Our final gallery of caricatures begins with one by André Rouveyre. Jean Veber, who drew a number of portraits of Allais, chose to portray him as a horse in this sketch.  At least, I think that’s a horse. The playwright Sacha Guitry, who had the unfortunate experience of trying to write a play with Allais, […]

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I didn’t know that the Illinois State Department of Health issued cartoons; this one is striking.  I found it in a 1928 book called Safe Counsel, by B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols.  Don’t be like this man! (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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Georges Lorin made this sketch of Allais sometime in the ’90s. Jean Veber added to his gallery of Allais caricatures, with a portrait of Allais in the costume he proposed for the members of the Académie Française. Jean Villemot drew this curious portrait for the cover of Le Sourire. An anonymous silhouette, from a country […]

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Today is April 1, a day sanctified by the extraordinary French humorist Alphonse Allais; and I am happy to announce that it brings the release of Captain Cap, Volume 2. Allais’s stories of his absurd anti-hero, first published in 1902, have been meticulously translated and illustrated by Doug Skinner, in the second volume of a […]

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Jean Veber drew several caricatures of Allais in Le Journal, January 6, 1896; here are two of them. Ernest La Jeunesse (who, parenthetically, had a long affair with Allais’s wife, and may have fathered her child) drew this sketch of the unhappy husband.   Pierre le Trividie drew this portrait of the young Allais in […]

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As I continue to translate and illustrate Alphonse Allais, I’ve been contemplating the many caricatures of him.  Having already offered portraits of his semi-fictional antihero, Captain Cap, I’ll now post some of the man himself.  Internet Allais buffs, you’re welcome. The first is by Cabriol, aka Georges Lorin, from the Hydropathe, January 28, 1880.  Allais’s […]

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Alphonse Allais was a peerless French humorist, celebrated posthumously by the Surrealists for his elegant style and disturbing imagination.  Among other things, he wrote a series of wonderful stories about his friend Albert Caperon.  In Allais’s hands, “Captain Cap” became an adventurer and inventor, with a disdain for bureaucracy and a heroic thirst for cocktails.  […]

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“Life’s Game of Artists,” published sometime around 1910 by Parker Brothers, featured cartoons by Life magazine’s roster of illustrators.  This was, of course, the early humorous Life, not the later oversized photo mag.  The cartoons usually depicted courting couples, often with Cupid hovering nearby.  The game itself is a version of Quartet or Authors, in […]

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Mutt and Jeff discuss taxes, in this daily strip from 1926.  Jeff has it all figured out. (Posted by Doug Skinner.  From The Mutt and Jeff Cartoons, Book 11, 1926.)

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We return to the Bowery News, “The Voice of Society’s Basement,” for some selections from Dec. 15, 1948. First, some cartoons by staff artist C. L. Burlew. Next, a report from Cleveland. And, finally, something for the ladies. (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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