Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – A Mental Splurge by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, July 24, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Bank frauds and Wall Street swindles, resulting in economic ruin for everyone else, were regular and frequent occurrences prior to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s institution of laws designed to prevent further Great Depressions. These regulations worked until, starting in the 1980s, conservatives began dismantling those protections, stating that we’d be better off with an unfettered and unregulated market, free to do whatever it wants. Wall Street firms swore at that time, that they’d learned the lessons of the Great Depression, and could be trusted to not engage in dangerous practices.

Bull****!

If there is one lesson from the various economic collapses throughout history, it’s that human greed is eternal. There will always be selfish fools, who grab for themselves without care for the damage they inflict on others.

And so, as Congress debates new regulations, let’s begin a review of the cartoons that these greedy souls have inspired…

The following comic sequence, Capital One Million, appeared in an October 1856 issue of the Illustrated London News. It’s depiction of a firm that sets a trap for its investors, drives prices high, and then collapses, is a perfect match for today’s Senate grilling of the CEO of Goldman-Sachs, accused of selling to their investors an investment designed to fail…

Click on picture to see an enlarged version.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform

Why so glum, chum? We’re here to deliver a glimmer of cheer to the SuperI.T.C.H. legions! Mark your calendars for this Saturday, May 1: Free Comic Book Day. Send us an e-mail ON THAT DATE with your mailing address, and we’ll send you a FREE issue of Hogan’s Alley! No obligations, no strings attached; the only thing it will cost you is several hours as you enjoy the issue. (This offer is valid for all U.S. residents, whether you’re a current subscriber or not.) Remember the one condition-we must receive your e-mail request (sent to [email protected]) on Free Comic Book Day (May 1), not the day before or the day after. (Before and after that date, any requests for freebies will receive only scorn and derision.) Feel free to pass this offer along to anyone you know who might enjoy Hogan’s Alley!

O, Aquaman. You who are the master of the Seven Seas. All hail Aquaman! You who rule beneath the waves and bring peace to the ocean’s creatures. Huzzah for Aquaman, champion of the deep!

Oh, who am I kidding? It’s hard to get excited about Aquaman. A superhero who lives underwater? How much crime can there be in the ocean? It’s not like Lex Luthor is going to rob an underwater bank. Or the Joker is going to break into the underwater Fort Knox. Let’s face it. The big stuff happens on dry land. Sure, Aquaman is handy to have around if you’re trapped in a giant clam or if a shrimp gets in trouble. But as far as super-heroics are concerned, the water is not where the action is.

Aquaman is the Rodney Dangerfield of super heroes. He gets no respect. While Superman is going back in time to rescue Cleopatra, Aquaman is making sure that fish stay in school. While Batman is defending Earth from an invasion of space aliens, Aquaman is checking on the coral to make sure everything is hunky dory. It is. The coral is just fine. Thanks, Aquaman. Nice job.

It’s not easy being the Sea King. Even with the Aqualad and Aquababy around to keep him company, Aquaman gets bored. Sure, he can talk to fish. But what do they have to talk about, really? “Say, I saw some plankton over there!” “Gee, thanks for the tip, Aquaman!”

There is one who understands. I’m talking about Grandpa Griffith. He knows how tough it is to be the only member of the Justice League of America who spends most of his time soaking wet.

To hear this soggy song of sympathy, click the link below:

Aquaman - Grandpa Griffith

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – The Dough Girl by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, July 23, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Last Monday, we gave the contents of the envelope mailed to prospective students of the W.L. Evans’ School of Cartooning Art. To close out April Fool’s Month, we show a small handful of publications from a second correspondence school of the early 20th century — the G.H. Lockwood Art School.

The Lockwood Art School was established in 1892. Beginning in 1907, it published Student Art Magazine, containing both cartooning how-to’s, and examples of student art from the school. Below left is the cover from issue number 79, April 1922, with cover art by Nate Collier, one of the more successful graduates of the school. Below right, with cover art by Lockwood, is Lockwood’s circa 1914 Cartoon Catalogue packed with student art from the school.

Click on any picture, to see an enlarged version.

Next, a sampling of Lockwood’s political cartoons, circa 1903-1904, from the introductory pages of the Cartoon Catalogue.

Below from the catalogue, the introduction explaining the school’s approach.

This next page from the Cartoon Catalogue, is one student’s depiction of his fellow students (at the actual, physical school, which he ran in addition to the correspondence version).

Circa 1914-1915, Lockwood published a number of Little Journeys to the Homes of Former Art Students booklets, each focusing on a different successful Lockwood graduate. Below right is the cover of A “Little Journey” to the Home of Collier the “Crazy”, focusing of Life Magazine artist, Nate Collier. Left, from the booklet, is student art by Collier, depicting some of his fellow Lockwood students.

The next two pamphlets shown, are the cover and one interior page each, focusing on successful commercial artists from the Lockwood School. Walter J. Peterson…

…and Sam Stoltz.

The most successful of Lockwood’s graduates, was Clare Briggs. Below right is the cover of the Lockwood published A Little Journey to the Home of Briggs the Sky-Rocket. In 1926, Briggs wrote his own how-to cartooning book, shown below right, which was more a “how to develop and present cartoon ideas”, than an actual “how to draw” book.

Unlike the other booklets, which contained student work by the artist, Briggs the Sky-Rocket contains samplings of Briggs’ professional work, including sample cartoons from Briggs’ Oh Skin-nay! In the Days of Real Sport (1913, P.F. Volland). There are at least two variant printings of Briggs the Sky-Rocket, with the cartoon content slightly differing in each. The sample cartoons below, were scanned from different variants.

In addition to Briggs’ own cartoons, the Briggs the Sky-Rocket booklet contains numerous cartoons about Clare Briggs by other cartoonists, some of them quite famous. As there are enough to make a separate subject unto itself, I am buying myself an extra week, by saving those for my post next Monday.

Doug Wheeler

Been having a few issues around here lately and looks like they still aren’t completely worked out but let’s try some links shall we?

Here. for starters, is a brand-spanking new blog dedicated to the late, great Gil Kane. Kingdom Kane debuted over the weekend from Mykal Banta, the brains behind not one but several other cool blogs often plugged here. Not much there yet but hard to find bad Kane work!

http://www.kingdomkane.com/

Speaking of Gil, here’s a Johnny Thunder (the cowboy one. you always need to specify) from a Super DC Giant published in 1970-in fact I’m fairly sure this was a new one at the time and not a fifties reprint.

http://grantbridgestreet.blogspot.com/2010/04/target-johnny-thunder-by-robert.html

Over at my place, he said modestly, we’ve dug up a 1970 issue of Skywald’s Nightmare with a brief interview with painter and fantasy illustrator Jeff (now Catherine but that’s another story).

http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2010/04/heres-short-but-nice-1970-interview.html

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – One of the Rabble by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, July 22, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – Cash on Delivery by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, July 21, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

Today’s episode:

Krazy Kat – Money to Burn by George Herriman

The Nashville Tennessean, July 20, 2025

The Tiger Tea series was George Herriman’s longest-running Krazy Kat saga. Over the course of a year, the residents of Coconino County wrestled with the comical repercussions of a mysterious tea with hallucinogenic powers. As far as I know, this series has never been reprinted in its entirety.

Nearly 100 large reproductions of Tiger Tea daily strips are available in George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in "Tiger Tea," a beautifully designed collection by Yoe Books. It’s available through Amazon.com and fine bookstores everywhere.

in an effort to make more of these classics available, this Unauthorized Addendum presents some of the comic strips from the Tiger Tea series that didn’t make it into the printed collection. Click here to see more posts in this series.

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com