Here’s a little blast from the distant past (1944, to be precise, before most of us were even a twinkle). Who among you remembers Gardner Rea (self-portrait, below bottom), the New Yorker (and elsewhere) cartoonist whose coloring-book-outline style captured the comicalities of the ’30s, ’40s, and early ’50s? He was bawdy without being obscene, absurd without being obscure. His captioned and uncaptioned gags were pithy and true.
As a celebration of visual wit, I present for your inspection a few selections from his little book enigmatically titled The Gentleman Says It’s Pixies.
Who’s your favorite underappreciated cartoonist from the past or present?
