Three Things: The Caption Edition, II
I’ve written before about how much I enjoy captioned illustrations. The illustrations are of course delightful, but what I love most about them are the captions. Those little sentences (or sentence fragments), taken out of context are often entertaining, mysterious, and, for me, always inspiring as writing prompts.
Here are three such captions. Care to write a story or scene around them?
R. Crumb, illustrator. Illustration for Charles Bukowski’s short story, There’s No Business. Published by Black Sparrow Press, 1990.
Caption reads: “Jake fired, and Duncan’s legs went out from under him as if struck by a giant hand.”
Thornton Utz, illustrator. Accompanying the story “Convict’s Secret,” by John and Ward Hawkins. The Saturday Evening Post, August 9, 1958.
Auber Melville Jackson. Illustration for The Revelations of a Sprite … Edited [or rather, written] and illustrated by A. M. Jackson. Published by T. F. Unwin, London, 1897.
I very much enjoy captioned illustrations. The kind that accompany (usually older) novels or stories, the caption an excerpt from a pivotal scene. When I find old books in shops, you can bet I’ll buy it if it has an exceptionally smashing illustration-caption combo, regardless of how promising the rest of the book appears.
I particularly enjoy these illustrations out of context. They are, of course, meant to supplement the larger work, but I prefer them as standalone stories: one brief (and usually action-packed) moment, enough to set the imagination running wild to construct the rest of the story.
There are way too many gems to pick from (read: you can bet this won’t be the last Three Things featuring captioned illustrations), so today let’s narrow the subject matter down to sleuths; specifically, sleuths originating in the 1930s, shall we? We’ll begin with an illustration from a Nero Wolfe story (and while you’re at it, check out the rest of this fantastic illustration collection on flickr), then move on to Dick Tracy (from a Big Little Book), and finish with one of my childhood heroes, Nancy Drew.
Thornton Utz, illustrator. Accompanying a Nero Wolfe story written by Rex Stout. The American Magazine, August 1951. Via leifpeng.
Chester Gould, creator. Newman, Paul S. Dick Tracy Encounters Facey. Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing Company, 1967.
Russell H. Tandy, illustrator. Keene, Carolyn. The Sign of the Twisted Candles. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1933. Via University of Maryland Libraries.
