1943.01.01 “Missed the Boat”
By Gerald W. 'Jerry' Costello (1897-1971)
12 x 15 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
During his junior year at Central High School in Scranton, Jerry completed the C. N. Landon School's mail-order Correspondence Course of Cartooning and Illustrating. His first cartoon was published in the Scranton Daily News in 1913. He was hired at the Philadelphia Press in 1916 and briefly attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1918, at the age of 21, he returned to Scranton to work in the art department of the Scranton Republican.
Following brief stops at the Binghamton Press (1919), the Buffalo Courier and Enquirer (1920), and the Newark Star-Eagle (1921), he became the editorial cartoonist for the Albany Evening News (later called the Knickerbocker News), where he remained from 1922 until his retirement in 1962.
By the close of 1942, the tide of the war was clearly shifting against the Axis. In November, Allies landed in North Africa (Operation Torch), opening a new front against Germany and Italy. Soviets surrounded the Germans at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the Eastern Front. The US won key battles at Midway (June) and Guadalcanal (from August), breaking Japanese expansion.
The sense was that Hitler and company had missed their “last chance” to win decisively.
