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Sempé Fi: Turkey Run
Filed under: Sempé Fi Tagged: art, covers, Emily Coates, George Booth, Michael Quinion, Pollux, Thanksgiving, turkey, words
Pollux writes:
The November 30, 2009 cover of The New Yorker gives us the traditional Thanksgiving images of Pilgrim and Turkey. However, in the hands of an experienced artists like George Booth, the relationship between Pilgrim and Turkey is turned upside-down. Booth gives us a "Thanksgiving Skedaddle."
Booth's executioner is not the hale and hearty pilgrim he used to be. He cuts a pathetic figure, his shirt flapping in the wind, his belly button exposed. The old pilgrim is skedaddling and skedaddling as fast as he can.
The angry turkey has overpowered him. It displays its colorful feathers in an angry ruffle that dominates the cover. The bird's cruel talons cut through the November air like corn threshers. They near their target.
It must have been a sudden coup. Perhaps the turkey remained quiet and cooperative until it rested its head on the chopping block, waited until the pilgrim raised his axe, and then -a sudden explosion of anger and rebellion. The pilgrim's axe still spins in the air.
George Booth creates the illusion of rapid and sudden movement with his combination of narrow, black brushstrokes and wider, colored ones that capture the chaos of angry bird chasing surprised man. Splashes of imperfect spots and lines add to the chaos in this scene. (The word "skedaddle" may in fact derive, according to this piece by word expert Michael Quinion, from the Scots skiddle, meaning to splash water about or spill.)
Instead of a genteel, calm scene of Thanksgiving splendor, Booth gives us humor in a scene in which the Thanksgiving tables are turned. As Emily Coates points out in her article on New Yorker cartoonists, "chaos typically reigns in a Booth cartoon. Auto body shops, junkyards and shanty interiors establish the ambiance. Cats and dogs hang about. Characters squabble."
Coates' article also points out that Booth is part of an older guard of New Yorker cartoonists whose work appears less often in recent years. Nevertheless, Booth's brush still wields enormous power to amuse and entertain. His work remains funny, effective, and interesting. I give thanks for Booth.
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
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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