Unpublished Drawing: “Man of the Hour”

Crockett Johnson probably made this drawing of Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley in 1944. A visitor to the Crockett Johnson Homepage emailed (a jpeg file of) it in late October of 1998. Under the heading “Episode Five: Man of the Hour,” a version of this illustration appears on page 179 of Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley (Henry Holt and Company, 1944). There’s one difference between this sketch and the published version: in the book, Barnaby and Johnson’s signature have been cropped from the picture, and so we only see Mr. O’Malley atop the horse

(Reprinted by permission of the owner. The owner of this sketch wishes to remain anonymous.)

Update: A far better scan of this image now appears on page 382 of Barnaby, Vol. 4: 1948-1949 (Fantagraphics Books, 2020).

— Philip Nel, 1 Feb. 2022

All of Johnson’s text and artwork is © by the Ruth Krauss Foundation. The rest of these pages are © 1998-2022 by Philip Nel.