Thank you to everyone who participated in last week’s caption contest. Congratulations to Lawrence Wood, who provided the winning caption:

A  good, solid snappy line that would work well for a business-themed publication, such as Harvard Business Review or the Wall Street Journal.

Keep in mind that In choosing a winning caption, I’m thinking about its saleability, and I am relying on my experience selling cartoons to editors. Editor’s prefer a snappy line, and one that uses references that are universally understandable to the intended audience. I chose Mr. Wood’s caption because it is snappy – it has a nice rhythm to it – and the reference is universally understood. It also has the advantage of being business-related.

What I also like about the way it is worded is that it is removed just enough from the cliche that you have to think for just a split second, “Detail oriented? Oh, right, because ‘the devil is in the details’.” Making the audience think, if just for a second, gives them the satisfaction of ‘getting’ it. This captioned cartoon is not one I would send to The New Yorker, but it is in keeping with something that The Wall Street Journal might use, for instance.

And now for a Devil cartoon that was sent to The New Yorker, by one of my heroes, Robert Weber: