Barsotti dogs, plus

From a Facebook friend, this dog cartoon by New Yorker artist Charles Barsotti for Christmas:

(#1)

The Christmas connection: who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.

Barsotti (who died last year, after doing nearly 1400 cartoons for the New Yorker) did an enormous number of dog cartoons, reliably showing great sympathy for the dogs — many of them puppies, as here, and some of those weeping , as here.

Another weeping dog, though not from contrition as in #1:

(#2)

Cringeing tears. But the judge is crying in contrition.

Another fearful dog, faced with the psychiatrist’s couch:

(#3)

A dog trained not to get up on the couch.

And a very happy dog, delighted to be reunited with its owner:

(#4)

All dogs go to heaven, after all.

Finally, a dog that gave it up for pleasure:

(#5)

A dog operative, subverted by is need for affection.

Barsotti did other animal series, including one on snails, famously slow creatures:

(#6)

The outlaw snail, on the (so to speak) run.

Barsotti’s work was mostly gentle and silly, but occasionally it had a bit of an edge, as in this alligator cartoon:

(#7)

You could argue that it’s in the nature of alligators to crave human flesh, so the customer here is just following his natural inclinations. Nice conceit that there would be (alligator-run) restaurants catering to this taste, even diet-conscious restaurants of this sort.

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