Above, the centerspread cartoon from the Ovtober 10th, 1888 issue of Puck magazine. Titled They Can’t Travel Much Further on a Road Built of Lies and Misrepresentations, by artist Louis Dalrymple, it depicts a G.O.P. procession across a rickety bridge, built of wooden planks with labels such as “Misleading Statements”, “Forged Quotations”, “Untruths”, “Falsehoods”, etc. (Click on the picture to enlarge it, and read them all.) James G. Blaine is depicted leading the procession, with 1888 Republican Presidential nominee (and eventual winner) Benjamin Harrison, riding in the wagon, along with his V.P. choice.

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

Of note are the words on the banner held by Blaine — “Trusts are largely private affairs” — a phrase which Blaine and others had been using, in response to companies laying off workers, to drive down the supply of goods, so as to drive up prices. (The kind of anti-competitive tactic, wherein companies openly collude with each other to rig market prices, which happened before anti-Trust regulations, which are amongst the regulations current Tea Party Republicans want to eliminate!) Blaine’s statement, I guess, can be seen as analogous Mitt Romney’s telling a crowd that “Corporationa are People”.

Doug Wheeler

NYPuck James Blaine

From the September 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine, we see that a century has made little difference in the workings of Congress.

In 1912, the Republican Party split in two at the Presidential level, with supporters of Taft remaining with the G.O.P., and the insurgents in league with T.R., forming the new Progressive Party. Herbert H. Perry, above, shows how sitting Republican congressmen — who would have preferred in 1912 to keep their mouths shut and lie low — were being forced by voters to declare to which of the two factions they belonged.

Meanwhile, Camillus Kessler depicts a congressman obsessed with with incoming polling.

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

Beneath, a Do-Nothing Congress, depicted by William Charles Morris and others.

Above & below, Congressional Scandals.

In the above page, Herbert Johnson, Luther D. Bradley, and Charles Henry Sykes, depict the bribing of Pennsylvania Republican Senator Boles Penrose, by John D. Archbold of the Standard Oil Company. (Today, with the Supreme Court’s declaration of Money = Free Speech (and Mitt Romney’s “Corporations are People”), Standard Oil could simply give in secret to a Super-PAC, to have their will turned into law.)

Beneath, Illinois Republican William Lorimer, expelled from the U.S. Senate earlier in 1912, for having bribed/paid for his election to the Senate (this was when Senators were still chosen by State Legislatures, rather than direct vote by the people — so, Lorimer — a Bank President — had bribed members of the Illinois State Legislature to elect him). The below page of cartoons, by Gaar Williams and others, concerns that after being expelled, Lorimer had the temerity to present to the U.S. government, the bill for his failed legal defense!

Finally, below, cartoons by Nelson Harding and others, calling for direct vote, rather than control of the vote by state legislatures (and, thereby, political party bosses).

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics

I’ve posted repeatedly about Big Shot Comics, a Golden Age anthology title that was equal parts masked mystery men and comic strip reprints. Since I mostly do these things for myself I really don’t require a loophole, but at this point in it’s run the comics title had been shortened to Big Shot. It’s absolutely jam-packed with high quality contents that appeals to both my superhero loving side and the part of my brain devoted to obscure old comic strips. The issue gets off to a rousing start with this symbolic comedy cover giving The Face some much deserved, um, face time (it’s a little surprising just how infrequently he made it onto the cover of Big Shot Comics).

First up is a pretty good outing with Gardner Fox’s Skyman, written by Raymond C. Krank and drawn not by regular artist Ogden Whitney (creator of Herbie) but by Mart Bailey. In a previous installment I referred to Skyman as a “dime store Captain Midnight” and that slur finally becomes fact as he adds to his trove of inventions this frankly kind of freaky looking glider wings.

Columbia Comics was a product of the partnership of Vin Sullivan of DC Comics and the McNaught Newspaper Syndicate so naturally Big Shot was full of reprints of their strips, some even more obscure than Charlie Chan and Dixie Dugan. Like Captain Yank by Frank Tinsley, illustrator of the Bill Barnes pulp aviation series. The strip started life as Yankee Doodle and followed the adventures of a flying explorer but after Pearl Harbor rejoined the marines and went on Commando missions in East Asia.

But there was also the completely forgotten Hollywood Husband…

…and the much, much better Vic Jordan, the story of an American trapped in Paris during the occupation written by a pair of reporters, Kermitt Jaekiker and Charles Zerner, and drawn by comic book artist Ed Wexler.

And finally, an adventure of one of my favorite masked mystery men, The Face, set during my least favorite part of his career, when alter ego radio announcer Tony Trent was stationed in Asia and one day at a time began weaning himself away from wearing his ‘rubberoid’ mask. On the other hand this story ’retells’ his origin (which is, not to ruin things for you, is basically he thought it would be cool to wear a rubber mask and beat the crap out of gangsters, so he did, the end), though I’m not sure if this portion is original or a reprint of a previous story. I’m sure somebody out there can tell me which.

It’s time again for our monthly Cartoons Magazine Centennial Year Good Ol’ Days potpourri, looking back to the September 1912 issue.

End of Summer cartoons, above, by Kin Hubbard (creator of Abe Martin) and Ralph Everett Wilder, and below, by Billy DeBeck and others.

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

Above, Boy Cartoons by Robert Satterfield, John T. McCutcheon, and John Campbell Cory

Below, sports cartoons by A.B. Chapin, Wallace Anderson Carlson, and Harry J. Westerman. The bottom left cartoon refers to Baseball Hall of Famer Rube Marquad, while the bottom right is in reference to boxing champion Jack Johnson (by picturing yet another of his defeated opponents).

Above, Charles Henry Sykes, Cy Hungerford, Herbert H. Perry, and W.A. Ireland, on obviously better economic times, when business (according to this set of cartoons) couldn’t care less which of the three major political parties won the upcoming elections.

Below, by Bronstrup, Perry and Cory again, and, Gaar Williams, on a variety of common irritants.

Doug Wheeler

Billy Ireland SummerVacation ElectionCartoons

For Week Three of Back-to-School Month, we feature half a dozen cartoons from the 1877 to 1878 School Year of the Harvard Lampoon, most of them the work of artist Francis Gilbert Attwood. Several graduates from the Harvard Lampoon — including Attwood — would in a few years after this, found Life magazine, patterned after the Harvard Lampoon.

Enjoy!

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

Doug Wheeler

CollegeComics F.G. Attwood

So okay, I had planned to introduce this set of cartoons this month anyway, but Mitt Romney just two days ago made all my intros for the next month-and-a-half, a whole lot easier, by calling nearly half of all Americans lazy & worthless bums, soaking the government. Including retirees who earned their Social Security. And low wage workers who do pay taxes on their wages, but don’t earn enough to pay at higher rates. Students for making use of student loans. Large families where one person earns an average wage. Veterans, for getting veteran benefits. Current, active combat troops in war zones. And them lazy laid off workers, for daring to collect on the unemployment insurance (which they get only in relation to what they paid in unemployment taxes when they were working, and for how long). Many of these people, are registered Republicans.

Yes, the elderly, poor, and middle class, are worthlessly not paying enough in taxes — they need to pay more, to help pay the suffering richest 1%, grab an even greater share for themselves. (And, P.S., aren’t the Republicans the ones who say they won’t raise taxes on anyone? Well, I guess they only regard the rich (and corporations) as real people — and the rest of us as beneath human — since Romney now is saying that the poorer half of all Americans need to pay more taxes.

This, coming from a millionaire, who stuffs his money in Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts in order to avoid paying his share. Who himself pays near zero income tax, because he’s living off interest and dividends, and thus paying a smaller percentage on his income, than the average American worker. Who wants to eliminate completely taxes on interest, so that he, personally, will not have to pay one cent. Who has now been filmed, openly talking with his wealthy donors, making it crystal clear to anyone still not burying their heads like ostriches so they don’t hear his words, that his plan is to pay for his (further) wealth transfer to the rich, by taking that money from everyone else.

I am livid with his insulting comments. How DARE tax-evader Mitt Romney call 47% of Americans, lazy moochers. Shame!

That’s it. Rant’s done. If anyone’s still there (or perhaps, has simply learned to ignore my words, and look instead at the pretty pictures), let’s get to it…

Above, from the October 15th, 1884 issue of Puck magazine, by artist Frederick Graetz, we have Promise and Performance, depicting how 1884 G.O.P. Presidential-nominee James G. Blaine & his V.P. candidate, was promising to treat workers before the election, and how they would treat them after.

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

Below, James Blaine again, in The False Friend of the Workingman, by artist Joseph Keppler, Sr., depicting Blaine seeking the vote of mine workers, after betraying a promise he had made to them earlier. From the centerspread of the October 15th, 1884 Puck.

Finally, a Frederick Burr Opper cartoon we’ve shown before — The Bogus Workingman and His Lonesome Boom — showing politician James Butler, attempting to pass himself off as a common workman, by changing his clothes (his fancier duds are hanging on a peg in the background), and making use of his box of “tools for exhibition purposes”. From the front cover of the September 10th, 1884 issue of Puck.

Doug Wheeler

NYPuck

Here’s the conclusion of Hell-Rider, a black and white hero who only lasted two issues in the seventies. Backtrack for the rest of the story.

http://heroheroinehistory.blogspot.com/2012/09/reading-room-hell-rider-night-of-ripper_19.html?

Here’s a nice seventies article on the late, great Joe Kubert written by DC’s “favorite Guy,” (who’s still around on Facebook!).

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2012/09/black-and-white-wednesday-celebrated-mr.html

Here’s a short but fun piece on Detective Chimp with some nice Infantino artwork.

http://thefifthbranch.com/gorilladaze/more-detective-chimp/

Let’s top it of today with a long and lovely piece on Blondie written by the great comics historian. R.C. Harvey.

http://www.tcj.com/chics-blondie/

According to my exhaustive research (I typed “movie times” into Google), the film The Dark Knight Rises is still playing in movie theaters. Holy box office Batman! That must be some kind of record! And when it comes to Batman records, you’ve come to the right place.

Here’s a record I’ve been saving for a special occasion. But since that occasion never occurred, I may as well share it now. It’s Jan & Dean’s unique take on Batman, as inspired by the Batman phenomenon that swept the nation like smallpox in the first part of the second half of the 20th century. I’m talking about 1966, of course.

Note the clever way Jan wove the Neal Hefti Batman theme into the record, yet it functions as a new song! I also like the way the record stops dead in its tracks for the narration. It’s like “Dead Man’s Curve” but with bats.

You can read more about Jan & Dean’s batventures by clicking here.

Click the link below to listen to this batacular record.

Batman - Jan & Dean

We look back again to 1912, the year that America experimented with partying threeways! Added to spice things up between the longtime duo of Democratic and Republican parties, was the hot new star, the Progressive Party. Via the September 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine.

Above, cartoons for and against Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Below, the same, regarding Republican William Howard Taft.

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

Above & below, that hot new political partner, Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party, gets twice the attention. Cartoons by Luther D. Bradley, Herbert Johnson, Robert Minor, Jr., W.A. Ireland, and others.

The V.P. candidates also get let in on the action, after mostly watching… drawn by William Kemp Starrett, Karl K. Knecht, and Bronstrup.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics

Let’s start with some of former Dennis the Menace ghost Lee Holley’s delightful Ponytail, a longtime newspaper success seen here in the comics.

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2012/09/lee-holleys-ponytail.html

Here’s the truly odd team-up between Batman and the Legion of Super Heroes, made odder by the great Ernie Colon’s artwork.

http://mailittoteamup.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-brave-and-bold-from-to-z-brave-and_18.html

I Love Comic Covers is a fun site with images of same, pointing out homages, tributes and downright rip-offs.

http://ilovecomiccovers.blogspot.com/

Last but not least today, here we have the results of a fun contest to redesign the Fantastic Four.

http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/2012/09/17/fantastic-four-fashion-forward-winners/#more-5324