So okay, I’m taking a breath for January, after having posted with ridiculous frequency last year. I’ll be drawn back into it soon enough.

For now, some filler material I scanned awhile ago. The above episode of Maud, by artist Frederick Burr Opper, appeared on the rear cover of the September 13th, 1906 issue of Hearst’s American Home and Farm.

Click on the above picture to enlarge & read it.

Doug Wheeler

— Doug

So okay, I’m running one hundred years late.

At least it’s not 101!

Below, click on any cover from Cartoons Magazine‘s first year of publication — 1912 — to find postings from that particular month’s edition.

January 1912, Volume One, Number One…

February 1912, Volume One, Number Two…

March 1912, Volume One, Number Three…

April 1912, Volume One, Number Four…

May 1912, Volume One, Number Five…

June 1912, Volume One, Number Six…

July 1912, Volume One, Number Six…

August 1912, Volume One, Number Six…

September 1912, Volume One, Number Six…

October 1912, Volume One, Number Six…

November 1912, Volume One, Number Six…

December 1912, Volume One, Number Six…

Doug Wheeler

— Doug

From 1864, we have A Visit from St. Nicholas — a fold-out strip version of “The Night Before Christmas”. It was published by Louis Prang & Company (best known for publishing postcards, Christmas cards, and Valentines), and is part of a boxed set of half a dozen fold-out lithographic booklets (only two of which — A Visit from St. Nicholas included — are of interest to comics collectors). There are some who claim the art to be by Thomas Nast, but the art style does not match Nast’s, and Nast was a big enough salepoint, that his name would have been mentioned somewhere in the booklet, had he been involved.

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

A Merry Christmas to all!

Doug Wheeler

Christmas Comics

Today, one final example of a 1912 comic strip book, that comics fans of a century ago might have hoped to find waiting for them, beneath the Christmas tree — Joys & Glooms, by T.E. Powers, reprinting comics which had appeared in the newspaper New York American.

Powers’ strip was populated with tiny characters, which represented a variety of emotions, but most often used were those representing “Joy” and “Gloom”. Above, on the front cover, along the top runs a row of dancing yellow “Joys”, while along the bottom trudge the purple “Glooms”.

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

Below, a full list of Powers’ cast of emotions.

Above, presentation signature to Stewart Knapp from his parents, showing that this copy was once a gift (albeit not dated when or for what occasion). Below, sample extracts from the book.

NOTE: for all double-page samples, read first the top tier of panels across both pages, then the next tier of panels across both pages…

Doug Wheeler

— Doug

Continuing our theme of 1912-published comic books, that might have been found beneath the Christmas Tree, one solution for parents on a tight budget, may have been (assumed) premium comic book (given away with x puchases (??) of Kelloggs Toasted Corn Flakes), The Adventures of Willie Winters, by Byron Williams and Dearborn Melvill.

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

Below, we have some sample pages from the book. As we can see on the last page shown, giving this comic might have back-fired on parents, as the lesson it teaches, is to throw back in the face any cereal given that is not Kelloggs Corn Flakes!

To see other examples of Victorian Age & Hearst Era advertisting comic books & strips, click here.

Doug Wheeler

AdvertisingStrips

We continue our presentation of books comic strip fans of one century ago, might have hoped to find beneath their tree. Today, we’re extracting from a copy that actually was given as a present one Christmas (see the gift signature beneath, found written in the book — a common practice in that time which would set modern condition-conscious fans spinning…).

Published in 1912 by the Ball Publishing Company, the Doings of the The Van-Loons by artist Fred I. Leipziger, collects the daily newspaper strip of the same title.

The front cover of the book is shown above. Below (underneath the signature) is the title page, followed by several cartoon pages. As you likely noticed, the gift signature is signed 1922 — a decade after the book was published. The book (not one of the more popular titles) likely sat in a bookstore that long. (Or maybe brother Ted was saving himself a little money, by re-gifting his copy.)

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the pages in detail, and read the word balloons.

Doug Wheeler

Christmas Comics

This being the time to shop for gifts, let’s take a peek at what the comic strip fan of a century ago, might have hoped to find waiting for them beneath the tree. And what better gift to begin with, than Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit, by Thomas A. Dorgan (who went by the nickname “Tad”)?

The wonderful thing about Silk Hat Harry (published 1912, by M.A. Donohue & Co., Chicago), is that giving it could double as a hint to family members, of changes soon to come following the Holidays! Such a perfect collection to convey that Christmas Spirit!

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

Above, the front cover of Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit; beneath, the title page; below that, some sample daily strips, reprinted in the book.

Below, the illustration appearing on the front & back interior covers.

Doug Wheeler

Women’s History Women’s Suffrage Suffragette

Since we’re on the cusp of Winter, what better time to run “A May Melange”, by artist Livingston Hopkins? From the front page of the May 1st, 1876 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic, why, on Earth, am I running this page that clearly has no scientific element?

Because, look towards the figure, bottom center. At one point, I was uncertain if that might not be a cameo appearance by Professor Tigwissel. I’ve pretty much concluded it is not. But still, for some idiot reason, I can’t let go of the slightest chance, and so here it is.

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

Doug Wheeler

NYDailyGraphic ProfTigwissel

Next in our Native American Heritage Month coverage, we have the October 1930-published Pictorial History of New Brunswick, reprinting twenty-five strips by George A. Bradshaw, which ran in the New Brunswick Sunday Times.

The first strip focuses on the natives, ending in panel four with Dutch troops suddenly entering the picture, to “demand satisfaction from the Indians for depredations committed upon white settlers on Staten Island”. As expected, this completely ignores the fact that Europeans were the invaders, and that “Staten Island” is the name given it, by those who took it.

The next three strips in the series, deal mostly in Europeans purchasing land from other Europeans, skipping over the details of just how that land became “owned” by those Europeans in the first place. Mention of Native Americans rapidly diminishes in these strips, with their complete disappearance after the fourth strip unexplained — as if the natives had just magically disappeared…

Pictorial History of New Brunswick is in line in its treatment of Native Americans with several other “cartoon histories” produced around this same time. Some of these, I’m certain we’ll see in future years, in this series.

Click on the below strips, to view them in more detail, and read them.

Doug Wheeler

NativeAmericanHistory

WARNING: The following cartoons contain racist imagery and slurs.

Resuming our Native American Heritage Month postings, we start above with a sequence of circa 1870s/1880s trade cards, advertising R.W. Bell’s Buffalo Soap. This sequence follows a 19th century racist theme common in soap advertising, most often seen involving African Americans, but here, using an American native. That the soap is so good, that when used on people of color, it makes them white. The racist implication being that non-whites, are really nothing more than dirty individuals, who would be white if they simply washed.

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

Below, a two-panel sequence by artist R.A. Williams, advertising what was basically quack medicine for both humans & farm animals, from the 1892 Barker’s Illustrated Almanac.

Above, with verse by Byron Williams, and art by Dearborn Melvill, we have Willie and the Indians, advertising Kelloggs Toasted Corn Flakes. Published in 1912, this page is from the giveaway promotional comic The Adventures of Willie Winters.

Beneath, a page from the 1915 booklet, Mister Tourist in Portland, promoting business & tourism in Portland, via cartoons. In Mister Tourist admires “The Coming of the White Man” at the City Park. Click here to see the actual statue, and explanation of it — it apparently is still in the park, with title of the work not changed, though finding its location is now difficult.

Doug Wheeler

AdvertisingStrips NativeAmericanHistory