Here are some scans from The Tough Coughs As He Ploughs the Dough: Early Writings and Cartoons by Dr. Suess.
I thought I was pretty familiar with Theo’s career, from his work on Private Snafu training films and WWII Editorial cartoons and ads for War Bonds, which, it was always bizarre to see the guy who did Cat in the Hat caricature Hitler and Mussolini…
to his short-lived comic strip Hejji, to his screenplay for The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, and then into the kids books.
However, I was unfamiliar with these gag cartoons he did for Judge…here’s a small smattering.
There’s lots of gags about people detoxing and hallucinating weird Dr. Suess creatures. References to absinthe orgies in Cambridge, ha.
This last sheds an interesting light on his Hejji strip…which was dropped by King Features Syndicate supposedly because there were complaints this sequence was too sexual…
(Scan taken from Chris Sims Comics Alliance post.)
I can’t see the mushroom sequence as sexual myself, but now I’m willing to admit the doctor may have had a bit of sex on the brain revisiting this palace setting… Seven Lady Godivas, his book for adults, featuring 7 naked ladies, was always a favorite.
This is pretty much my favorite thing ever though…
It’s a clock made of animals.
The book, edited by Richard Marschall, also has the ads Dr. Suess drew for a bug repellent called, Flit (the first of which was the wellspring of the phrase, “Quick Henry, the Flit!”).
I really wish I could post this whole book. Perhaps I’ll visit the Dr. Suess collection at nearby Dartmouth and do another post on the good doctor.
I also wanted to point people to Mike Lynch’s post on a book Virgil Partch illustrated with some, as always, inspired, beautiful gag cartoons…VIP If you’re into cartooning, and you don’t already visit Mike’s blog, you should!
