2000? “Reluctant” tote bag. Including the fable “Reluctant.” Fable & Table on Etsy. Printed and sewn by hand. About 17” wide. Bag about 15” high. From Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park, CA.
Here is another unusual item, one I include reluctantly. The fable printed on the front of the bag may not be a fable at all. “Fable & Tale” seems no longer to exist on Etsy or anywhere else. It may also be unusual to find Etsy goods in a retail store. The fable invokes “Perseus and Andromeda” without acknowledging it. Cleverer people than I will figure out the conclusion of the “fable.”
1994 “Quiz: Are You a Hare or a Tortoise?: Is Overdoing Undoing You?” Page 48. First Magazine. 5/9/94. Unknown source.
Here is just one more example – we could find hundreds – where popular culture works from speeds to examine character and style. Here, finding it “hard to relax” is a sign of being a hare, but in the fable the hare relaxed all too much! First seems to be First for Women, which just ceased publication a month ago. A longer article followed the quiz.
1991 “Please! I am neither teen-age, mutant, nor Ninja.” James Stevenson. The New Yorker, May 8, ‘91. Xerox copy. Unknown source.
Popular culture became so fascinated by teen-age Ninja mutant turtles that Stevenson suggests the old fable and has the turtle disclaiming that default modifier for any turtle.
1975 “Place de la Fontaine” menu from the Château Frontenac in Québec. 6.5” x 12”. Two copies.
This menu from the famous restaurant in the Hotel Château Frontenac in Québec features a cover cartoon illustration of “Le Renard et le Corbeau” with the caption “Never listen to flattery”. The back of the menu shows cartoons representing TH, GA, FG and FS. A caption reads, “Jean de La Fontaine wrote many fables, each with a definite moral. Do you remember the moral of each of the four fables illustrated on this page?” The morals are listed on the inside of the menu. Interestingly, the fable “The Tortoise and the Hare” is an Aesop fable, yet the menu credits it to Jean de La Fontaine. The menu is in both French and English. I presume that there is a play on words here. The "Place" would have been named originally as the site of a community fountain. Clever managers of the chateau have tied that name to the great author of fables and exploited it for the enjoyment of their patrons.
1939/80? “Parson Weem’s Fable.” Poster. 23” x 17.5”. Grant Wood. Courtesy Amon Carter Museum, Foret Worth. Baltimore: Lithographed by A. Hoen & Co. Unknown source.
Though we are not really dealing with a fable here, the story fascinates me. My recollection is that Pastor Weems spun a story to glorify our first president. This image shows his father confronting young George with a cherry tree in his hand. George already looks the way he will look some decades hence. The curtain put into the scene suggests all sorts of interpretations. Pastor Weems points a finger just as Aesop did in the first illustrated editions of Aesop in the 1500’s. Weems in 1800 wrote the first biography of Washington immediately after his death. He was a parson and travelling bookseller. The web offers a comment “it is probable he would have accounted it excusable to tell any good story to the credit of his heroes."
2000? “Merry Christmas from Mickey Mouse: Advent Calendar Pin Series, Days 17 through 20.” Limited edition of 1500. Max Hare, Toby Tortoise, Orphan, and Horace Horsecollar. Overland Park, KS: Disney Direct, $14.99 from DrMallon26, Cressona, PA, through Ebay, March, ’04.
I cannot believe that I am cataloguing these pins over seventeen years after getting them! The two fable pins are particularly well done. Heavy jewelry! Did Disney actually market sets of pins for every four days in December?
1887 “Les Anmaux Malades de la Peste.” Ch. Gilbert-Martin. No 699. Nov., 12, 1887. Unknown source.
Again here, a dramatic image by the paper’s editor on its front page is matched by a “Gazette” poem on the second page. Caffarel is the poor donkey devoured by the guiltier animals for his minuscule transgression.
1883 “Le Cheval et le Loup.” Ch. Gilbert-Martin. Don Quichotte. No. 458. March 30, 1883. Unknown source.
This dramatic cartoon by the editor on the first page of the paper is matched with a poem on the second page. Is Sigismond Lacroix riding the ballot box of universal suffrage to kick the anti-revisionist program of Metivier in the teeth?
1887 “La Cigale et la Fourmi.” Ch. Gilbert-Martin.Don Quichotte. No. 673. May 14, 1887. Unknown source.
This dramatic cartoon by the editor on the first page of the paper is matched with a poem on the second page. Sorry, I would need to dive into what I am sure is fascinating history to do all the identifying that is invited here!
1887 “Judge” Magazine cover for December 24, 1887. “The Grasshopper and the Ant.” “Bernhard Gillam, with apologies to Vibert.( Vol. 13, No. 323. Unknown source.
This piece is a remarkable evidence of the power of tradition. La Fontaine transformed a fable inherited from Aesop. Vibert transformed a fable story into an anti-clerical indictment. Gillam transforms Vibert’s work into political satire. The central figures are remarkably faithful to Gilbert’s painting. The addition of the White House here makes all the difference! Am I correct in assuming that the “industrious ant” is Grover Cleveland? Might Lucius Lamar be the “mugwump grasshopper,” a former Confederate whom Cleveland got onto the supreme court by a bare margin in 1887?
1996 “It’s about the Tortoise.” Leo Cullum. Hemispheres. Nov., ’96. Unknown source.
The hare is drinking, perhaps to deal with his shameful loss in the race. Now comes the news that the tortoise raced illegally. Cleverly done!
1998 “It is thornlike in appearance, but I need to order a battery of tests.” Leo Collum. New Yorker. March 30, ’98.
This play on the mouse removing the thorn from the lion’s paw mocks modern medicine’s endless need for confirming tests. I still wonder where this particular story arose.
1922 “In Aesop’s Fable Land.” From the painting by E.J. Detmold. The Illustrated London News Christmas Number, 1922. Printed on stiff board. Image 8.6” x 11.4”. Board 9.7” x 14.5”. Unknown source.
The group presentation is typical of Detmold’s more specific fables as I am aware of them. As in those illustrations, the artist is less interested in the fable than he is in the animals.
1995? “I’m not getting involved unless you sign this malpractice waiver.” Unnamed artist. Unknown venue. Unknown source.
Yet another play on the complexities of modern health care. Readers will know from comments on other cartoons that I have difficulty with this apparently broadly known fable. What precisely is the story? In any case, a friend presumed that I may have already seen the cartoon. That is never a reason to hesitate to contribute to the collection!
1991 “I’m in Training.” M(ick) Stevens. New Yorker. Sept., 23, 1991. One xerox copy. Unknown sources.
TH prompts endless role reversals and surprises of expectations.
1999 “I’ll need a referral from your primary physician.” Unnamed artist. Parade Magazine. Feb. ‘7, 1999. Unknown source.
The discrepancy generating the humor here is between the supposedly simple interaction of the fable and the complex medical care systems of countries like the USA. I note elsewhere my confusion with exactly how this fable runs.
2000? “Hey, write about animals.” Carole Cable. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Date uncertain. Unknown source.
The fun here is that, as I understand the cartoon, Aesop is applying for writing jobs or trying to get a piece of his writing accepted. After reading one of his manuscripts, the publisher gives him a tip. Part of what is going on here is that people associate Aesop with animal stories, even though fables use virtually anything as characters.
1966 “Fables for the Very Rich.” Advertisement for Francis I. duPont & Co, NY. The New Yorker, April 16, 1966. 4.6” x 5” on page 149, 7.75” x 11.25”. Source unknown.
This advertisement promotes tax-free municipal bonds, highlighted for their tax-exempt interest and high returns. The fable has a somewhat addled llama write himself a letter. “What does it say?” “I don’t know. I won’t get it until tomorrow.” Moral: the familiar isn’t always the known.” Apparently the ambitious reader should make herself or himself more familiar with municipal bonds. I find no others in a possible series on the web.
1992 “Could you kindly pick up the tempo a bit?” Bernard Schoenbaum. New Yorker. March 2, 1992. Xerox copy. Unknown source.
Part of the fun here is the caricaturing of the roles of the two principals, the large-bodied angry diva and the overweight tuxedoed supposedly-subservient pianist.
2001 Speed Bump. “City Mouse Subdivision.” Dave Coverly. Creators Synd. Inc. 1-9. Unknown source.
Surprise overturning of what we expect the city mouse to be saying to his country cousin.
1992? “Bull and Gnat.” Pen and ink, 8.5” 11.”
Fables invite the fun of development, creative presentation, analogy, and time-travelling to different cultures and social circumstances. This delightful work takes the standard Aesopic fable of the gnat who reduces the bull to frustration and gives the bull a new defense. The artist uses well the fable’s standard strong contrast of size.
1993 “Bizarro.” Dan Piraro. Chronicle Features. Newspaper feature. Source unknown.
Since the advent of drug testing of athletes, humorous versions of the standard American fable of the race between tortoise and hare has frequently engaged that new element.
1929 “Anything to Please! (An Aesop Fable Retold)”. Verses by Jane Corby. Picture by P.H. Webb. Boys and Girls Section, “Saturday Free Press,” Winnipeg Canada, June 1, 1929. Unknown source.
This is a dramatic one-picture presentation of a great story! There are surprise and wonder on the humans’ faces; there may be a trace of animosity and anger on the donkey’s face. The rainbow background fits the loud presentation well. The rhythms and rhymes in the couplets are sometimes forced, but the story goes through a good progression. Here the son is the first rider, and that opens up a chance for him to jump down generously when he is criticized. This version ends with a moral: “Well, that is all; the story’s done. You see, you can’t please everyone. It’s best to do with all your might Just what you think yourself is right.”
1994 “Another Fable Ruined by French Cooking.” Dan Piraro. Newsprint paper. Chronicle Features. Source unknown.
The fun element in this fable is that it begins like other fables. One expects that something surprising is going to happen between the two animals. Then the surprise comes: a chef catches and cooks both.
