02 July 2011

Barbara who? A great cartoonist

Looking at New Yorker cartoons of 1929–1930s, I ended up noting one cartoonist's name time and again, and finally looking it up—only to find that Wikipedia thinks it's a misspelling.

Michael Maslin has tried to correct history's fame imbalance with his Revisiting Barbara Shermund.

Not only do the cartoons still work, but they are as timeless as human affectations are. The style of the artwork is part of what makes each piece work so well, but I can't post them here. Instead, here are two captions:
"He has the most marvelous vocabulary—I don't know whether he'll use it all this evening or not"
(1/4/30) This one made me not just smile but laugh, having just finished reading a marvelous but collection by Will Self.
Another (12/14/29): "Oh, of course I don't really smoke—just puff."