Cork High and Bottle Deep

Though his name may not be immediately familiar, it’s likely the reader knows gag cartoonist Partch’s signature style, thanks to his work’s ubiquity during the post-WWII era. His figures are instantly recognizable for their large heads and blasé facial expressions, and his aesthetic evokes the happy-hour world of boozy would-be sophisticates who are most at home when bellied up to the bar of some watering hole redolent of stale Marlboros. This small volume’s one-panel explorations of the antics of drunks hits one note too hard—but it stands as a time capsule for the period when Rat Pack–style entertainment was in vogue and kicking back six martinis after work was expected behavior. In Partch’s inebriated grotesques, there’s an honesty on display that lends his humor a subtle melancholy, and this volume captures a breed of period-specific manliness that only remains as a half-century old pop cultural artifact. (July)