Jennifer George - The Art of Rube Goldberg: Genius

Editors: CHARLES KOCHMAN and PAUL TUMEY
Editorial Assistant: CLARISSA WONG
Art Director: CHAD W. BECKERMAN
Designer: SARA CORBETT
Design Assistance: DANIELLE YOUNG , ROBYN NG
LAURA CRESENTI, and BILLY GRAY
Managing Editor: DAVID BLATTY
Production Manager: ALISON GERVAIS

Bringing Rube Goldbergs Invention
Drawings to Life

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013940525
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0852-7
eISBN: 978-1-61312-559-5

All images in this book are from the collections of
Jennifer George, John George, Geoffrey George, Laurie
George, Giampaolo Tai, Paul Tumey, Carl Linich, and
the Bancroft Library at the University of California,
Berkeley, except for the following:

Jonathan Barli, Rosebud Archives:
(bottom right), (bottom left) Robert Beerbohm:
(top row, second from left) Hakes Americana &
Collectibles, (bottom right)
Heritage Auctions, (top) Lowell
High School Alumni Association: (top right and bottom
right) Peter Maresca: (bottom), and
Anelle Miller and Richard J. Berenson at the Society
of Illustrators:
(top left and bottom right), (top left) Rube
Goldberg, Inc., designed by Kathleen Felix: (bottom)
Brian Walker: (top).

The collections of Jennifer George and John George
were photographed by Geoff Spear on April 3, 2013, and
April 10, 2013.

All of the Rube Goldberg quotes in this book were taken
from various sources, including published articles,
interviews, books, unpublished manuscripts and
memoirs, and archival audio tapes.

Compilation copyright 2013 Heirs of Rube Goldberg
Introduction copyright 2013 Adam Gopnik
Preface, The White Rose Heiress, and The Weekly
Meeting of the Tuesday Ladies Club
copyright 2013 Jennifer George
Cover engineering and Bringing Rube Goldbergs
Invention Drawings to Life copyright 2013
Andrew Baron

It Happened to a Rube copyright 2013 Brian Walker
Out in a Crowd copyright 2013 Peter Maresca
The Rube Goldberg Animated Cartoons of 1916,
Say, Are You Reading a Book?, Restless Storyteller,
and Bibliography, Sources, and
Timeline copyright 2013 Paul Tumey
OMG! Old Man Goldberg and Zuppie Snock Pleff
Higgo copyright 2013 Carl Linich
Device for Reminding Lazy Cartoonist to Write
Rube Goldberg Essay copyright 2013 Al Jaffee

Published in 2013 by Abrams ComicArts, an imprint of
ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical,
electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without written permission from the publisher.

Abrams ComicArts is a registered trademark of Harry N.
Abrams, Inc., registered in the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office.

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I

n the creative domain of paper engineering, there are
two traditional avenues of design: movables and
three-dimensional pop-ups. Movables, instantly identifiable
by their interactive pull-tabs and wheels, impart kinetic
motion. Movables likewise tend to play out their action on
the page rather than in three-dimensional space. Some of the
most engaging movables of all time appeared in the 1880s
and 1890s during the heyday of Lothar Meggendorfer (1847
1925), for whom the Movable Book Societys Meggendorfer
Prize is named. Meggendorfer would dream up a witty
scene, sketch it out, and then engineer the entire illustration,
bringing it to life with the pull of a single tab. Its tempting
to imagine a young Rube Goldberg awed by Meggendorfers
creations (the future cartoonist would have been about ten at
the height of Meggendorfers popularity).

With any novelty book, the most effective designs are
those that appropriately meld the artwork with the die-cut
paper. With 3-D pop-ups, the results are readily apparent.
Movables, however, are experienced in a different way: The
challenge of engaging and keeping the readers interest hinges
upon how things move upon the page. The effective pairing of
image and paper is still important, but exposition takes center
stage. I have yet to meet anyone who can resist seeing what
happens when a tab is pulled!

In its simplest form, a pull-tab imparts a single action,
such as the moving of a figures arm. To take it up a notch, two
or more elements may be harnessed to the same tab. The most
visually exciting movables, such as Meggendorfers, bring
an entire scene to life with splendid editorial relevance and
humor. For the most part, Meggendorfers actions occurred
simultaneouslyalthough on occasion theres an element