Naked Came the Stranger & Stranger

“Cartoonist Mark Addison Kershaw’s getting off easy this summer: we’ve had two double-issues, and I’ve only managed to nag a total of seven cartoons out of him (for your and my viewing pleasure). I’ve titled this portfolio as I have because Kershaw does have a penchant for including appealing little naked individuals (usually soft-of-center and bespectacled) in his ‘toons. There are three of such featuring the unclothed in this late summer’s grouping, but my favorite portrays naked Kershawians in hell, one of them raising his hand and asking, ‘Permission to speak freely?’”—Elizabeth Boleman-Herring

Addison

By Mark Kershaw

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”—William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”

ATLANTA Georgia—(Hubris)—August/September 2024—Editor’s Note: Cartoonist Mark Addison Kershaw’s getting off easy this summer: we’ve had two double-issues, and I’ve only managed to nag a total of seven cartoons out of him (for your and my viewing pleasure). I’ve titled this portfolio as I have because Kershaw does have a penchant for including appealing little naked individuals (usually soft-of-center and bespectacled) in his ‘toons. There are three of such featuring the unclothed in this late summer’s grouping, but my favorite portrays naked Kershawians in hell, one of them raising his hand and asking, “Permission to speak freely?”

The title of this column also harks back to a book (term used loosely) titled Naked Came the Stranger, which I will forgive most readers for having long forgotten. To quote Wikipedia (because I’m lazy): “Naked Came the Stranger is a 1969 novel written as a literary hoax poking fun at the American literary culture of its time. Though credited to ‘Penelope Ashe,’ it was in fact written by a group of 24 journalists led by Newsday columnist Mike McGrady. McGrady’s intention was to write a book that was both deliberately terrible and contained a lot of descriptions of sex, to illustrate the point that popular American literary culture had become mindlessly vulgar. The book fulfilled the authors’ expectations and became a bestseller in 1969; they revealed the hoax later that year, further spurring the book’s popularity.” Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, of course.

In any event, and be that as it may, in the sweltering heat of our shared late summer, when most of us are shedding as many clothes as we can (and the neighbors will allow), enjoy another small slice of Kershawiana.