Sizzling Platter

by Peter Arno

hardcover

Genres: Cartoon, Comic Strips, Humor

118 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1949

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arno was rather a genius. It's amazing to me how some people can spend laborious hours on a piece of art, painstakingly trying to capture some subtle emotion that is forever eluding them, but then there are artists such as Arno, who can capture that emotion with a few deft swipes of his brush... so few swipes that a human face is barely delineated, and yet that perfect emotion is present.

More, Arno's wit matched the strength of his pen, so that his cartoons are ones that can make me smile wryly, picturing myself in a parlor with Arno himself, observing this or that foible of the human condition from some portly man or curvaceous woman, simply nodding knowingly to each other while having a spot of tea, with just a touch of vodka.

[Guy Waynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of Arno's cartoons that originally appeared in The New Yorker and a few of his unpublished sketches and paintings. Arno was a master of the "gag". He pokes fun at his native New Yorkers especially the tux-and-gown patrons of the cocktail clubs and speakeasys as well as regulars Joes in their world with a low-key, intelligent wit that continues today in the magazine. I really like his artwork. His drawings are deceptively simple but his composition is on par with the great masters.

My copy is the 1949 Simon & Schuster, cloth-bound edition.