From the Dick Buchanan Files: Captions Courageous 1946 - 1968

Just last Friday, meeting over bagels and hot beverages, fellow gag cartoonist John Klossner and I casually complied a list of magazine cartoon gag lines that imply a silly picture. These are typical pieces of dialogue that you might see in a cartoon. Standard lines like, "Well, that's gotta hurt." or "Are you toying with me?" or "If I tell you, I'll have to kill you." or "George, stop mumbling." or "He thought it was a good idea at the time." You get the idea. Dick Buchanan was on the same wavelength this week!  ("Hey, it's déjà vu all over!") And he was not so casual. He entered his enormous cartoon clip file and emerged with eighteen examples that he shares with all of us today. Wow! Thank you and take it away, Dick!

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CAPTIONS COURAGEOUS
(1946-1968)


Where do cartoonists get their gags? The answer is simple, gags are pretty much everywhere, just look around. One approach is to start with a caption, one with which many readers are familiar, the sort of things many of us have heard or said ourselves at one time or another. Here are a few examples exhumed from the Cartoon Clip File crypt . . . Take a Look.


“WE HAVE TO STOP MEETING LIKE THIS.”

1. CLYDE LAMB. 1000 Jokes Magazine March-May, 1956.

2. HERB GREEN. 1000 Jokes Magazine March-May, 1964.

3. SLIM (Robert Johnson). 1000 Jokes Magazine September-November, 1968.

 

“CAN I KEEP HIM?”

 

1. JOHN GALLAGHER. 1000 Jokes Magazine March-May, 1957.

2. JACK TIPPIT. The Saturday Evening Post September 28 – August 4, 1962.

3. BARNEY TOBEY. Collier’s July 27, 1946.

 

“YOU KNOW TOO MUCH.”

 

1. AL KAUFMAN. Collier’s October 21, 1950.

 

2. ERNEST MARQUEZ. 1000 Jokes Magazine Summer, 1951.

3. VIRGIL PARTCH. Collier’s September 20, 1947.

 

“YOU RANG, SIR?”

 

1. FRANK BAGINSKI. Argosy Magazine September, 1965.

2. GERALD HOFFNUNG. Lilliput May, 1954.

3. DON OREHEK. The Saturday Evening Post September 28-August 4, 1962.

“I LIKE IT BETTER OVER THERE.”

1. RICHARD (DICK) CAVALLI. American Magazine August, 1950.

2. HERB WILLIAMS. Collier’s September 23, 1950.

3. CHARLES RODRIGUES. Cartoons & Gags February, 1962.

 

“SOMEDAY WE’LL LOOK BACK ON THIS AND LAUGH.”

1. MARTHA BLANCHARD. The Saturday Evening Post May 7, 1949.

2. VIRGIL PARTCH. Collier’s November 24, 1951.

 

3. CLYDE LAMB. Call of the Wild Brown & Bigelow, 1950’s