Judge, 1929-05-18 · page 27 of 36
Judge — May 18, 1929 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous narrative about the friction between a magazine editor and a freelance illustrator named Mac. The joke centers on chronic professional dysfunction: the editor repeatedly calls the writer/narrator demanding copy, but Mac—the illustrator essential to completing pages—has abandoned work to play golf. The satire mocks several things: the editor's desperation and poor management (he hasn't even taken the writer to lunch regularly); the illustrator's irresponsibility (golfing while deadlines loom); and workplace chaos where a single person's absence derails production. The bottom illustration shows three golfers losing balls and equipment, reinforcing the theme of incompetence and wastefulness. The punchline—that Mac's golf outing costs both men money and produces no magazine copy that week—suggests editorial incompetence has real financial consequences. This likely resonated with Judge readers familiar with magazine publishing's precarious economics during this era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
\. ssed_ and A Five minutes have 4 I haven't written this 1 Ah, Tomato enters. “You honorable editor on teph- © yet! lone, He say he want talkie you click!" I yo to the tephlone. “Hello fella—what ho?” t ho, my eye, where's your WH editor, should have been ir “What's the rus! “You're holding up the magazine are yelling!” continues my editor. “Am I that important—holding up the issue and making printers yell?” “Besides, you big stil! “Where is “He's out playing golf “What ho! What ho my copy you'll rush it to his golf course « dash off a few sketches with his brassic “Why,” asks my editor, “can’t you be funny like that in your copy the office three days the printers Mac has got to illustrate your stuff, cajoles the editor. “Beeause you don’t call me up often enough. I haven't heard from you in we Fine editor you are. You might at least take me to lunch occa sionally, I've only been to lunch with you four times in the last year. Who took whe I TOOK YOU! I also took you to dinner twice!" You can casily see that I am winning this tilt. “Mac just called up and wanted to know if your resumes my editor. is Mac playing today?” “He's at North Hempstead. He just finished the first nine. He's going to have lunch, now, and he'll come back to town if your copy's ready.” “Is Mae still on the phone?” “Ask him what he had on the first nine.” I have to wait a few minutes. “He said he had a fifty-one with three eights in it,” reports the editor. Fifty-one!!!" “He must be ‘way off his me today,” my editor comments, > “T wish I could 50 as SH get out there for wae Lest: mebbe 1 could $4.75 he took aw unday.” a coupla hours thi from me last “Well... .27 says I. “Listen, you... can the golf when can I expect your re the regular greens open orth Hempstead?” I qui Preah! Fine condition, About your copy ‘airways are + When can 1 ex— I can be by for you in twenty minutes. — It’s only an hour's drive. I've seen’ Mac eat. He won't be through in an hour and a half. Tl stop at your flat and pick up your clubs for you. Is - still on the phone?” Yeah... but your copy ... yel—-" “Tell the printers to start yelling "FORE! ... be down in front of the office in twenty minutes. . .« Don't stand too close to the curb!” are my last words. “Okay, Junior, and when you pick up my clubs at my flat, feel behind the wardrobe and you'll find “a quart of putts for the nineteenth hole Bring ‘em alo , And HURRY! I don't want Mae to tee off before we get there 1!!!" the printers are As it turned out, we got there in plenty of time. | Mae was only half way through his luncheon and complaini to the Greens Committee about the spinach. He said they must have grown it in a sand trap and dug it up with a mashie niblick. The cditor and I were jubilant. Mac, it seems. was having an off day. He didn’t like the weather; there were too many dandelions in the fairways; | the greens were slow; his caddie played the Jews’ harp; he'd devel oped a slice, left ettes and score card in the locker-room: lost three brand new balls, and gotten a blister on his he I, it was | Mac’s off day all right. He off with of the editor’s money and with $8.65 of mine. And that’s why there's no copy this week. Juper, Jr. wis *S MAC, Siow WHO WOW $2487 comicbooks.com