[identity profile] wotwotleigh.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] indeedsir_backup
Today I have another story illustrated by Mills and Skidmore! "The Great Sermon Handicap" is not one of my favorite stories, but it does feature some of my favorite illustrations (by Mills, anyway).



Let's start with a delightful crowd scene by Mills:

Cynthia's a meanie.

I love the details: Bingo sitting across the table with his hands folded in front of him, boggling at Cynthia; the young blonde servant (a butler? a footman? I'm afraid I don't know my categories that well) walking by in the background with his nose in the air; the stuffy older folks at the far end of the table.

There's actually a lot of overlap in this one in terms of which scenes are illustrated. Skidmore also shows Cynthia chatting with Bertie, but omits most of the detail:

Positively funereal.

Sheesh, they both look depressed! And Cynthia looks very much like a young version of Skidmore's Aunt Agatha, even down to the beauty mark.

I really could do an entire post of just images of people bothering Bertie while he's trying to sleep:

Hee, the paper is so long!

Perfect! Bertie just looks so incredibly put out. Notice the length of the paper that Bingo's poem is written on. XD

Skidmore's take on the same scene:

Jeeves is not impressed.

Skidmore's aged, crestfallen Bertie just doesn't look right snuggled up in bed in striped pyjamas. It's kind of jarring. Also, Bingo looks about half Bertie's age.

I love, love, love this one:

Freakout!
Somehow it just captures Bertie's exuberance and innocence so well. Even the monocle works here.

Basically the same scene (or the immediate prelude) by Skidmore:

Bless you, my son.

What . . . what is Bertie doing with his hand? Flashing a gang sign? Giving the old fella the mano pantea? Hmm.

Here's the final scene illustrated by Mills, who decided to forgo the actual sermonizing:

Angry Jeeves strikes again.

So that's what it looks like when a gasper slips from nerveless fingers!

Finally, a sermon scene from Skidmore:

Nice whiskers!

I must confess, I am fond of the facial hair.

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"
"Jeeves in the Springtime"
"Scoring Off Jeeves" and "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch"
"Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest"

Date: 2012-01-10 04:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hazeltea.livejournal.com
I love these so much. Thank you for continuing to spoil us with vintage goodness! (and is Bertie wearing a monocle in bed? What was he doing with Jeeves the night before, sexy roleplay as Mr. Monopoly raiding the Community Chest?)

Date: 2012-01-10 05:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymoondancer.livejournal.com
OH BABY! *waggles eyebrows*

This led me to contemplate which Monopoly pieces each would choose. Jeeves would be the iron, obviously. I think Bertie would choose the motor car.

Aunt Agatha and Stiffy are left to fight over the Scotty dog.

Gussie is the weird shoe.

Date: 2012-01-10 05:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hazeltea.livejournal.com
lol I was always the race car, but now I have a new-found respect for the iron XD

Date: 2012-01-11 01:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymoondancer.livejournal.com
Ha ha ha, perfect!

(And hey, it was first published in 1934 . . . IT COULD HAPPEN!)

Date: 2012-01-10 08:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com
and Aunt Dahlia or Honoria would be the person on the horse!
Bertie might also pick the top hat.

Date: 2012-01-11 01:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymoondancer.livejournal.com
Oh, I forgot about the top hat! Didn't Tuppy have some scheme to import motor cars from the US? He could have the car if Bertie took the hat . . .

The question is who gets the thimble? Now that is a dud piece if ever there was one.
Edited Date: 2012-01-11 01:21 am (UTC)

Date: 2012-01-10 05:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cosmosmariner.livejournal.com
ROFL - I am thinking of the absolute WORST things right now.

I suppose when Bertie and Jeeves are playing risque Monopoly, there is always a reason to head directly to Go.

Date: 2012-01-10 05:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hazeltea.livejournal.com
Go directly to jail and have some more role play there XD

Date: 2012-01-10 06:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cosmosmariner.livejournal.com
"Oh, no, sir, you shouldn't wear stripes. They aren't at all becoming on a young gentleman like you. Please, you must take them off."

"Right-o, Jeeves, old thing. You know best..."

Date: 2012-01-10 10:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erynn999.livejournal.com
*happysigh*

Date: 2012-01-10 10:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com
Judge the bathing beauties contest, collect $10. Aw yeah.

Date: 2012-01-10 04:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erynn999.livejournal.com
Wow, Skidmore just so completely does not understand the characters, that's all I can say. Wow. *headdeskage*

OTOH, Bertie does tend to spend an inordinate amount of time in bed around his friends, doesn't he? ;)

Date: 2012-01-10 10:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erynn999.livejournal.com
I seriously think Wodehouse was trying to tell us something.

Date: 2012-01-10 05:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cosmosmariner.livejournal.com
I...actually rather like Skidmore's Bingo. He's charmingly cute.

Of course, his Bertie is pure rubbish, but we all know that. Can he look any more like a prune with facial hair? Ick.

Date: 2012-01-10 08:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymoondancer.livejournal.com
Bingo is too single-minded to notice his friend has gained 20 years on him.

Date: 2012-01-11 12:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cosmosmariner.livejournal.com
blah blah blah tender goddess blah blah I'm so in love! blah blah tiny horseshoe tie.

That's probably what Bertie hears when Bingo is speaking.

Date: 2012-01-10 09:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ironicbees.livejournal.com
I think that blond servant chappie is the real Bertie, and the one next to Cynthia is an impostor.

Why is Bertie wearing a monocle in bed? Is it permanently welded to his face? (I do love the Monopoly roleplay idea, though. ;D )

Skidmore's Bertie looks a glum bore. He's just so completely wrong. Even Leete's fugly Bertie at least has some life in him.

Oh, Jeeves. Angry as even in that last Mills one. I hope someday we'll find out what's bothering him so much.

Date: 2012-01-10 09:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com
I love that first one with Bertie in bed. He does look super put out. Also like he is sleeping with his monocle.

Date: 2012-01-10 10:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com
I was going to protest that I quite like The Great Sermon Handicap, but then I realized I had it mixed up with The Purity of the Turf and that I don't actually remember much about this story after all. That's the trouble with Wodehouse. We got a beautiful new collection in at the bookstore where I work that had two novels and a bunch of short stories and while I was pretty sure I owned and/or had read all of them, it didn't have an index or summaries or anything so I had to flip through the chapters to be sure. And it got shelved in "literature" instead of "classics" which is annoying. Blah blah blah.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2012-01-10 11:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wormwood-pearl.livejournal.com
Mills' illustration is far better suited to Wodehouse. Look at Bingo goggling over the table. The expression has been communicated using exceptionally sparse use of line. Cynthia's expression is just perfect too, her smug coquettishness shown by a few pen-strokes. And there's such a lively sense of motion, especially the one of Bertie expressing his shock at the "Brotherly Love" sermon being considered long.

Date: 2012-01-10 07:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lapin-petite.livejournal.com
Ha!Sleeping Bertie is topping:D I think that we all look like this in mornings

Date: 2012-01-10 08:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com
I think the blond guy in the background is either one of the in-house servants or someone else's valet.

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