If I had cropped out the iconic Saturday Evening Post header from this comic, and presented it to you as the work of an as yet unknown, edgy young cartoonist, you may have believed me. As it is, it’s (silent) serial art on the cover of a mainstream magazine in 1961. The artist is Constantin Alajalov, who between 1952 and 1962 created many more of these short visual stories about modern life and its trappings. Now that’s something.
(via The Trap Of Solid Gold, Steve Scott’s excellent blog on the work of John D. MacDonald, who wrote a story for this issue of the Post)
For many years the Saturday Evening Post and the New Yorker each kept their own stable of cover artists, none of whom were allowed to work for the other publication. The only exception to this arrangement was Constantin Alajalov, who regularly provided covers for both magazines. While I don’t know how this came to be, once he was established in both I assume neither magazine wished to risk losing his contributions.