punch in 1937. I always used to think of it as one of Thurber's; perhaps I confused it with his similarly hippo-based "What have you done with Dr Millmoss?"

"I keep thinking it's Tuesday."

In the midst of death...

Some of the best Punch cartoons had no captions. Here is Ronald Searle, 1955.

Missing the draft

R H Brock, 1916

'How is it you're not at the Front, young man?'
'Cause there ain't no milk at that end, mum.'

During the First World War the cartoons in Punch were often beautifully illustrated but rarely funny, with lengthy captions usually featuring dialogue in supposed Cockney or upper-class speech leading to a laboured punch line. The gentle simplicity of this one comes like a breath of fresh air.

An earlier Prince Charlie

"So it's agreed. We support your claim to the

throne if you appear on our shortbread tins."

David Haldane, 1982 (The Best of Punch)

Untitled

No 12 in an occasional series of extracts from The Postcard Century

June 1957: D. Underwood in Blackpool to Miss Vosper in Plymouth: Hope this suits, gosh some of them I wouldn't dare post. Having a grand look around, the hotel is lovely & a nice crowd of people here...

A good gag with a built-in alibi (the brush hanging on the wall) in case of trouble with the local Watch Committee. School of Donald McGill although the artist remains anonymous.

Nuisance call

"It's The Wild again"

John Donegan, 1987 (The Best of Punch)

Eloquence

Edwin (suddenly, after a long pause): 'Darling!'
Angelina: 'Yes, darling?'
Edwin: 'Nothing, darling. Only darling, darling!'
[Bilious Old Gentleman feels quite sick]

In 1888 Gerald du Maurier drew this lovely picture for Punch. Later, with another cartoon, he created a phrase which is still used today.

Global meltdown

The world panics, but not Le Monde, which has this:

Curious creatures

In James Thurber's The Beast in Me and Other Animals, published in 1948, there was a collection of drawings which he called A New Natural History, featuring such creatures as the Hopeless Quandary.....

...the Whitefaced Rage and the Blind Rage.

I wonder whether Thurber got the idea from A Phenomenal Fauna by Carolyn Wells, with pictures by Oliver Hereford, which came out in 1901. I discovered this charming old children's picture book today in Project Gutenberg, where it was posted this week as an addition to its library of 100,000 free downloadable books. Here is the Brick Bat and its accompanying verse:

Oft through the stillness of the summer night

We see the Brick Bat take his rapid flight.

And, with unerring aim, descending straight,

He meets a cat on the back garden gate.

The little Brick Bat could not fly alone,—

Oh, no; there is a power behind the thrown.

I said just a chickpea salad, didn’t I?

This is the time of year when many of us are planning to prepare and then consume one or more gargantuan meals. Thurber notes that not everyone will enjoy them. “I don’t want any part of it!”

Another Thurber

"Have you no code, man?"

Greetings from the other side

One doesn’t hear much about Spiritualism* these days; I suppose there are so many other, newer, crackpot ideas vying for attention that survivals from the nineteenth century can’t compete, though Hahnemann’s quaint concept from the late eighteenth century still has its adherents.

A few weeks ago the New Statesman reminded us of Spiritualism with an article by one Libby Clark, who is an "Officiant" of the Spiritualists National Union and who has been a working Spiritualist Medium for 30 years:
Spiritualism is not, as is commonly believed, a strange cult meeting in darkened rooms to 'call up the dead', but an officially recognised religious movement with its own churches and Ministers who possess the same rights and privileges as other religions.
The difference between Spiritualism and other religions is the ability through Mediumship to prove that the human spirit survives death. Our services are taken by Spiritualist Mediums, who are individuals able to communicate with those who have died, and provide conclusive evidence of their continued existence in the Spirit World to their families and loved ones here.

But, as Thurber observed, mediums don’t always get it quite right:

'I can't get in touch with your uncle, but there's a horse here that wants to say hello.'

* The present-day descendant of Spiritualism is the mishmash of preposterous beliefs called New Age.

Watery Fowls

Episode 8 went out for the first time twenty-eight years ago; this was The Psychiatrist, in which Sybil Fawlty was so impressed by the medallion man’s “Pretentious, moi?”. Since then, the phrase has entered the language: Google finds 16,500 references.

Here is a new take on it:

"I may be pretentious, but you're jejune."

[John Leavitt: The Chronicle Review]

Now, the picture

Last year I posted a note of the captions to some of Thurber’s drawings without showing the drawings, thus irritating some unfortunate people who do not have his complete works on their shelves. I shall make amends, starting today:

‘Perhaps this will refresh your memory!’