James Blaine’s “The Tattooed Man” as Phryné, June 4th, 1884
Above, Phryne Before the Chicago Tribunal, by artist Bernhard Gillam. Of the twenty-two cartoons in “The Tattooed-Man” series, the above is the best known, because of the reaction it generated. It ran as the centerspread in the June 4th, 1884 issue of Puck magazine, during the Republican nominating Convention in Chicago. The Tattooed Man series [...]
The Vault of Republican Morality: James Blaine’s “The Tattooed Man” series, June 11th, 1884
We return again with another cartoon in Puck magazine’s The Tattooed-Man series. parodying former Speaker of the House, James G. Blaine. His long career filled with corruption and impropriety, inspired Puck‘s artist to depict him as a man whose body is tattooed head-to-toe with his many sins. I’m running the series because of Blaine’s numerous [...]
The Man in Love with Himself: James Blaine, “The Tattooed-Man”, 1884
We return to Newt Gingrich’s late-19th Century soulmate, James G. Blaine, a former Speaker-of-the-House, nominated by the Republican Party as their Presidential choice. His run for the White House was brought down by his many accumulated acts of corruption and impropriety, which Puck magazine parodied in a series of cartoons by showing Blaine as a [...]
Blaine Game
April 23rd, 1884 — one week following the first Blaine Tattooed-Man cartoon — Puck magazine featured the above centerspread cartoon, by Puck founder Joseph Keppler, Sr. This cartoon — titled Blaine O’Maine — concentrates on the Mulligan Letters, which involved James G. Blaine‘s corruption involving railroad stock and land rights, and is one of the [...]
De-railing the Party, 1888
Above, by Joseph Keppler, Sr., from the centerspread of Puck magazine, June 20th, 1888 — Saving His Own Skin — For 1892. Depicted is James G. Blaine, the Republican Party’s nominee for President in 1884. Blaine’s character highly resembled that of current Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich — i.e., his innumerable incidents of corruption, impropriety, and [...]
