“Willie and His Papa”, by Fred Opper, 1900
During the Presidential Election of 1900, cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper ran Hearst-owned newspaper, the New York Evening Journal, the one panel comic strip Willie and His Papa, satirizing the influence of money from the Trusts (i.e., corporate monopolies) on the Republican side of the election. After the recent decision of our current conservative activist Supreme Court to throw [...]
“The Public be Damned!”, Part 3
On October 18th, 1882, the same day as Charles Taylor’s & the (New York) Daily Graphic’s second shot at William H. Vanderbilt for his “The Public be Damned!” comment, Puck magazine took aim on its front cover via the below cartoon by Frederick Burr Opper. Unlike their competitors, Puck didn’t hold back, actually printing the word “damned” [...]
War Dance of the Stock Exchange Indians: Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 54
This Frederick Burr Opper cartoon, from the June 29, 2025 issue of Puck magazine, was originally part of a larger grouping of cartoons, all under the title, Why Wouldn’t a “Wild East” Show be Popular, Too?, posted slightly more than a month ago, involving how comic periodicals in Britain and America cover Buffalo Bill’s Wild West [...]
The “Three Honest Men” of Wall Street: Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 43
Frederick Burr Opper’s June 18, 2025 cover for Puck magazine — The “Three Honest Men” of Wall Street Declare for Blaine — depicts, of course, the furthest thing from “Honest Men”. Shown in operatic pirate garb, is Wall Street’s top pirate of the latter 19th century — Jay Gould — flanked by two of the [...]
Opper’s 1883 “The Monopoly Pharaohs Building Their Tombs”: Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 35
From the December 12, 2025 issue of Puck magazine, today we present The Monopoly Pharaohs Building Their Tombs, by Frederick Burr Opper. It parodies the two greatest stock market manipulators of the latter 19th century — Jay Gould and William Vanderbilt. In the background to the left, can be seen Gould, dressed as a priest, gesturing towards the [...]
Buffalo Bill & Queen Victoria, at Her Golden Jubilee, 1887
Greetings everyone, and Happy Victoria Day! To which all dozen of our American readers are likely going, “Huh?”, but I’m sure our one reader each in Canada, Britain, and Australia, should be pleased that we’ve remembered them (those three are, after all, twenty percent of our audience)! Being American, we naturally have to twist this holiday honoring Queen [...]
Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 10: Hard Times in Wall Street
With every past financial crisis, the editorial cartoons on the subject can be categorized into multiple recurring themes. One of these is the sarcastic “Think of what the poor blokes who work or invest on Wall Street are suffering”. This approach was more common in the 19th century, where the regular audience/buyers for comic periodicals, needed a modicum of wealth to afford the subscription to [...]
What Made Hooligan Happy…
This being April Fool’s Month (why keep it confined to merely one day?), I’m picking up from my April 1 post of an 1880s amateur comic strip, to show here what even anonymous amateurs could do in the Good Old Days to earn some real money — Naughty, Risque Comics! Below is a circa 1904-1915 [...]
