Today’s posting consists of cartoons by artist Homer Davenport, all but one from the 1900 cartoon collection, The Dollar or the Man?

Above, “Many hats that fit to one head”, showing Republican nominee (for 1900) & President (since 1897), William McKinley, being held aloft by the Corporate Monopolies/”Trusts”, who have their man for the White House. In the background, tossed up in celebration, are the hats of various corporate entities — Standard Oil, the Coal Trusts, the Sugar Trusts, and the checkered $ hat of of Republican political operative and $-man, always busy selling the G.O.P. to the Corporate Elite, Mark Hanna. (Hanna was the Karl Rove of his day.)

Click on the above & below cartoons, to view them in greater detail.

Above, They’re off!, depicting 1900 nominees McKinley and his new V.P. pick Teddy Roosevelt, riding atop the G.O.P. elephant (with $-sign riding blanket) — both candidates embraced/held in place by the one of the Goliath-like giant barbarians that Davenport frequently used to represent corporate monopolies. More corporate Goliaths (to the American people’s David) can be seen partying in the background, New Orleans-style, dancing & playing instruments, celebrating their new candidate. Wealthy monopolist & political operative Mark Hanna, is shown in his suit made of $-signs (as ususally depicted by Davenport, as well as by others), leading the celebratory parade.

Beneath, But something happened on the road!. The Tammany Tiger (symbol of the corrupt Tammany Hall organization, which frequently allied with NYC Democrats), has disrupted the parade, by tying firecrackers to the G.O.P. elephant, highlighting Republican ties to Corporations/Trusts, and charges of imperialism (for McKinley’s grab of island territories in the Spanish-American War).

Next, from the 1897-published book, Cartoons by Davenport (and yes, I have shown the below cartoon before), “Mark, it don’t look as if the rest of the procession were coming.”.

Back to The Dollar or the Man? for the last two cartoons today.

A heart to heart talk and a doubter on the threshold, above, shows McKinley in the lap of the Trusts, with the Law standing outside the door, and peeking in, concerned about what he is watching.

As they go to the polls, below, pictures the Corportate Trusts leading William McKinley and Mark Hanna off to the new election, making their way towards Justice and the Law. From behind.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics T.R.

Let’s start with this brief but amazing gallery of Steranko X-Men covers from the sixties.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-grooviest-covers-of-all-time.html

Here Steve-some other Steve, not me-surveys the seventies Atlas weirdie, Planet of the Vampires.

http://stevedoescomics.blogspot.com/2012/08/atlas-comics-planet-of-vampires-1.html

Here we see a few examples of Tommy Hogg, a newspaper strip from one hundred and seven years ago!

http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2012/08/obscurity-of-day-tommy-hogg.html

Finally today, if you dare, one of the single most infamous comic book tales of them all by Jack Davis!

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2012/08/number-1219-baseball-by-moonlight.html

And a reminder-If you’re at Dragon Con this holiday weekend, look for Craig and buy some Yoe Books! Zombies! Popeye! Archie! Milt Gross! Barney Google! Ditko! Good stuff!

As promised, this time I present part two of Single Series 22 Iron Vic where we discover just how amnesiac Vic goes from being an evening wear wearing vigilante to a professional baseball player. He just…kind of does. Seriously, cartoonist Bernard Dribble wastes no time getting Vic out of the crime busting racket and right into ball playing. And while his portrayal of a major league sports team doesn’t seem particularly well informed, given Drabble supposedly played minor league baseball, he does seem a whole lot more comfortable drawing this version of Iron Vic.

It definitely allowed him to get more cartoony, as in this totally random panel featuring one of Dribble’s standard old men who is interrupted in the bath by one of Vic’s runaway balls. I say ‘totally random’ because we are introduced to Mr. J. Windgate Fitzwillie…and that’s it. He doesn’t turn out to be the owner of the team who has a spirited, beautiful daughter who gets Vic involved in high society My Man Godfrey type shenanigans. No, he has absolutely no other role in strip other than to provide a cheap sight gag. What the hell?

It’ s still not very good, but it’s definitely more interesting.

Above, by Puck magazine founder & artist, Joseph Keppler, Sr., The Writing on the Wall.

On stage & shrinking from the light of the words “Republican Revolt” on the backwall, are 1884 Republican Presidential nominee James G. Blaine, as the Tattooed Man, and his Vice-Presidential running mate. Blaine — well known nationally for his corruption & lies, is depicted as tattooed from head-to-toe with his sins. Here, he tries to use the New York Tribune newspaper (a Republican propaganda sheet equivalent to today’s Fox News) to conceal his sins. The “Revolt”, though, refers to the many Republican faithful who weren’t buying into such a known-to-be-corrupt candidate for President — whether they stayed away or switched their vote, his personal faults and voters rejection of them, would cost Blaine the election.

Also not enjoying the revealing light cast upon them, are the Republicans who had been dining upon “Monopoly Stew” — William H. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Cyrus Field, the Tribune‘s editor, and others.

Below, the prose piece from the same June 18th, 1884 issue, calling for the defeat of Blaine.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionCartoons KepplerSr NYPuck

Let’s start today with a fun Peanuts photoshop site full of irreverently doctored covers.

http://paperbackcharliebrown.blogspot.com/

Here’s a great piece on the changes wrought on the comics industry when the Code came in in the fifties.

http://cbldf.org/homepage/tales-from-the-code-how-much-did-things-change-after-the-enactment-of-the-comics-code-of-1954/

Everybody and their brother did Kirby tributes for what would have been his 95th. Here’s one of my faves.

http://grantbridgestreet.blogspot.com/2012/08/jack-kirby.html

Finally, Dragon Con! My friends Greg Theakston and David Spurlock will be there this weekend and, of course, Craig Yoe! Go. Take pictures! Send us pics of Yoe and we’ll post ‘em here!

http://dragoncon.org/

Today, appropriate to this week’s Republican National Convention, with a born-into-riches millionaire Wall Streeter as the G.O.P. Presidential nominee, calling for still more tax breaks for most wealthy, paid for on the backs of everyone else, we have the Frederick Burr Opper cartoon, Let Them Have It All, and Be Done With It!.

Appearing in this cartoon, which was published on the rear cover of the February 8th, 1882 issue of Puck magazine, are millionaire monopolists and stock market swindlers, William H. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Russell Sage, and Cyrus Field.

Click on the above cartoon, to view it in greater detail.

To find prior episodes of this series,click on Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons. And, to find earlier posts concerning financial reforms in general, click here.

Doug Wheeler

Financial reform NYPuck

Holy jumpin’ catfish, Batman! It’s been several weeks now and The Dark Knight Rises continues its run in theaters. What choice do we have but to continue to bring you more Bat-music? None, I’d say.

Since Robin doesn’t make an appearance in the new film, it’s only fitting that we focus on the Boy Wonder here at I.T.C.H. – and that means more 1966 vintage music! Here’s a tune about Batman and Robin that you’re sure to enjoy.

Click the link below and listen to The Thor-ables!

Batman And Robin - Thor-Ables

I’ve been avoiding running these particular cartoons within Tigwissel Tuesdays‘s general mandate of reviewing comics parodying science, but given that the Anti-Science Party (also known as Republicans) is holding its national convention this week, I felt what better time to honor the G.O.P.’s 19th Century ideas, than with cartoons from the 19th Century making fun of
Charles Darwin and his now thoroughly and repeatedly proven Theory of Evolution.

Evolution then being a new and highly controversial theory (and, at the time, whose supporting evidence was just emerging, as opposed to the enormous and overwhelming body of supporting proofs that has since been uncovered) meant that at this early stage, most cartoons involving Evolution directly or indirectly made fun of it. The further fact that the Theory of Evolution (or more accurately stated, the general public’s inaccurate understanding of it), all but invited cartoonists to depict men as monkeys, and monkeys as men, guaranteed that the number of cartoons aimed at, or making use of, Evolution, would be great.

Above, from the November 16th, 1872 issue of Fun magazine, we have artist John Tenniel‘s “That Troubles our Monkey Again”, depicting Darwin as a monkey with a human head.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in greater detail.

Below, from the front page of the January 9th, 1875 edition of the (New York) Daily Graphic, comes “A Lecture Without Words; Singular Effect of Optical Laws on our Darwinian Professor.”

Above, from the 1882 Punch’s Almanack, is artist Linley Sambourne‘s satirical “Man is But a Worm”.

Below, in Mr. Pongo on “The Situation”, Tenniel and Fun magazine again (September 12th, 1877) uses Evolution, this time combined with London gorilla sensation Mr. Pongo, to comment that if the Development of Man leads to war, conflict, and scandal (the latter the headline in the newspaper Pongo is shown holding), then, Pongo is glad his species didn’t follow Man’s path.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics

Today’s topic, extracted from the August 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine, is the eternal evil of American politics — Campaign Funding. (Or, as Republicans would have it, Corporations = People, and, Money = Speech. Though if you’re going to reduce it to a mathematical equation, then pure math would reveal that those with the most money, get the most speech — which would make one millionaire’s opinion, worth more than the opinions of close to a million ordinary folk.)

Above, top, by Harry J. Westerman, we see all three parties on Beggar’s Row, waiting to panhandle a big $$$ Wall Street/Corporate Monopoly type, for contributions. On the bottom right above, Ralph Everett Wilder shows the three parties all claiming not to answer to Wall Street — and starving for cash. They don’t want to be seen taking Wall Street money, as Wall Street is shown being interrogated by a Senate Investigation on the corrupting influence of their money. The Wall Street type, unaccountable for his contributions, is happily proclaiming, “Oh yes, I contributed a couple thousand — or perhaps it was a couple million — I forget just how much.” Finally above, bottom left, Clubb of the Rochester Herald, depicts (both parties) nomination battles as having eaten up Party Funds, leaving nothing for the Fall Campaign.

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

Beneath, bottom left, artist Gaar Williams depicts T.R.‘s Million $ Campaign “Moonshine Stump”, which his Campaign Committee conspiratorially whispers “Nobuddy knows how jugs git filled an’ nobuddy knows how they git empty.”

The other cartoons beneath, by W.A. Rogers, J.E. Murphy, and Camillus Kessler, also focus on questions of where Teddy Roosevelt and the Bull Moose Party are getting their money, with some pointing towards the monopolistic trust that built harvesting machines.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics James E. Murphy John Scott Clubb

Well, it took me a while but I finally got around to doing a post on Iron Vic, a comic strip I’ve wanted to see for decades, That was mostly due to the fact because it was a rare attempt to create a superhero for newspapers. But also it’s because it’s a particularly strange example of a superhero who decides to change careers — but more of that in Part Two.

Also of interest though is the fact it was created by Bernard Drabble, a.k.a. Dib, a cartoonist who had an extensive history in comic strips who also did humorous one and two pagers for Quality Comics (see Comic Book Compulsive — El Bombo). I love Dribble’s big foot cartoony style so I was more than a little disappointed by just his just barely adequate his ‘serious’ work was. Sadly, Iron Vic just isn’t very good — it actually looks like a feature from an early Golden Age comic book, and that’s not a compliment. It only briefly springs to life during a sequence set in a nightclub involving chorus girls, pretty girls being one of Dib’s specialities.

But it is kind of strange and interesting following the Superman like adventures of a character dressed in evening wear and a hat; Iron Vic may well be the only proper superhero to ever fight evil wearing a slouch hat.