Pageant & piRATes
Stumbled across an old issue of Pageant magazine from July 1960 containing a couple articles about cartooning: The first is called "Cartooning in a Nutshell" and the second "The Serious Side of Being Funny". The former claims to reveal the secrets of cartooning via a method of drawing every character's basic shape as a peanut (uh-huh) and the latter details what you can expect from a glorious career in cartooning "now that you've learned to draw" (wow, wasn't that easy!). Both seem to be written by Lawrence Lariar. The "Nutshell" article is complete bollocks, of course, as is any formulaic means of creating cartoons or any art; the other article is interesting, not only for its outdated look at how the industry works but also its mention of (Paul) "Peter Porges" -- an old favorite of mine from Mad magazine in the 1970s.
But what caught my attention among this issue's pages were a few illustrations. Accompanying a fascinating but somewhat disturbing article about the ultimate mass rat trap were two fine illos of rats as "piRATes" (get it?) which I've reproduced here. I could find no credit for the art, though there is a small "N." under the heel of one rodent buccaneer.
There is another spot illo later on for another column in the mag; it's the cute one to the left. It also has no credit other than the initials "R. J. D." -- no idea who this could be. Roy Doty? Not really his style, though...