It wouldn’t be Mother’s Day, without an R.F. Outcault comic strip of Buster Brown tormenting his mom! Above, “Buster Brown Kidnapped”, scanned from the 1905 promotional giveaway magazine, “Mr. Melville B. Raymond’s Buster Brown”, used to advertise upcoming performances of the touring musical stage play.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the pages in detail, and be able to read the text.

Beneath, two pages of photos from the play.

Doug Wheeler

Richard Felton Outcault

For this year’s Cinco de Mayo, we have a number of cartoons that appeared in first half of 1913, in various newspapers, and from there were reprinted in Cartoons Magazine.

In the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, February & March 1913 were particularly volatile. The occupants of the National Palace changed hands several times, inspiring the James H. Donahey cartoon that appeared below, on the front cover of the April 1913 edition of Cartoons Magazine.

Above, the May 1913 issue reprints cartoonist Ole May‘s prediction of the end of President Franciso Madero.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read the text.

The U.S. had supported dictator Porfirio Diaz, whome Madero had overthrown. The above cartoon by Harry J. Westerman, suggests a return to power by Diaz.

U.S. cartoons in general — such as the one by Charles “Doc” Winner below — reflected the racist attitude of white America, which viewed all of Latin America as inferior, requiring their Uncle Sam to tell them how to behave.

Above, and in the three double-page scans that follow, we have the article “Cartoons and Cartoonists of Mexico”, written by Harry H. Dunn, formerly the news editor of the publications La Prensa, and The Daily Mexican.

Dunn’s opening paragraph about Mexican cartooning having died with the destruction of the Aztec Empire by Spanish Conquistadors (implying that their codices were merely cartoons, rather than the written language that they were), and that Mexican cartoons do not begin again until 1910, is pure hogwash (in addition to being off by at least a century — click here to view a Mexican comic book from 1801.)

However, in his description of the then-“current” situation in Mexico, and of four of its then-prominent cartoonists — S.R. de la Vega, Telas Allendez, L.R. Noriega, and F. Ariza — the article is worth reading. So long as you also keep in mind that Dunn himself, was not Mexican, anymore than Mitt Romney’s ancestors, who lived in Mexico in flight from U.S. Law, were. Dunn’s article, thus, also carries a U.S. point-of-view.

Above & below — all from April 1913 — more U.S. cartoons concerning the Mexican Revolution, including several with patronizing attitude on full display.

Above, cartoons by Lynch, James E. Murphy, and Taylor.

Cartoons above, by Nelson Harding, Bronstrup, Shonkwiler, Barnett, and Donahey, Shonkwiler & Barnett (not incorrectly, and not for their first time) suggesting that the (at thi spoint) oft-threatened U.S. intervention in the Mexican Civil War, was motivated more by protecting the investments of U.S. millionaires, than by protecting anyone or anything else.

Below, by Ben Franklin Hammond, Charles Henry Sykes, W.A. Ireland, James H. Donahey, and Robert Minor, Jr..

Doug Wheeler

Billy Ireland Focus on Cartoonists

We have one more cartoonist-illustrated theater giveaway for April Fools’ Month, advertising the travelling comedic play Turn to the Right, showing at Garrick Theatre in Philadelphia during the Christmas Season. (An internet search shows this play was at that theater during Christmas 1916, so unless it played there in other years on Christmas as well, we can deduce that this pamphlet was distributed in 1916.)

The advertising angle here, was to show big name cartoonists and their characters, sitting enjoying the play, sitting in a theater box and enjoying the play, as drawn by the cartoonists themselves. (Who drew the play scenes they are watching, is not given.)

Above, we have the back & front covers of the pamphlet, with photos of the five cartoonists who depicted themselves within.

Click on the above & below pictures, to enlarge them and read the text.

Beneath, Rube Goldberg‘s self-portrait, of himself with some of the characters from his Boob McNutt strip.

Next, we have Clare Briggs (left page), known for his cartoons featuring kids.

On the right page, we have Richard Felton Outcault, seated with his creations, Buster Brown & Tige.

Beneath, left page, is T.E. Powers with his Joys & Glooms characters.

Right page, George McManus, with his characters from Bringing Up Father.

For prior postings of cartoons involved with theater, click here.

Doug Wheeler

TheatricalCartoons AdvertisingStrips Focus on Cartoonists R.F. Outcault

We continue with our April Fools’ Month extracts from the 1905 promotional giveaway magazine, “Mr. Melville B. Raymond’s Buster Brown”, used to advertise upcoming performances of the touring musical stage play. Above & below, two more Buster Brown Sunday comic strips by Richard Felton Outcault, reprinted in the pamphlet.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read the text.

Above, more photos from the play. Below, the rear cover.

There are still a few pages left to show. This final part will appear in 3 weeks. Next week, meanwhile, we’ll feature a different theatrical advertising giveaway, illustrated by several famous cartoonists.

Doug Wheeler

AdvertisingStrips TheatricalCartoons R.F. Outcault Richard F. Outcault

For today’s April Fools’ Month entry, we have some more extracts scanned from the 1905 promotional giveaway magazine, “Mr. Melville B. Raymond’s Buster Brown”, used to advertise upcoming performances of the touring musical stage play.

Above, a self-referential Buster Brown comic strip by his creator, Richard Felton Outcault, poking fun at the Buster Brown stage play.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the pages in detail, and better read their texts.

Beneath, from photos of the play, we can see why Tige said that the stage Tige looked nothing like him!

Below, extracted reviews.

More extracts from the booklet, next week!

Doug Wheeler

AdvertisingStrips TheatricalCartoons R.F. Outcault Richard F. Outcault

What would April Fools’ Month be, without its chief prankster, Buster Brown? Buster’s creator, Richard Felton Outcault, turned Buster into one of the earliest mega-merchandised comics characters. Today’s posting is extracted from one of the rarer Buster Brown giveaway comics (and one still not found in the Overstreet listings — I discovered its existence years after ending my involvement with their “Platinum Age” (i.e., Hearst-Era) and Victorian Age comics sections).

Above is the front cover of a 1905 promotional giveaway, I’ll label “Mr. Melville B. Raymond’s Buster Brown”. Raymond was the author/producer/promoter of “Buster Brown” stage musicals, which played first in New York City, and eventually had four touring companies.

From its expensive production values (over-sized 16-page magazine, with eight color pages — six of which reprint Sunday section Buster Brown comic strip stories by Outcault; with the remainding pages filled with photos from the play — I at first glance thought this was a souvenir pamphlet that would have been sold at shows. But reading it, one can see that it is promoting upcoming shows, and would have been a giveaway item, in advance (distributed??? not sure how — I’d guess minimally this would have been free for the taking at theaters where the Buster Brown play would be coming. The pamphlet (which has the dimensions of songsheets of the day, and is printed on paper found in the better Buster Brown collections from Stokes), reprints clips from reviews, dated the last week of January 1905, and the first week of February 1905, so we know that February 1905 is the earliest it could have possibly been printed. The bottom of the front cover is hand-stamped “Sep 4 – 1905″ and “MIDDLETOWN, NY”, which tells us multiple things: 1) Most obviously, my copy was used to promote a September 4th, 1905 showing of the play, in Middletown, NY; 2) sets the publication date of the pamphlet as definitively 1905; and 3) shows that Raymond printed up a bunch of these, without the dates/locations of shows, then simply hand-stamped copies with that information, as needed.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the pages in detail, and better read their texts.

Beneath, scanned from the pamphlet, which reprinted them from the New York Herald Sunday Funnies, we have “Buster Brown — Photographer” &amp “Buster Brown, He Puts Tobasco Sauce on the Lion’s Lunch”.

Below, scenes from the Raymond’s “Buster Brown” play. In 1906, Outcault sued Raymond, for precisely what, I don’t know. Raymond had created a new Buster Brown play, plus has been involved in an Edison Films short version of Buster. Either one (or both) might have triggered his falling out with Outcault (I speculate).

Doug Wheeler

AdvertisingStrips TheatricalCartoons R.F. Outcault Richard F. Outcault

To open April Fools’ Month, we present two pages from the 1925 collection, Cartoons from Life, in which artist Ellison Hoover uses contemporary comic strip characters to communicate editorial opinions (above), and to “improve” famous paintings (below).

Comic strips involved in these parodies include: Polly and Her Pals; Bringing Up Father; Captain and the Kids (or, Katzenjammer Kids; Krazy Kat; Barney Google; and Oh, Skinnay!.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

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Doug Wheeler

NYLife

Above, “A Hodge Podge on St. Patrick’s Day” by cartoonist Livingston Hopkins, from the front page of the March 17th, 1874 edition of the (New York) Daily Graphic. Enjoy!

Click on the above picture, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Doug Wheeler

NYDailyGraphic

For today’s Women’s History Month posting, we present My Wife Turned Bloomer, a rare fold-out comic strip book by British comic artist Watts Phillips, published likely no earlier than 1850, and definitely no later than 1852. The term “bloomer” refers both to a style of women’s pants, and to the women who wore them, as women wearing pants was a radical political statement, by those women who strove for equal rights with men!

This short little booklet by Phillips, manages to pack in just about every joke on the subject, with Mr. Peregrine Perkes coming home after a few weeks absence, to find the entire household (including the dog!) wearing bloomers, women smoking tobacco in every panel, his wife — under the influence of a militant American Womans Righter — taken over his library/den, women learning martial arts, driving carriages, giving political speeches, and subjugating the men to perform what had been their chores! All of it perfectly horrible to any British (or American) male!

Later this month we’ll see some of these same jokes, still in vogue fifty years later in the 1890s! And, I’ll note, many of them were still being made during the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s! (Example, in the weekly “Sonny & Cher” variety show, whose most popular ongoing sketch involved Sonny as the househusband and Cher as the family wage earner.)

Enjoy!

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read the captions beneath them.

Doug Wheeler

Above, from the August 14th, 1867 issue of British comic weekly magazine, Judy, we have the debut sequential comics appearance of writer/artist Charles H. Ross’ continuing comics character, Ally Sloper. Being the scheming swindler type (albeit, never any good at it), it’s appropriate that Ally’s first misadventure would involve an investment/banking swindle, of the type fairly common at the time — the phrase “Capital One Million” instantly recognizable as a parody of the claims of financial backing that various schemes would claim to have, to draw in the suckers.

Click on the above picture to enlarge & read it.

Doug Wheeler

BritJudy AllySloper CHRoss C.H. Ross