Life, 1926-01-21 · page 12 of 36
Life — January 21, 1926 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate humor pieces from *Life* magazine: **Upper cartoon** ("So's Your Old Man"): A sketch of a man in a coat confronting what appears to be a small animal or creature. The humor is unclear without additional context. **Lower section** ("Odyssey of an Odyssey"): A satirical piece about the publishing frenzy surrounding a novel by "Mitchell Brandon" (likely a fictional author). The text mocks how publishers, newspapers, magazines, and critics all obsessively covered and hyped an unknown writer's debut book called "Nor All Your Tears." The satire targets herd mentality in literary promotion—everyone reads reviews, advertisements, and critical essays about the book, yet "not a single copy" was actually sold to the public. **Right cartoon** ("Big Butter-and-Egg Man"): A man in a coat stands before shop windows advertising dinosaur eggs. The humor concerns cold-storage eggs and appears to reference someone nicknamed "Big Butter-and-Egg Man," though the specific reference is unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Balmy Botany NE more like this and our dollar goes into the Bryan fundamentalist college fund ‘Alcohol has much the same effect on flowers that it has on human be- ings,” is the finding of botanists at the University of California. | Who ever heard of a pansy singing | “Hinky Dinky Parley Voo"? What marigold has kissed a hall clock | because it thought the timepiece re- sembled the landlady? | Cite one instar snap- | dragon played horse for the fattest woman in the party ¢ where a Has it been necessary to use force to prevent the removal of a hollyhock’s trousers because it thought a snowbank was the ole swimmin’ hole? And, finally, has any proud climbing clematis ever removed its collar, pulled ed that it was out its shirt and ann so'S YOUR OLD MAN,” Odyssey of an Odyssey N May the publishers issued an announcement that they had received a marvelous ‘script from an unknown writer, Mitchell Brandon, and that the book would appear in November They quoted an extract, which everybody read. In October they had an in all the leading periodicals to the effect that this was onc ormous advertisement inserted of the indubitable masterpicces of the day, a work of genius; uld be ordered in advance J the copies sh Everybody re: advertisement. The book appeared on the first day of J reviewers wrote viol vember. As- panegyrics on it for the newspapers and the weeklies. The serious monthly maga- zines devoted great space to intricate discussion of it Everybody read the reviews and discussions and critiques. The Yorker had a column of intimate gossip about the new author read the column. The Bookman had a breezy sketch about him, written by “Onlooker.” The Dial printed a subtle analysis, by its foremost critic, on the esthetic trend of Mitchell Brandon and the influ- ences he was certain to exert. erybody read the article. A Sunday newspaper published an interview with him, and everybody read it A leading English quarterly published a series of essays on contemporary American literature. The first. essay. dealing with Mitchell Brandon and his significance, was read by everybody A respected academic critic, ecstatic with enthusiasm, published a small brochure called “Mitchell Brand The Man and His Work.” Everybody read it. Everybo« Everybody read the sketch. As for the book itself (“Nor All Your Tears”), the in- dubitable masterpiece, the work of genius, it has never sold Nobody has really had a chance to get to it a single copy. “Miss: Punxsutawney G.C. IFF: What's Big Jake, the bootlegger, so mad about? Gurr: Why, they padlocked his old place before his new establishment was ready to open. DINOSAUR EGGS 10.00.0000 YEARS OLD Ove OF THESE Big Butter-and-Egg Man: wun! Tay KICK ABOUT THEM COLD-STORAGE EGGS OF MINE—NOW, | WUNNER WIIFRE 1 COULD THAT GIT AHOLT oF SUCKER? comicbooks.com