A few circa 1830′s Comic Devils
For today’s holiday, a few images appropriate to Halloween, from American comic almanacs of the (mostly) 1830′s.
Above, the front cover of the 1839 Old American Comic Almanac, published by S.N. Dickinson. Beneath, the front cover from the 1835 edition of the predecessor series — The American Comic Almanac, published by Charles Ellms. Both were printed in Boston.
Click on the above & below pictures, to enlarge them, and see in greater detail.
Above, one of the panels from the circa 1830′s broadsheet, Humorous Scraps, also printed in Boston (publisher & precise date, unknown). Beneath, the front cover of Charles Ellms’ 1834 American Comic Almanac.
Above, the front cover of New York publisher Robert H. Elton‘s Jackson Almanac (as in Andrew Jackson) of 1836. This cover features both a “Monster Bank”, and someone representing the Whig Party tossed down a “Democractic Mill”/Grinder. (Sorry I don’t have an enlarged picture of this one — I don’t own a copy of it, so this picture came from some auction years ago.)
Beneath, a pirate head on a spike, from an inside page of the 1839 Nashville version of the Crockett Almanacs. The graphic itself, however, was swiped from the earlier 1837 Pirate’s Own Book, published by Charles Ellms (Boston).
Above, faeries with a demonic demeanor, grace the 1852 Elton’s Comic Almanac.
Below, a wizardly Father Time, on the front cover of Elton’s Comic All-My-Nack for 1849.
Finally, beneath, from the early days of railroads, when trains had a (deserved) reputation as death traps, is the rear cover of Dickinson’s 1839 Old American Comic Almanac.
— Doug
