Thursday, February 15, 2024

Cartoons from "The Popular Book of Cartoons" (1946) Part 2: Dorothy McKay

More gag cartoons from The Popular Book of Cartoons, published  and copyright 1946 by Popular Library, Inc. Some of these cartoons date back to 1935 and originally appeared in College Humor magazine. Part one is here

 

 

A 1934 Life Magazine cover by Dorothy McKay. Source: Internet Archive.

Dorothy McKay (1904 - 1974), who is credited here as Dorothy McCay. Her detail-oriented, lush and observant illustrative gag cartoon style is rewarding to linger over. But some of the humor is pretty dated and inappropriate for today, seeing as these cartoon is going on a century old.

Here's her NY Times obituary from June 5, 1974:


"Dorothy McKay, a cartoonist and illustrator who contributed drawings to Esquire magazine for many years, died Monday in Midtown Hospital. The wife of Donald W. McKay, an artist and illustrator, she was 70 years old and lived at 9 Christopher Street.

"Mrs. McKay, the former Dorothy C. Jones of San Francisco, studied at the California School of Art there and later at the Art Students League here.

"President Franklin D. Roosevelt relished one of her election year drawings for Esquire so much that he obtained the original for the White House.

"The scene was outside a well-to‐do suburban home; a little boy was chalking something on the sidewalk, and his sister was looking on with disapproval. The caption read, 'Johnny just wrote a bad word!' The word on the sidewalk was 'Roosevelt.'

"Besides her husband, Mrs. McKay leaves a daughter, Phoebe."
 
 
The Roosevelt cartoon originally appeared in Esquire Magazine November 1, 1938 issue. Here's a copy of that cartoon from the Granger Archive:



 Here are Dorothy McKay's cartoons from "The Popular Book of Cartoons:"










 

More of her work is here.

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