The Cartoons of James Thurber (No. 48)

The Cartoons of James Thurber (1927-1961)

REVIEW BY TOM SPURGEON:

(from The 100 Best Comics of the Century! in The Comics Journal #210, 1999)

James Thurber is a towering figure in American comedy, responsible for moving comic writing into common, everyday speech from the baroque rhythms and dialect humour that dominated the previous century. His comic persona of the put-upon everyman struggling to deal with a strange and often harsh world - perhaps best used in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - has become a cornerstone of American comedy both written and spoken. On top of that, Thurber's influence came via wonderfully skilful writing, practically inventing the casual first-person essay as an avenue for sublime artistic expression. It is almost impossible to overestimate Thurber's importance.

Thurber was also a terrific, natural cartoonist, despite a frustrating eye affliction (resulting from a boyhood accident). Cartoon art could be found in nearly all of his works, and sometimes, in the case of the great comics short story The Last Flower, take it over entirely. Thurber once said of his own cartooning, "My drawings have been described as pre-intentionalist, meaning that they were finished before the ideas for them had occurred to me. I shall not argue the point."

Thurber's cartoons are particularly valuable for two reasons. The first is that they explicate his views in a different way than any of his work in other media. Seeing the "Thurber Man" is quite a different thing than reading about him; and the dynamic interaction between such a static figure says volumes about criticism Thurber has received about the way women are treated in his essays. In one great single-panel cartoon, a shocked visitor is introduced to a family that includes a deranged person on top of a bookcase with the words, "That's my first wife up there, and this is the present Mrs Harris." The cartoon is funny; even in the hands of a skilled prose stylist like Thurber, that could come across as incredibly cruel in print. 

Thurber was also one of the first great casual minimalists in comics, who understand how to simplify figures for the sake of characterisation. If style is the cartoonists voice, it could be said that Thurber helped change that into the vernacular as well.

FURTHER READING:

Thurber House

JamesThurber.org