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Filed under: Seal Barks Tagged: Carl Gable, Cartoon Caption Contest, cartoons, Harry Bliss, Mick Stevens, O Caption! My Caption!, Roz Chast
It's time to revive the Cartoon Caption Contest interviews! (Like this one, or this, or this.) As our comrade at Blog About Town has pointed out, and as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has loyally reported (Newsweek, too), Mr. Gable not only won a previous caption contest—think of the odds! Especially since the winning caption was, in fact, funny!—but is now a finalist in another. If anything merits bringing back the interviews (which several readers have been asking about, in any case), this is it. I googled you, Carl Gable, but I find this method is often easier. Can't wait to hear from a legend in the making! I see you're also a graphic designer, so we can chat about that, too. Three cheers whether you win or not; seriously, you're clearly some kind of super-evolved caption-man, destined to outwrite and, indeed, eclipse us all. Except, of course, for Roz Chast.
Update: Look for some Gable goodness later this week. And I see I've mentioned him before, after his abominably good first win. This'll be fun.
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Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Proposal: a better-designed Metrocard (for A Brief Message)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Micro-essay: on saving time through inspiration (for A Brief Message)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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Comments
Did you know that the caption contest isn't open to Canadians?
This is a serious problem.
I bet he'll win! He's got the best caption, with just the right amount of suspense and cruelty. At least, for me!
Slutsky, I'd like to say that I've left plenty of space for Canada on my Caption Contest Map, but the truth is that I'm just including Alaska and Hawaii. It seems that even Puerto Rico is disqualified.
Carolita, I've been thinking: layoffs rhymes with payoffs and day offs and stay offs and way offs. There really is some song potential there....
But Carl Gable (any relation to Clark?) is up against two nominees from New York. That could make it tough for him....
There's a map?!
Yes, look down there at the bottom of the blog (this one, I mean), under "The Rossosphere"—bingo!
By the way, there's a nice mini-review, a response to the Kakutani humorlessnessfest, of the new Chast book on One-Way Street.
David, in New York it's every man for himself, so I'm going with Gable. (Being from New York won't help those other two, unless they meet Gable in a dark alley.)
:)
That's a map all right. I'm not sure what we can learn from it, but the big empty pin-less upper half really kind of rubs it in.
I'm continually aghast about the Canada thing, Slutsky. I first posted about it here. Not letting Canadians enter is suspicious; it implies that we'd be outclassed. We probably would be. Why shouldn't that one Albanian reader have a chance to enter the contest, anyway? It has to be some dumb legal thing. It's like the "World" Series, but worse.
I am definitely voting for Mr. Gable's caption. Not only is it clearly the most humourous, but something about it makes me think that he is probably a very kind and nurturing person. I see him being given to sudden bursts of generosity and good will. I would bet money (based purely on what I read under the related cartoon) that Carl is not only a brilliant writer but also a fabulous dancer, a friend to the homeless and a complete phenomenon in bed.
I actually know some Canadians who have entered the contest using ethically questionable methods involving friends' addresses, drop boxes etc.
They also seem to have some weird policies concerning subscriptions to the frosty north--but that's another story.