The Art of Donald McGill Summary

Most shops and newsstands carry a type of semi-illicit postcard that is simultaneously obscene and vulgar, and designed to elicit a laugh. These so-called "comic postcards" are very similar in design and appearance. The jokes are usually not particularly funny but the artwork is usually fairly good, while the colors are garish. About half of the postcards are the work of one Donald McGill. McGill may or may not be a real person, but many postcards are attributed to him. McGill postcards may be said to be the very embodiment of a comic postcard as they are so typical in content, design, and execution.

Several examples of typical joke material are enumerated in the essay to illustrate that the jokes are not witty but humorous. More than half of the postcards deal with sex, and...