Thursday, December 03, 2009

Henry Syverson Cartoons


I missed this: There are a handful of the many, many Saturday Evening Post cartoons and spot ilustrations that Henry Syverson drew over at the SMALL ROOM blog. And it reminded me of the fine detective work involving the cartoonist behind a seminal office poster.

Henry Syverson was (experts agree) the guy who drew that ubiquitous "You Want It When?" cartoon poster. You know the one:

Like I wrote on the old April 14, 2006 edition of the Mike Lynch Cartoons blog:

The other day, Mark Evanier posted [the above] iconic image on his blog.

Anyone who's done any office work in North America in the past couple of decades has seen this widely reproduced little poster of the laughing "You Want It When?" guys.

Mark asks: Who drew it and what is its origin?

I'm a magazine cartoonist. I've always been interested in cartoon history. And I've always wondered who drew it. It sure looks like a 1950s style. Most of my colleagues don't know where it came from. But a lot of cartoonists agree that it's Henry Syverson.
And Mark Evanier provides the post mortem proof here.

4 comments:

Mark Anderson said...

You gotta love Syerson's style. So much fun to look at!

Mike Lynch said...

Syverson is on my shortlist of cartoonists who deserve to be rediscovered with big, coffee table sized books full of their wonderful work. Some others on the list: Reamer Keller, George Dole, Otto Soglow, Percy Crosby, Virgil "VIP" Partch, and J.W. Taylor (a great unsung British gag cartoonist for PUNCH).

TrevorVYS said...

I have an original -- not used in a Wall Street annual report from back in the early 80s. What should I do with it. It is just a cute little penguin.

Unknown said...

I loved this guy. First thing I'd do when I got the latest Reader's Digest was look for Syverson's cartoons. They always made me grin, lifting my spirits.