Until modern times*, it wasn’t that often we’d see one cartoonist reference another cartoonist’s work. Here’s an example from (I’m guessing) 1947, when Hollywood turned out the Danny Kaye film of Thurber’s The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.
In this case, the cartoonist referencing another was Robert Kraus, a New Yorker colleague of Thurber’s… but the drawing did not appear in The New Yorker — it appeared in Collier’s.
Mr. Kraus went on to found Windmill Books, publisher of many a William Steig children’s book.
Note: I believe I found this cartoon on Mike Lynch’s website some time back…if so, thanks Mike!
*In the past few years a number of New Yorker cartoonists have occasionally done their take on a particular cartoon by a colleague (in honor of that cartoonist’s work), and then posted the result on social media.
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Robert Kraus Born June 21, 1925, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; died, Kent, Connecticut, 2001. In 1966 he founded Windmill Books, which published children’s books by such New Yorker artists as Steig, Darrow, and Addams. New Yorker work: Sept. 6, 1947 – Jan. 25, 1969. More information.
James Thurber Born, Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 1894. Died 1961, New York City. New Yorker work: 1927 -1961, with several pieces run posthumously. According to the New Yorker’s legendary editor, William Shawn, “In the early days, a small company of writers, artists, and editors — E.B. White, James Thurber, Peter Arno, and Katharine White among them — did more to make the magazine what it is than can be measured.”
Key cartoon collection: The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments (Harper & Bros., 1932). Key anthology (writings & drawings): The Thurber Carnival (Harper & Row, 1945). There have been a number of Thurber biographies. Burton Bernstein’s Thurber (Dodd, Mead, 1975) and Harrison Kinney’s James Thurber: His Life and Times (Henry Holt & Co., 1995) are essential. Website