Blackstone, Harry (Henry Boughton). Original Cartoon Album, “The Rubaiyat of Omar Blackstone,” With Art By 26 Editorial Cartoonists and Strip Artists. Harry Blackstone, as the “Super Magician,” was already a comic book hero when he transformed this copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam into a self-fashioned rubaiyat of his own. A treasury of original comic artwork dedicated to the master magician, collected over a period of roughly two years at Blackstone’s peak in the late 1940s, the volume is filled with sentimental, humorous, and often risqué full-page artwork playing off touches of Blackstone’s private and public persona, by twenty-six different cartoonists, comprising: Al Capp (a self-caricature, inscribed: “I made Blackstone disappear!! – what other page in this book can make that claim? – Al Capp”); Bud Sauers (“A thousand thanks for your thousand laughs/ Register & Tribune Gang/ Des Moines, Ia., Oct. 18, 1948); Amadee Wohlschlaeger ( “To the better half/ Amadee/ St. Louis Post-Dispatch/ Oct. 29, ‘48”); Daniel Bishop (Nov. 3, 1948; St. Louis Star-Times); Ray Evans (“To Omar Blackstone from his admirer/ Regards and more power/ Ray Evans/ Columbus Dispatch”); Ralph Reichold (1940s; Pittsburgh Press); John Hudson (Cleveland News); Jim Herron (Cleveland Press); Leo Joseph Roche (Buffalo Courier-Express); Ted O’Loughlin (Jan. 20, 1949; Philadelphia Bulletin); Tommy Thompson (San Francisco); Karl Kae Knecht (“Harry – I’ve seen ‘em all since Herrmann – and you are the tops/ Karl 3-12-49; Evansville Courier); Bob Dunn (“For Harry the Hair-Breadth—Best Wishes/ Bob Dunn”); Mel Melson (“All the Best!”); Eric “Jolly” Ericson; Carl W. Jones (October 18, 1948); Carl Anderson (“Best Wishes to Blackstone/ from Henry and Carl Anderson”); Tom Sims and Bela Zaboly (featuring Popeye); Clarence D. Russell (featuring Pete the Tramp); George McManus (featuring Jiggs of Bringing Up Father); Cliff Sterrett (featuring Polly and Her Pals characters); Chic Young (featuring Blondie); Jeff Hayes (featuring Pop, Chip, and Silent Sam of Chip); Al Scaduto (featuring a boy wizard attempting to vanish his poor report card); Fred Lasswell (featuring Snuffy Smith and Jughaid of Snuffy Smith); C.D. Batchelor (1953; New York Daily News); and Harry Herschfeld. 4to. Back page bearing a self-caricature by Blackstone, with an autograph page at the start signed by others including the governor of Michigan, Kim Sigler. Hand-lettered spine title, title page hand-painted and lettered over the original. A few gatherings of original plates and text retained at start, some disbound. Collection of George Hippisley (List No. B1261) with the original mailing parcel, postmarked 1970, from Elizabeth Blackstone to Hippisley.