George Booth, New Yorker Cartoonist of Sublime Zaniness, Dies at 96

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

George Booth, the New Yorker cartoonist who created a world of oddballs sharing life’s chaos with a pointy-eared bull terrier that once barked a flower to death, and sometimes with a herd of cats that shredded couches and window shades between sweet naps, died on Tuesday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 96.

His daughter and only immediate survivor, Sarah Booth, said the cause was complications of dementia.

In a typical Booth cartoon, a lot happens at once. A stunned dog leaps three feet in the air. A shocked cat bounds for an open window, knocking a newspaper from the hands of a shaken man — all as his frumpy wife stands in a kitchen doorway with blackened eyes, announcing: “Eyeliner is back!”

Or, as a score of cats lounge in a parlor and a man in pajamas scowls into a newspaper in his easy chair, his wife in the kitchen says: “Edgar, please run down to the shopping center right away, and get some milk and cat food. Don’t get canned tuna, or chicken, or liver, or any of those awful combinations. Shop around and get a surprise. The pussies like surprises.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/arts/george-booth-dead.html

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[CTyankee]

1. Booth was my absolute favorite cartoonist in the Newyorker Magazine.

An old lady with a kitty saying to her shaken dog: "I want you to think good thoughts about a pussycat."

It always made me laugh.

[Wild blueberry]

2. Great cartoonist

Rest in peace

[Polybius]

3. I'm bad with dry humor, so I don't get that second cartoon at all

Why is he telling it to a dog? And is "the seedless variety" supposed to be a pun?

In any regards though, RIP.

[CTyankee]

4. It's The New Yorker Magazine. It's their thing.

I lived in New York once upon a time. Nothing like it. I loved New York but I'm too old for its zeitgeist now.

[GoneOffShore]

5. It's a portrait of loneliness and solitude.

Notice the pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen, the piece of toast on the floor, and the rather hapless dog: The man talks to no one during the day. He comes home and tells his dog about the most interesting thing that has happened to him, which happens to be the green grape "of the seedless variety". This is very much in the vein of Sempé and Thurber, solitary people who live lives of quiet desperation. It's not humorous, but thought provoking.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Dogs aren't supposed to eat grapes.

So, all the above, plus the idea of forbidden fruit.