Classic Wodehouse Illustrations, Part 7: "Jeeves in the Springtime"

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

I say, let's try something with a little color today!



"Jeeves in the Springtime" was the first story illustrated by Mills in The Strand and the first one to appear in Cosmopolitan (illustrated, of course, by our pal Skidmore). So both artists are still feeling out the characters at this point.

For once, Mills!Jeeves isn't freaking out about a cummerbund/spats/fake beard:


I love these two-tone illustrations. They really make the pictures pop. Although I do have to wonder what Jeeves would think of Bertie's red herringbone suit! 

Sadly, the Google-digitized copy of this story as it appears in Cosmopolitan is missing about half its pages, which wreaks havoc on the illustrations. Here we can see about half of poor Mabel:



She's being scoped out by a kind of Sir Roderick Glossop-esque dude there.

Hey, look, it's Bingo! And he's wearing the infamous little horseshoes tie:



Mills missed his bet by not showing Jeeves's reaction to the thing, although Bertie is gobsmacked enough to lose a monocle at the sight of it. Maybe Jeeves's revulsion would have been so profound that he thought he couldn't do it justice with mere ink and paper.

This is the only other surviving Skidmore illustration:



Well, they look a little different from their final incarnations. Both are younger, and Bertie looks moderately more dapper than he does later on. But he already looks like somebody just killed his puppy and peed in his morning oolong.

Bertie meets Mabel:



That gal in the back does not seem to approve. The one on the right looks like she's slyly checking out the junk in Mabel's trunk. I now ship them.

That's some impressive stuffed frogging:



But awww, it's nice to see Mills!Bertie and Mills!Jeeves getting along for once.

Uh oh, now it's Bertie's turn to get angry:



But unlike Angry!Jeeves (who's just scary), he's oddly adorable that way. Take heed, Skidmore: this is how you draw a disgruntled Bertie!

Bertie meets Uncle Mortimer (in his pre-Lord Bittlesham days, apparently):

 

I must say, I am curious to see how old Skidmore would have depicted "the fattest man I have ever seen in my life."

Bertie has a really awkward lunch:



Awww.


Other entries:
"Comrade Bingo"
"Bertie Changes His Mind"
"Leave It to Jeeves"
Right Ho, Jeeves
"The Delayed Exit of Claude and Eustace"
"Aunt Agatha Takes the Count"