With yet another major oil spill (the oil pipeline rupture spilling tar sands-derived oil, in Mayflower, Arkansas), and oil industry representatives using spin to try to deivert attention from facts, this year’s Earth Day posting returns to the theme of Big Oil.

Above, “Bubble, Bubble, Oil and Trouble” by Fred Ellis, from the February 14th, 1924 issue of The Daily Worker, scanned from its reprinting in the 1926 book, Red Cartoons.

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

Beneath, Ellis’ “I Didn’t Do It…”. From the book Red Cartoons 1928, which reprinted this cartoon from the February 24th, 1928 issue of The Daily Worker.

Beneath, I’ve shown this image before (two years ago), but it’s just so appropriate! We have a portrait of Chicago coal energy man, W.T. Delihant, from the 1904 cartoon vanity project, Illinoisans As We See ‘Em. Delihant apparently was proud of his sideline as a magician, promoting (in 1904) that not only was he a “washed coal” man, he also was a “Sleight of Hand Performer”…

Two more from Fred Ellis. Above, “The Forty Thieves”, from the February 25th, 1925 Daily Worker, and the 1926 Red Cartoons.

Below, “The Leaning Tower”, from the February 17th, 1928 Daily Worker, and the book “Red Cartoons 1928″.

(Note that these are only some of artist Fred Ellis‘ oil cartoons. These just happen to be ones I had available to scan.)

Doug Wheeler

— Doug

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

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Above, a loose flyer advertising the 1919 card game of Rube Goldberg‘s “Foolish Questions”, that came inside the game box. (Why advertise an item, to people who had already bought it? The other side of the flyer is advertising something unrelated – this piece of paper was likely placed inside both games, and perhaps inside others as well.)

Click on the above & below pictures, to view them in greater detail, and be able to read their texts.

Beneath, we have cards numbers 25 thru 40 (of 52 total). Well, almost – cards 26 (“Is that a surveying instrument?” ) & 30 (“Gee, Bill, where did you get the new coat?”) are missing from my copy of the set – I’ve left gaps where those two cards should have appeared.

Next week, the last twelve cards in Set 1.

Doug Wheeler

From Cartoons Magazine, we have coverage of the Ohio River Flood of 1913. Last Year’s Earth Day posting, however, included the Ohio River Flood of 1883, so doing so on that day would have been repetitious.

Above, from the March 1913 issue, we have cartoons by Charles “Doc” Winner, Stinson, and Billy DeBeck

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

Above & below, are cartoons from the May 1913 issue.

The artists above are Gaar Williams, “Doc” Winner, Ole May, Tom May, Milton R. Halladay, and John Scott Clubb.

Beneath, cartoons by Fred Morgan, Lynch, W.A. Ireland, Ole May, and DeBeck.

Doug Wheeler

NYPuck Billy Ireland

A number of cartoonists have been involved in theater. One of them was Frederick Burr Opper. Above, a cartoon by Opper, from the October 4th, 1884 issue of Puck magazine. Beneath, Opper illustrated ads for the mid-1880′s play, Mugg’s Landing. These came from a folding card handout.

Click on Theatrical Cartoons to find prior postings on this subject.

Doug Wheeler

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Americans’ favorite day of the year has arrived – Income Tax Day!! Hurray!

Above, from the April 1913 edition of Cartoons Magazine, artist W.A. Ireland’s depiction of our joy!

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

Below, from June 1916, Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling shows us the generosity of the wealthy, willing to allow the rest of us to have more joy than is our share!

Doug Wheeler

Billy Ireland

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

For the second Friday of April Fools’ Month, we bring you part two of our presentation of the 1919 card game (set 1) of Rube Goldberg‘s “Foolish Questions”. Above is the image that appears on the back of all of the cards; below, we have cards numbers 13 thru 24 (of 52 total).

Click on the above & below pictures, to view them in greater detail, and be able to read their texts.

Below, the game rules came as a loose insert in the box.

Next week, more cards!

Doug Wheeler

With Tax Day coming next week, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the Brothers Rockefeller — the powerful founders of the Standard Oil “trust” — and their efforts to avoid both income taxes, and, answering for their unfair business practices.

When I first saw the above the above Robert Minor, Jr. cartoon, years ago, I thought it was merely a funny visual joke involving the rich evading taxes. Then, in the recent History Channel series, The Men Who Built America, it was shown how millionaire monopolist John D. Rockefeller spent weeks as a fugitive, constantly on the move, running from a subpoena for him to explain his business practices before a Congressional Committee. Which reminded me of this cartoon…

Except that, “The Fugitive Oil Magnate” is not about John D., but rather, is about his younger brother, William Rockefeller. Depicted above & below, from the February 1913 edition of Cartoons Magazine, is William’s own run from the law, in his futile efforts to resist any transparency any his business practices, as Congress wanted to speak to him about the manipulation of money markets (or, the “money trust”).

Cartoons below by Ole May, Hruska, and Billy DeBeck.

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

And since we brought up John D. Rockefeller, we might as well revisit the below cartoon involvinh him, and his attempted tax evasion. Cartoon by Richard Keith Culver, from April 1914.

Doug Wheeler

financial reforms

Above, from 1929, a comic strip blotter by artist Ernie McGee, advertising the Harry A. Meyers Entertainment Bureau, booking vaudeville acts. Ernie did “chalk talks” on stage for vaudeville, and apparently did a number of such blotters for different vaudeville agencies. Click here to see two more, plus learn a bunch more about Ernie, posted by Allan Holtz.

Click on the above picture, to view it in greater detail, and better read its text.

Doug Wheeler

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