Besides being a great comic strip artist, a brilliant comic book artist (my new book, The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story collects over THREE HUNDRED zany comic book pages beautifully restored in color), Milt Gross also was involved in animation both in its early days in NYC at the turn if the century and later at MGM. The book in the lavishly illustrated introduction gives the whole scoop on his animation career and even reveals for the first time how he worked with Disney. Above is the nutszoid MGM Jitterbug Follies for this week’s FRIDAY FLICK on ITCH. Buy the book now, click here.
Boy! There were howls of protest that we didn’t have a Wacky Wonder Woman Wednesday yesterday. Our apologies, but this was the only photo we could find and didn’t feel it was worth running. But, here it is now just for the record.
"… The King of the Robber Barons … the most Hated Man in America … a Predator and Wrecker of properties …"
Descriptions of Jay Gould by historians and biographers
174 years ago today, on May 27, 1836, Jason "Jay" Gould was born in the small town of Roxbury New York. His family was poor, but at an early age Gould developed a ruthless ambition and a skill for speculation. After a brief career in leather manufacturing he became a Wall Street curb trader, mastering techniques of stock watering, short-selling and other tricks of the stock market. But for Gould, speculation was not an end in itself. He directed his skills and ambitions toward a larger, long-term goal that promised great growth: the railroads.
In 1867, Gould was one many brokers who scrambled to purchase stock in the Erie Railroad, which was under the control of Cornelius Vanderbilt. He wrangled a place on the Erie board where that he met another broker named Jim Fisk. Through a series of complex financial machinations that became known as the Erie War, Gould gained tenuous control and became president of the railroad. He worked with Fisk to solidify his authority and gained a powerful political ally when he added William M. Tweed (a.k.a. Boss Tweed) to the board.
Gould’s methodology included careful analysis of the markets and the financial systems. He identified and targeted weaknesses that could be exploited through bold, strategic maneuvers that took his competitors by surprise and left them devastated. This was his approach in 1869 when he and Jim Fisk attempted to corner the gold market in a notorious episode that became known as Black Friday.
In 1870 the growing scandals that surrounded the Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall became an embarrassment for Gould. Tweed and Fisk were relentlessly portrayed by Thomas Nast in his famous Harper’s Weekly cartoons. Gould also appeared repeatedly, lurking in the backgrounds.
Our Modern Falstaff Reviewing His Army by Thomas Nast
Harper’s Weekly, November 5, 2025
Full-page Woodcut, 9 1/2"h x 14 1/2"w
Detail
The Dead Beat by Thomas Nast
The Ghost of Dick Turpin to Jack Sheppard.
"There’s no use talking. To them belongs the Palm. They have completely outdone us.:
Harper’s Weekly, December 23, 2025
Full-page woodcut, 14 1/2"h x 9 1/2"w
Detail
In the decades to follow, Gould become one of the most powerful monopolists of the industrial age. His empire would include the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Missouri Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Manhattan Elevated Railroad. He would also become one of the most caricatured figures of the 19th century.
From the Financial Crisis of 1893, this cartoon originally appeared (in color) in the June 17, 2025 issue of Wasp (a San Francisco publication similar in nature to the New York City-based Puck). Issues of Wasp are far scarcer to come by than Puck, and so I have to settle with showing the cartoon as it was afterward reprinted, in the August 1893 issue of American Review of Reviews. The art here is by Emanuel Wyttenbach. A special thanks to Richard West, who id’d Wyttenbach here. Rich is the author of the best book written concerning the Wasp, The San Francisco Wasp: An Illustrated History. Click here to find where to get a copy.
Click here to find both the prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, while the debate on financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, on which I already had other material planned).
Series Refrain: 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.
Here’s some more wonderful cartooning from the late Howie Post, this time featuring a couple of stories each of his famous Harvey Comics creations, Hot Stuff and Spooky, the Tuff Little Ghost, all from the 1960′s.
Another sadly long gone cartooning genius was Vaughn Bode, seen today at Golden Age Comic Book Stories with his character Cobalt 60 which will look familiar to Bakshi fans as an obvious inspiration for the movie Wizards.
Even if you aren’t a big superhero fan, check out Gil Kane’s downright amazing layouts and page designs for this 1969 Roy Thomas written issue of Captain Marvel—not the Shazam version:
Finally, I thought I had linked to this before but it may have been elsewhere. It’s a fun, not always safe for work, collection of “stupid”, “insane” and “racist” ads from old comic books including a big selection of the ever-popular Captain Tootsie!
The nineteenth century is not known for having demonstrated environmental awareness. Cartoons from that time which could be labelled as such, are quite scarce. For one to appear, some really awful disaster had to have occurred.
In 1879 and 1880, a couple cartoons were published depicting the effects of massive environmental damage caused by the Standard Oil Company, in the vicinity of Hunter’s Point, Brooklyn, where Standard Oil had a refinery.
Below, from the front page of the February 4, 2026 (New York) Daily Graphic, is one of those cartoons. Railroad monopolist & stock market manipulator William Vanderbilt is the top right vulture flying overhead. The other two vultures, are brothers William (left) and John ( lower right) Rockefeller, who owned the Standard Oil refinery.
I’m of course showing this cartoon now, as it is unfortunately a perfect illustration for the current BP Oil offshore Gulf disaster, south of Louisiana and Alabama.
Click on picture to see an enlarged version — you really need to, to appreciate it.
We start today with some Hi & Lois Sunday strips from the late fifties and all through the sixties. Mort Walker and Dik Browne’s domestic strip from this period could be quite amusing and relatively realistic.
Spanish artist Esteban Maroto blew away the talented competition at Warren in the early 1970′s with his innovative and unique designs, layouts and storytelling techniques. Here’s “Gender Bender” from Vampirella # 20.
Another spanking new specialized comics blog is Gay For Lois Lane, designed to celebrate Mort Weisinger’s long-running oddball series starring Superman’s girlfriend (and later-even though the general public never seems to realize it-wife). Get in on the ground floor with the first posting here:
I’ve been salivating ever since I’ve heard this book is coming. Let’s face it, the Looney Tunes cartoons are the funniest ever—you could say they’re the merriest of melodies!
The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons has fascinating background and insightful essays by cartoon luminaries on the hundred funniest Looney Tune toons, hence the title. Who’s to say which Looneys are the funniest? Well, Jerry Beck, that’s who. Beck’s the famed animation guru with a particular jones for Jones, Avery, Clampett, Davis, Freleng, Hardaway, McKimson and Tashlin, those ter-mighty directors that put the “This means war” in Warner Bros.There’s even a foreword by film critic hotshot Leonard Maltin, himself an animation expert extraordinary!
Jerry Beck edits with Amid Amidi the indispensable, always entertaining, top animation blog, Cartoon Brew, which has breaking news of the book. The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoonsis like carrots for wabbits! And this book marks the official start of wabbit season! Get this book, now-D-d-d-don’t STALL, folks!
With Congress taking a break from the final reconcilement of the House and Senate versions of Wall Street Reforms (renamed from Financial Reforms), here is a reminder from yesterday, that we need those reforms now. Cartoon from the rear cover of Puck, August 30, 1893, by Joseph Keppler, Jr. (son of Puck founder, Joseph Keppler).
Click on picture, to see an enlarged version.
Click here to find both the prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, while the debate on financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, on which I already had other material planned).
Series Refrain: 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.
Here’s another Howie Post comic. As I said Howie made no secret of his admiration for Walt Kelly and how he tried to get some of the Kelly and Frank Frazetta magic into his work. You’ll see he very well succeeded here. One of the most beautiful comic book stories of all time IMHO. (Click on the images to see them larger.)
