''Droodles'' was a syndicated

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

feature created by Roger Price and collected in his 1953 book ''Droodles'', though the term is now used more generally of similar visual riddles.

Form

The general form is minimal: a square box containing a few abstract pictorial elements with a caption (or several) giving a humorous explanation of the picture's subject. For example, a Droodle depicting three concentric shapeslittle circle, medium circle, big squaremight have the caption "

Aerial view A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object or location from a very steep viewing angle, creating a perspective as if the observer were a bird in flight looking downwards. Bird's-eye views can be an aerial photograph, but also a dra ...

of a

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

in a Port-a-john."Price, Roger. ''Droodles'', Simon & Schuster, 1953.

Origins

The trademarked name "Droodle" suggests "

doodle A doodle is a drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract lines or shapes, generally without ever lift ...

", "

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

" and "

riddle A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requir ...

".Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhoj, ''Riddles: Perspectives on the use, function and change in a folklore genre'', Studia Fennica Folkloristica, 10 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2001), p. 62, http://oa.finlit.fi/site/books/detail/12/riddles/. However, the form of the droodlea riddle expressed in visual formhas earlier roots, for example in a drawing (''indovinelli grafici'') by the Italian painter Agostino Carracci (1557–1602), and the term is widely used beyond Price's work.Piret Voolaid, 'Preface', ''Estonian Droodles'', http://www.folklore.ee/Droodles/saatesona ''Droodles'' are (or were) purely a form of

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

like any other nonsense cartoon and appeared in roughly the same places (

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s, paperback collections,

bathroom wall A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically ...

s) during their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. The commercial success of Price's collections of ''Droodles'' led to the founding of the publishing house Price-Stern-Sloan, and also to the creation of a Droodles-themed

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...

, ''Droodles'', on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

in 1954.Terrace, Vincent (2011). ''Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 288. There was also a droodle-based game called "Mysteriosos" on HBO's ''

Braingames ''Braingames'' is an American educational program shown on HBO in the mid-1980s. It was a half-hour program consisting of brain-teasing animated skits (either stop-motion or cartoon) designed to make the viewers think. It was HBO's first attempt ...

''. Series of newspaper advertisements for the News and Max brands of cigarettes featured cigarette-themed Droodles.

Appearances in art and popular culture

One of Price's original ''Droodles'' serves as the cover art for

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

's 1982 album ''

Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch ''Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch'' is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in May 1982 and digitally remastered in 1991. It features five tracks composed by Zappa, and one song, "Valley Girl", co-written with his da ...

''. Price's other captions for that drawing include "Mother pyramid feeding her baby." Pictures in a similar style feature in ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...

'' by

Antoine de Saint-Exupery Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...

References

External links

{{commons category, Droodle
Roger Price bio

Online edition of Estonian droodles

American game shows Cartooning Illustration

Form

Origins

Appearances in art and popular culture

See also

References

External links