Christmas Bills: Cartoons Magazine Centennial 1913
By this time, most of us have gotten socked this January, with the bills we rang up in November/December, for Christmas. It was no different 100 years ago, as these cartoons from the February 1913 issue of Cartoons Magazine attest. Above, cartoonist Billy Ireland on that precise situation. Click on the above & below pictures, [...]
Little Johnny & the Taffy Possums: Tigwissel Christmas #4
For Christmas, we conclude our Santa in various mechanical transport comics, with a 1909 episode of Little Johnny & the Taffy Possums, by John R. Bray (art) and Robert D. Towne (script), featuring Santa delivering his presents by dirigible. Little Johnny ran on the rear cover of Judge magazine, plus was reprinted in some newspapers [...]
D. J. David B. Spins Comics-Tunes: ‘Tis The Season To Be Snoopy
First, a programming note. When I started writing this blog I couldn’t wait for Christmas so that I could present one of my ultimate fave-rave Comics Tunes, “Deck Us All With Boston Charlie,” which brings together my favorite comic strip (Pogo) and my favorite jazz group, Lambert Hendricks & Ross. I even pledged to [...]
A Visit from St. Nicholas, 1864
From 1864, we have A Visit from St. Nicholas — a fold-out strip version of “The Night Before Christmas”. It was published by Louis Prang & Company (best known for publishing postcards, Christmas cards, and Valentines), and is part of a boxed set of half a dozen fold-out lithographic booklets (only two of which — [...]
Christmas Helping 2: Cartoons Magazine Centennial, January 1913
Today, from the January 1913 edition of Cartoons Magazine, we’ve a second helping of Christmas cartoons, that had spilled over into the next month’s issue. Above, Entitled to a Pension for his Christmas Shopping duties, by Herbert H. Perry. Below, a husband not deserving of a pension, depicted by O’Loughlin. Click on the above & [...]
Santa and His Flying Machines: Tigwissel Tuesdays #45
For our second week in the March of Progress in Santa Science, we have more excerpts from my (unpublished) project collecting Victorian Age through WW I Christmas cartoons & comics. In more modern times, (particularly during the Space Race / Apollo Program), one can find such cartoons as Santa straddling space rockets, or, of him [...]
Civil War Christmas Cartoons: Vanity Fair
I’ve been rather neglectful in my postings, of the fact that we’re in the midst of the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War. Today, a meager bit of catching up, with some Christmas-themed cartoons, from the Civil War-era comic periodical , Vanity Fair. Above, a series of individual Christmas-themed cartoons, by Frank Bellew, Sr., [...]
Christmas Helping 1: Cartoons Magazine Centennial, December 1912
From the December 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine, we comes a small helping of Christmas cartoons. Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions. Above, by Frank Michael Spangler and H.T. Webster. Below, by George W. French. Above, William Kemp Starrett; below, O’Loughlin. Doug Wheeler Christmas [...]
Santa by Auto: Tigwissel Tuesdays #44
Today, the March of Progress in Santa Transportation Technology, using cartoons from one page of a Victorian/Pre-Depression I Christmas Comics book I put together, for which the publishing deal fell through. As we can see by these cartoons, Santa is constantly looking to improve on his methods of Christmas Toy Delivery. By replacing his apparently [...]
Doings of the Van Loons
We continue our presentation of books comic strip fans of one century ago, might have hoped to find beneath their tree. Today, we’re extracting from a copy that actually was given as a present one Christmas (see the gift signature beneath, found written in the book — a common practice in that time which would [...]
































