Macabre Cowboy Themed Weather Winky Kids Ad - Mid Century Cartoon

Great cartoons do not need a caption.

Charles Addams was a conceptual artist decades before the art movement of "Conceptual Art" emerged in the 1960s and early 1970. He regularly contributed dark humor cartoons to the magazines like the New Yorker. At the same time, he was a commercial-for-hire artist. In this case, he was hired by a kid's clothing manufacturer from Minneapolis called Weather Winky. Give credit to this advertiser for being daring. With the help of Addams, they have come up with a new twist on "Brand Loyalty". With this ad, they employed Addams's macabre sense of creepy humor to push the sales of their kids' winter clothing line.

In Charles Addams ad, the apparel company's prospect ( a kid ) will be literally branded with the company's logo. It's a gruesome process to watch an animal's thick hide be punched with a burning iron. How will this play out if the hot iron presses soft human flesh?
The artist depicts cowboy-themed kids having some wild mischief with one another. A tied-up kid on the floor is on the precipice of being branded on his exposed bare buttocks. A white-hot company branding iron with the apparel company's WW logo seems to be the first part of the initiation. At the fireplace, more instruments of torture are being heated up. All the while, three kid cowboys are carrying pistols. How far will this evening of fun and games go? It appears as if the unfortunate kid could be receiving more than just branding. Is this a joke with tongue -in- two cheeks? We do not know yet what exactly will happen. Addams stops short of showing the actual branding, shooting and clubbing. He takes us to the right to the edge but lets the viewer fill in the rest.
Addams is also a great visual artist and masterful draftsman of understated detail. Notice the sight lines of all five figures. They form a circular composition that reinforces the cartoon's narrative.

Great cartoons do not need a caption.
On the reverse, there are only remnants of the caption - but it's irrelevant. The images explain some things and leave other details to the viewers' imagination.

Signed lower right - Watercolor, pen, and ink on board, heightened in white
Residue from prior matting in margins, few spots of foxing.
13.25 x 13.50 heavy illustration board- Simply matted but not framed.