Today, Part 5 of the 1913 Canadian cartoon serial, The Career of John Silverthorne — Banker. To view prior episodes, click here.

Click on any picture, to open an enlarged version.

To re-introduce this series, for those who may be viewing this website for the first time… The Career of John Silverthorne — Banker was written & drawn by Trevor Michael Grover. Grover worked at the Canadian Bank of Commerce, as a banker, where he began his employment on on April 17th, 1913. While there, he produced a series of drawings about the fictional John Silverthorne — Banker, which were serialized in the Toronto publication, Saturday Night. In 1914, Canadian Art Publishers of Toronto, collected the completed serial into the book, from which my scans have been made. Grover served in the 166th Canadian Battalion and the 11th Infantry Brigade during WW I, enlisting on January 25th, 1916. During this period, he produced sketches from the Front, published in the Canadian Courier. I’ve found no record of Grover’s activities beyond this point (hopefully he returned from the War fine). The above information comes from the Canadian Bank of Commerce book, Letters from the Front, Being a record of the part played by officers of the Bank in the great war, 1914-1919 (Volume 2).

Doug Wheeler

Captain George’s Comic World was a Canadian fanzine in the late sixties and early seventies. Reprinted here are sections from an early issue presenting Krazy Kat—the very first opportunity that many of us had to see “thet ket.” These days, all one has to do is order Craig’s two Herriman volumes to get Krazy!

http://hairygreeneyeball2.blogspot.com/2010/07/captain-george-presents-mouse-and-ket.html

Following up on the Gil Kane link we did the other day, here’s the famous little one-off, “behind the scenes” tale starring Gil himself that goes along with it.

http://www.kingdomkane.com/2010/07/his-name-is-kane.html

Here are a couple of flashy tales featuring National’s long-running Action Comics backup character Tex Thomson (aka Mr. America) in his super-hero garb as the Americommando.

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2010/07/number-778-americommando-and-little-one.html

Finally today, some Sunday silliness with this late sixties Not Brand Echh parody of the Avengers by Rascally Roy Thomas and talented Tom Sutton.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-funnies-revengers-by-thomas-and.html

208 years ago today, on July 24, 1802, Alexandre Dumas was born to a poor family in Northern France. His grandfather was a member of the French aristocracy and his grandmother was a former slave from Haiti. His father was a distinguished general who served under (and later fell out of favor with) Napoleon I. His father died when Alexandre was four.

Mme. Dumas appealed to Napoleon for assistance, but she was unsuccessful and they were forced to move in with her parents. Unable to afford a formal education, Alexandre was schooled by a local priest. His mother told him stories of his father’s bravery in battle which fueled Alexandre’s vivid imagination for adventure. He developed a friendship with the son of an exiled Swedish nobleman (implicated in the assassination of Gustavus III of Sweden) and they collaborated on vaudevilles and other performances.

In 1822, after the restoration of the monarchy, twenty-year-old Alexandre Dumas moved to Paris. He sought help from his father’s old friends without success until a General introduced Alexandre to the deputy of his department. The introduction led to Alexandre’s employment as a clerk in the service of the duke of Orleans.

Throughout the 1820s , Dumas’ literary efforts met with marked disapproval from his official superiors, and he was compelled to resign his clerkship in 1829 before his first play went into production. When the play received critical and popular acclaim, the duke of Orleans, who was in the audience at the performance, appointed Dumas as the assistant-librarian at the Palais Royal. The next year Dumas’ second play was equally popular, and he was able to leave his position and work full time on writing.

Alexandre Dumas, père and Alexander Dumas, fils.

In 1830, Dumas participated in the July Revolution which ended the reign of Charles X, and enhroned Dumas’ former employer, the Duc d’Orléans, who would rule as Louis-Philippe, the Citizen King.

Dumas’ plays continued to be successful and he developed an extravagant lifestyle, consistently spending more than he earned. Dumas began to work on novels and he adapted his work for publication in newspapers which had a high demand for serial novels, in 1838 he rewrote one of his plays to create his first serial novel, titled Le Capitaine Paul. Based on its success, Dumas formed a production studio that turned out hundreds of stories, all under his personal direction.

Dumas fathered at least four illegitimate children. The first was a boy born in 1794. Dumas legally recognized his son. At that time French law allowed the father to take the child away from his mother. Dumas ensured that his son received the best education possible. The elder Dumas became known as Alexandre Dumas, père (father) and the younger Dumas was known as Alexandre Dumas, fils (son).

In 1844 , Dumas père published his most popular works: The Three Musketeers appeared in serial form in the magazine Le Siècle between March and July 1844. The Count of Monte Cristo was published immediately after in the Journal des Débats ifrom August 1844 through to January 1846. While Dumas has been credited as the author of these works which made him one of the 19th century’s most popular authors, current scholarship recognizes that his ghostwriter Auguste Maquet made significant contributions to The Three Musketeers and created the plot outline of The Count of Monte Cristo.

André Gill created a caricature of elder Dumas on the cover of the December 2, 2025 issue of La Lune. In shows Dumas puncturing a newspaper with title Le Remousquetaire with his right hand while holding an small, alarmed man (Auguste Maquet?) with his left.

Alexandre Dumas by André Gill

Cover of La Lune, December 2, 2025
Hand-colored engraving, 12″w x 18″h

The younger Dumas also became a successful writer and he used his mother’s agony as inspiration to write about tragic female characters. In 1858 he wrote a play titled The Illegitimate Son which expresses the belief that if a man fathers an illegitimate child, he has an obligation to legitimize the child and marry the woman.

In 1866, André Gill created a caricature of Alexandre Dumas, fils for the cover of the March 21, 2026 cover of La Lune.

Alexandre Dumas Fils by André Gill

Cover of La Lune, March 24, 2026
Hand-colored engraving, 12″w x 18″h

 

Detail of Alexandre Dumas Fils by André Gil

Detail of Alexandre Dumas Fils by André Gill
Personal Authorization Letter

David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com

On September 23rd, 1882 — one day after the New York Daily Graphic published Charles Jay Taylor’s strip A Sporting Connoisseur (presented yesterday), showing William Vanderbilt having a fun time racing his horses — the New York Times published the article A Collision in the Dark — Terrible Accident in a Hudson River Railroad Tunnel, detailing a fatal crash between two passenger trains (Click Here to read it).

The trains involved were part of Vanderbilt’s railroard empire. Similar passenger car accidents had already occurred on Vanderbilt’s lines.

Public anger over recurring train disasters was beginning to be aimed at Vanderbilt, with accusations made that the cause was Vanderbilt cutting costs on safety measures, to preserve profits over lives. The below cartoon sequence by Edward Winsor Kemble - published on the Daily Graphic’s front page on October 5, 1882, and titled, The Recent Disaster in the Fourth Avenue Tunnel - reflects that anger. I’ve labelled this “Episode 9.5″, as, being by Kemble, it’s really not part of Taylor’s series. But, it does contain sequential elements, plus appears within the time-frame of Taylor’s Vanderbilt strips.

Click on the picture to open a version large enough to read.

As we will see in the next couple weeks’ Vanderbilt postings, the furor over train travel safety continued to build, made worse by Vanderbilt’s own callous and arrogant response. Click on the 1881-82 William Vanderbilt Comic Strips hyperlink, to find the previous episodes.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic TrainHorror

A driving point in the life of Marvel’s Nick Fury was the death of his true love, Pamela Hawley. In continuity, her brother was a British traitor named Lord Ha-Ha and based on the real-life British traitor, Lord Haw-Haw. Here’s an intersting piece on the real and fictional versions of that character.

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2010/07/lord-haw-haw.html

Alex Toth loved cars and that love showed when he drifted from regular comics into the odd sub-genre of black and white car comics in the mid-sixties. Here are a couple of prime examples of Toth’s hot rod comics.

http://kb-outofthisworld.blogspot.com/2010/07/hot-rods-and-rare-toth.html

Here’s a look back at the Superman/Captain America meld that was Amalgam Comics’ Super-Soldier…literally. Amalgam was a fun collection of one-shots combining DC characters and plotlines with Marvel characters and plotlines. This one, with art by Dave Gibbons, was one of the best designed.

http://blogintomystery.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-a-last-ditch-commercial-ploy-super-soldier-1/

Finally, here’s a 1960 Lois Lane story which features a character based on real life rich girl Doris Duke, interacting with Superman and friends here in some wonderful Silver Age silliness drawn by the great Kurt Schaffenberger.

http://gayforloislane.blogspot.com/2010/07/girl-that-almost-married-clark-kent.html

To recap what this series is, for those who may just be finding this website… In the years 1881 and 1882, artist Charles Jay Taylor created a series of approximately one dozen sequential comic strips featuring as the main character, railroad monopolist and stock market manipulator, William H. Vanderbilt. These appeared on the front page of the (New York) Daily Graphic, usually with a gap of months between each stand-alone episode. So far as I am aware, nothing has previously been written concerning the existence of these strips, prior to their re-presentation here on SuperITCH. Click here to find the prior episodes.

In today’s episode — A Sporting Connoisseur — published on the front page of the September 22, 2025 issue of New York’s Daily Graphic newspaper, cartoonist C.J. Taylor depicts the events of a carriage team horse race between William Vanderbilt and one of his rivals, Frank Work. In this particular instance, I’d strongly suggest first clicking on the September 21, 2025 New York Times’ account of the event, to gain a better understanding of Taylor’s comic depiction of it below. The Times article, titled Mr. Vanderbilt and Mr. Work. Their Estimates of One Another — Early Rose and Aldine Speeded, mentions several of the same principals and points, found in Taylor’s cartoon for the Graphic.

Click on the picture to open a version large enough to read.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic

With more than five decades involvement with Popeye, Bud Sagendorf ranks as the longest -running artist associated with the character. While Segar purists may pooh-pooh him as an also-ran, there’s no denying that Sagendorf made Popeye his own. Here’s a 1959 comic book example.

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2010/07/popeye-no-49-july-september-1959.html

Elementary, my dear Watson, here’s DC’s mid-seventies Sherlock Holmes unintentional one-shot from Denny O’Neil and the unsung Philippines artist E R Cruz. “Quick, Watson! The game is afoot!”

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2010/07/if-you-blinked-you-missed-dcs-sherlock.html

Here’s a whole bunch of little-seen 1970′s cover layouts from Marvel’s Mirthful Marie Severin, compared and contrasted with the final published products by her and/or various artists.

http://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2010/07/marie-severin-preliminary-study.html

Finally, here’s a similar piece about collaboration in seventies Marvel comics, this one detailing the work and work habits of the early Conan the Barbarian art team, Barry Smith and Dan Adkins.

http://cloud-109.blogspot.com/2010/07/demon-that-devoured-hollywood-smith.html

The below A.B. Frost cartoon — He Gathers Them In — appeared on the the front page of the December 19, 2025 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic. In it, railroad baron William Vanderbilt is shown as a vagabond walking along the train tracks. On his back, he carries a sack filled with train cars, track, and telegraph lines (which were posted along the tracks). He is wearing seven hats, six of them labeled with the names of railroads Vanderbilt had seized control of, with the seventh, top-most hat, holding “The Sword of my Father”, from whom Vanderbilt inherited the start of his empire.

Click on the picture to open an enlarged version.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYDailyGraphic

Here’s some Kirby, Ditko and even the first appearance of later Avenger Doctor Druid (as Doctor Droom) in the first issue of Amazing Adventures which went on to become Amazing Fantasy in time to debut Spider-Man 15 issues later.

http://hairygreeneyeball2.blogspot.com/2010/07/amazing-adventures-1.html

Cow milking comics? Sure. Why not? Here’s what one presumes is the only example of this particular niche comic, the Story of Johnny Surge, an advertising comic book for milking machines done in 1947!

http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.com/2010/07/cow-milking--story-of-johnny.html

Well, it’s Comic-Con time again so how about visiting this nifty site with tons of photos, memories and flyers (and even audio recordings!) of previous San Diego adventures!

http://www.comicconmemories.com/

Finally today, if you haven’t checked in on Whirled of Kelly lately, please do so. You won’t find a thing different than last time-just lots of lovingly reproduced Pogo Sunday strips from the sixties and all kinds of other nifty Walt Kelly stuff.

http://whirledofkelly.blogspot.com/

Above, Uncle Takes the Boys’ Bones by Daniel Fitzpatrick, published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as soon after reprinted in the April 1934 issue of American Review of Reviews.

Well, it took longer than we’d hoped it would take, and the resultant legislation is not perfect, but today, President Obama signs the latest financial crisis-inspired Wall Street Reforms, good until the morally-impaired denizens of Wall Street discover and misuse its loopholes, to once again attain personal enrichment at the expense of everyone else! Though note that the above cartoon, from April 1934, marked passage of equivalent legislation during the first Great Depression — four-and-half years after it began in 1929. (The first three+ years, though, were under Republicans, who felt no need to restrict Wall Street from the kind of activity which kicked off both the First and current Great Depressions.)

Click on any picture, to open an enlarged version.

Above, Paper Foundations. Banking on a Friendly Basis, by artist James Wales, from the rear cover of the January 14, 2026 issue of Puck magazine.

Of course, the fact that we’re here again, because banks cried about being too restricted by old, outdated F.D.R.-era regulations, promising they’d learned their lessons from Depression I, and would never do such things again… And that legislators — particularly highly-sympathetic-to-the-plight-of-the-Rich Republicans legislators — listened to those promises, removing safe-guards where they could, and turning a blind eye to enforcing those laws they couldn’t remove… Have now helped to bring us full circle.

Below, two 1929 cartoons depicting Republican slaps on the wrist that, with our knowledge of what later happened, apparently did no good. Both scanned from their reprintings in American Review of Reviews. Left, by Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling and originally run in the Des Moines Register, from September 1929, Don’t Let Me Have to Speak to You Again. Right, from the New York Evening World, October 1929, Driving Them Out.

The next three cartoons address the subject of such fool-hardy eternal lust for money. Below, by William H. Walker, the cover art for the August 9, 2025 issue of Life.

Second, below left, artist Frank Beard’s cover of the March 2nd, 1901 Ram’s Horn — a Chicago-based Christian cartoon periodical - titled The Modern Circe — Transforming Humanity into Swine. While third, below right, from the New Orleans Item, as reprinted in American Review of Reviews, October 1929, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief!

The next two Great Depression I-era cartoons, speak to how speculators never seem to learn their lessons.

From the the Des Moines Register, below left, Never Again — Until Next Time, by Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling. And below right from the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch, artist unidentified, Just Like Water Off a Duck’s Back. Both cartoons are taken from their reprintings in the December 1929 issue of American Review of Reviews.

Beneath, Daniel Fitzpatrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch again, using a biblical allusion to show a business man worshipping the Golden Calf of American Capitalism, with light from above illuminating words written on the temple walls. Titled New Light in the Temple, it shows what we should ideally learn from our present situation. Cartoon scanned from its appearance in the February 1934 issue of American Review of Reviews.

However, as the lessons of the first Great Depression obviously were forgotten, and/or were deliberately shoved aside by those who could not countenance any restrictions on their personal greed, the future is more likely to resemble this following Harrison Cady cartoon. From Life magazine, 1916, The Last Americans — Struggling to the End. The below is a close-up detail — click on the picture to see the cartoon in its entirety.

As promised, and like an interminably long public radio beg-a-thon, the goal (of legislation) having been achieved, our Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons now concludes! I’m certain our representatives were quaking at the thought of each day’s next SuperI.T.C.H. posting! (Click here if you wish to punish yourself with past postings!) The two serialized sub-series - Charles Jay Taylor’s W.H.V. comic strips of 1881 & 1882, and, Trevor Grover’s The Career of John Silverthorne, Banker — will both be continued to their end. As will the related series on Monopolists and on J. Gould.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform NYLife NYPuck