Cartoons – Letters from Athens

Glen Baxter has left the building

I am a huge fan of cartoons and comic strips and Glen Baxter, who passed away aged 82, was a big favourite.

Glen Baxter created a surreal artistic universe populated by erudite cowboys, tweed-clad empire-builders and malevolent Boy Scouts. His fame was higher outside England where he was considered a modern Surrealist Master. At home he sadly often fell into the funny greeting-cards category.

His drawings relied for their offbeat humour as much on their absurd deadpan captions as on the artfully simplistic drawings.

Often the drawings themselves were offbeat, such as the one featuring a man sawing off his own leg in front of two children, with the caption “Uncle Frank would keep us amused for hours”

Look at the image above: the bottom half of the lady inside the chimney suggests she is stolidly middle-aged, while the ‘husband’ looks like a teenager in his shorts. Can’t you imagine Baxter sitting at his work table thinking up all this nonsense? Not a bad day job…

Some images would depend for their effect wholly on the caption: two co-habitees glowering at each other: “The tension at No 83 had been almost unbearable ever since Eric had deliberately swallowed Toby’s anorak.”

Baxter was inspired by pulp fiction and old adventure comics which he combined with literary nonsense. The delightfully old-fashioned pictures depict incongruous characters such as cowboys, explorers and Boy Scouts uttering intellectual statements regarding art and philosophy.

This is probably not to everyone’s taste, but I love his work. And for those interested, here is a fun interview about his life and aspirations.

Interview with Glen Baxter

Miscellany

While sorting out my camera roll I came upon various photos that I had saved out of interest. I thought I might share some of them.

*Although this print is reproduced on many sites about Venice, I could not find out where to credit it…*

This one in particular fascinated me, especially after our recent trip to Venice.

It shows how the millions of wooden poles upon which the city was built were placed. The wood was transported from surrounding forests via the rivers. It does not rot but, when it comes into contact with the clay mud at the bottom of the lagoon, becomes petrified. The construction process itself is awesome.

19th century carved ivory netsuke depicting a mouse traveller. Netsuke originated in the 17th century, starting as useful accessories for fastening a pouch to a kimono, for example, but evolving into an art form. This one is attributed to Giyokuseki.

I am in awe of this simple drawing of a glass (pencil on paper). By the Spanish artist Isabel Quintanilla (1938-2017)

An astonishing Roman marble bas-relief, depicting a midwife assisting a woman having a baby. I have never seen anything like it before, and I think it is lovely. What a feat, to convey such an atmosphere of serenity in stone.

I could not resist adding a couple of cartoons I had also saved, because what’s life worth without a good laugh? The one below is from the New Yorker.

Laughing into the New Year

As we march, or slither, into an uncertain future, I thought what better way to convey my somewhat belated good wishes than by trying to amuse you. It is a well-known fact that laughter is the best medicine.

So here’s a selection from some of my favorite comic strips and New Yorker cartoons:

🔸For those who never make to midnight