Omnibooth

Born in Cainsville, Missouri, he was the son of schoolteachers; his mother, Irma was also a musician and fine artist and cartoonist, and his father, William became a school administrator in Fairfax. Missouri, where Booth grew up on a vegetable farm. Booth attended, but did not graduate from, the Corcoran College of Art and Design, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, the School of Visual Arts, and Adelphi College. Over time, his cartoons have become an iconic feature of the magazine. In a doodler’s style, they feature every man beset by modern complexity, goofballs perplexing their spouses, cats, and very often a fat dog. One signature element is a ceiling light bulb on a cord pulled out of vertical by another cord attached to an electrical appliance such as a toaster. Most of the household features in his cartoons are taken from his own home, such as the rugs, chairs, ferns, and cats. One of his own cats, adopted later in his career, was described as being “more like my drawing than the drawings…when he lies down, his back feet go out in back-straight out.”[1] The National Cartoonists Society recognized his work with the Gag Cartoon Award in 1993 and the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.

Published by Congdon & Weed, Inc. First Edition, 1984. Book is in good condition. Staining to top pages of book. Top of book pages have a brownish stain, approximately 1/8 inch down with minor rippling. Otherwise pages are bright and clean with no interior markings. Spine is tight with no creases. Original dust jacket with minor staining. Profusely illustrated. 11″ x 9″, 247pp.