While I won't be scanning all 1000 jokes, here is a healthy sample for your viewing pleasure. Let's start with an advertisement that let's everyone know that there's Amazing Proof That Anyone Can Play Music, even Lawrence Welk!
"And I say, as a husband, you're a shining example of a horrible example."A sketchy, loose, spare gag cartoon. I like how simply this cartoon was drawn. No background, no major details (not even those little lines to denote columns in the newspaper he's holding). By his beard stubble, and the way he's slumped in his chair, we can discern this is the end of a bad working day and the Mrs. is just piling on an insult in what promises to be a bad evening. I can't make out the signature.
"I hope you don't mind. My husband is getting so he hardly notice me any more."Mort Temes, a prolific gag cartoonist who, so I've been told by colleagues, is alive and well and retired somewhere in the Garden State, contributes the above. Another marriage-in-trouble joke, but a funny idea I've never seen before.
OK, let's cleanse the cartoon palate with some classified ads:
John Gallagher submits that the old timer getting paroled here is in for some massive cultural trouble. Wait until he finds out about Women's Lib and Hillary Clinton and all that!
"We brought the Smiths. They were eating with us when suddenly we remembered we were supposed to be having dinner with you people."
Jack Tyrrell's gag made me smile so I had to include it. I love the squashed hats on the guys, like they just mashed them on their heads and raced over.
"Besides writing the script for the show I have to prepare material so he's the life of every party he goes to!"
Reamer Keller, another new Jersey cartoonist, contributes the above cartoon that certainly brought the WGA strike to mind. I like his loose style.
"Lois, I was wondering .... when my boss comes to dinner tomorrow .... what I mean is .... uh, would you mind ...."
Above: Harry Mace gives us a sense of what a 1950s upscale suburban living room interior looks like in this rather oddball gag.
We now break for an ad:
"I'd like a new suit -- but let me warn you -- I'm fussy!"
Orlando Busino, the one and only, nails it. I like imagining snooty Mr. Fussy here, walking around town in his undies.
"Gosh, I'm sorry, but I ate one -- then I just couldn't seem to stop ..."
Looks like an early Herb Green cartoon. I'm glad he wrote PEANUTS on the bags since I couldn't tell what they were. IMHO, we need to see piles of empty shells and the trainer's enlarged belly for this to scan.
Above: Bob Schroeter with a silent golf gag. I like the succession of expressions on the golfer's face, from expectant in panel one, to downright disgusted.
"Bob and Ruth must have gone over their heads with they bought this place."
Al Kaufman, another prolific gag cartoonist that I see in most every collection of the era, contributes the above. I like these kind of gags that address a still-common problem of living beyond one's means and then suggesting a silly solution.
Above: along the same vein of solving life's problems with silly (yet, at their root, practical) suggestions, Bob Barnes (signing with a stylized "B B"), contributes "Necessity: The Mother of Invention."
"That all depends. Which ocean did you wish to face?"
Al Johns shows us that help ain't what it used to be.
I can't resist another Orlando Busino gag. And it's another one making fun of snooty nose-in-the-air types. Even the chi-chi poodle is pointing her nose in the air! (How does she ever find the fire hydrant, then?)
"She still loves you, doesn't she, Rudy."
Dick Ericson's cartoon took me a moment before I saw the shattered glass on the newsstand floor and actually had that "aha" moment when I got the gag. Maybe the lack of a question mark in the gag line cause me a bit of confusion.
"Dinner ... movies ... and THEN what?"
Sharp line work by Harry Mace as he give us everything: foreground, background, and the three players. I like the touch of Dad's pipe and jar of tobacco by his easy chair.
Above: this worldless Gallagher gag shows us a faux pas that would maybe go unnoticed in the 21st century. Men were more chivalrous back then. Clicking on it gives what I would guess is pretty much the actual size of the original. I admire Gallagher's cartoony line.
Stan Fine with a big multi-panel gag with a cooties-fearin' pre-teen boy at the movies.
"I'll say this for Elsie ... she certainly has an open mind ... and it goes well with her mouth."
I can't make out the signature here, but this is the kind of gag that editors would not buy today. It's insulting to women, maybe even misogynistic. Regardless, I liked the wash technique -- and it seems there's a suggestion of, well, how to put it? It looks like her skirt is not opaque, y'know?
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