April Fool’s being the domain primarily of amateur pranksters, today we present a comic strip drawn in the late 1880s or early 1890s, by an unknown, aspiring cartoonist. The Biter Bitten is one example from a collection of dozens of rough draft strip and single panel cartoons, all by the same unknown hand, meticulously arranged and organized into a book-sized portfolio, in an attempt to attain publication.

As I’ve yet to encounter a printed version of any of the cartoons in the collection, I must assume its author remained an amateur. Similar ideas and themes are to be found in the comic periodicals of the day, but none a close enough match to declare that these hand-drawn rough drafts ever became more than that.

So, Hail to the Unknown Cartoonist - you’ve endured a 120-year wait to see your work presented to the Masses! At last, you may Rest in Peace!

Per the style of 19th century humor periodicals, our artist drew each cartoon panel upon a separate paper sheet. At that time, magazine and newspaper editors placed comic strip panels on the page as they saw fit — going straight or diagonally down, rather than across, and/or with individual panels interspersed across multiple mostly prose pages, with readers continuing the comic strip story as they progressed through the publication. The sequential full page grid of panels familiar to us today, was the exception rather than the rule. It only gradually became the dominant form of layout during the 1890s, via its frequent use in the comics of F.M. Howarth and others on the back cover of Puck magazine and Puck’s competitors, leading to its adoption when the color comic supplements began in newspapers.

If you’ve enjoyed the World Premiere of this 120-year old joke, we here have a great many more such up-to-date zingers, which we may unearth from time-to-time. (Assuming our Unknown Artist isn’t a vampire or zombie, and won’t come after me, looking for his pay).

Sincerely, Doug Wheeler