BROTHER SEBASTIAN was a regular cartoon created by the master cartoonist Chon Day (1907-2000) in Look Magazine beginning in 1954. Here are some of the cartoons from BROTHER SEBASTIAN CARRIES ON. There are two copyrights in the indicia: © 1959 by Mr. Day and © 1957, 1958, 1959 Cowles Magazines, Inc.
Chon Day is the master of the spare line and the spare black spotting, that draws your eye to what he wants you to see.
These were quiet cartoons about a quiet Monk. He never spoke. And he was rather silly.
The look on Brother Sebastian's face tells you he will win.
Again, making the cat a full inky black forces our eyes at the cause of Brother Sebastian's uncharacteristic laughter.
Maybe the above gag is too subtle for today, but I found it terrific.
Remember back in the 1950s and 60s, there would be those "Think" signs in offices?
Shades of Charles Schulz's Woodstock!
Above: another excellent gag, and the wonderful economy of line.
Above and below: Day can even mine some office gags and apply them to a monk's life.
Above: That's about how cold it's been here. I wonder if today people would write to Look Magazine, complaining about Sebastian's near-nudity.
Above: my favorite gag showing Brother Sebastian as being able to be mischievous and practical at the same time.
When he died in 2000, The Saturday Evening Post wrote:The Post sadly regrets the passing of its longest-running cartoonist. Chon Day has been a regular fixture of the Post since 1948.
He was the master of the to-the-point punch line. We'll miss you, Chon.
"Give me the bad news, Doc. Am I going to live?"
"Oh, love is all right--if you like that sort of thing."
"What have you got against me, besides the fact that I married you?"
"I used to have low self-esteem, but hanging around with losers like you has cured me."
The above from Christopher Wheeler's Chon Day page.
-- This has been an edited version of a blog entry from 2/12/08.
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3 comments:
Thanks for posting this. Chon Day is brilliant – his work is so timeless and his sparse line... perfection!
Wow, I remember reading these books as a kid *mumble* years ago. Nice to see they still hold up. The art is timeless, and the gags are funny and clever without being smarmy or puerile - which is especially hard given the subject matter, as later B.C. demonstrated. Thanks!
Cute how Brother Sebastians's hood forms devil horns in the one where he's shoveled snow over the wall.
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