Earth Day 2011 + Pre-YK Talkies
Welcome to our second annual Earth Day posting (to see last year’s posting involving a couple of Cady cartoons, click here). Above is Page One from the 1878 British graphic novel, A Week at the Lakes and What Came of it; or, The Adventures of Mr. Dobbs and his friend Mr. Potts, by artist J. [...]
Gray Parker’s “The Reconstructed Female”, 1883
In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we present my absolute favorite Gray Parker comic. Parker was an upper-class NYC dandy, whose cartoons populated the (New York) Daily Graphic and, later, Life magazine. His comics were nearly always set amongst the aristocratic rich, often marching in step with them, but — when he was at his funniest — taking aim at [...]
New Year’s: A.B. Frost’s “Crooked Whiskey”, 1875
To help cheer in the New Year, following below is a cartoon on cheers years past! From the front page of the December 2nd, 1875 edition of the (New York) Daily Graphic, comes Arthur Burdett Frost’s, “Crooked Whiskey” in a Crooked Age. Click on the below picture, to open a larger version. Have a Happy New Year! Doug [...]
W.H. Vanderbilt as Santa Claus: Episode 11, C.J. Taylor’s 1881-82 William Vanderbilt Comic Strips
What better way to celebrate Christmas, than with one of the Nineteenth Century’s real Scrooges — monopolist & stock market manipulator William H. Vanderbilt — performing a hostile corporate takeover of the North Pole, and displacing that red-suited socialist Santa Claus with a Kringle who understands how the “free”-market is better when controlled, manipulated, and [...]
A.B. Frost, 1879: Cornelius to William Vanderbilt, “One Railroad was Enough for Me”
For the front page of the January 27, 2026 (New York) Daily Graphic, artist Arthur Burdett Frost depicted William H. Vanderbilt as a one-man band, playing multiple railroads simultaneously, while the ghost of his father, Cornelius, demands of him, “William! One railroad was enough for me! You are playing too many tunes!” William inherited the beginnings of [...]
1870s: The U.S. Government’s Wars against Native Americans
With the Civil War ended, the Union Army was free to concentrate on the conquest of Western native tribes (plus the re-conquest of tribes that had become “western”, by virtue of being forcibly re-settled west, after their lands in the east had been stolen.) Depictions were rampant of murderous savages commiting acts of senseless violence, [...]
How “Our Side” May Lose the Election — by Livingston Hopkins, 1877
As they say, get out and vote, or you don’t have the right to complain afterwards. (To those hoping, sorry, I’m voting, so I can be as verbal post-election as I like!) On a similar vein, we present cartoonist Livingston Hopkins’ front page art for the November 5th, 1877 edition of the New York Daily Graphic, [...]
A.B. Frost’s “The Intelligent American Voter”, 1875
For my final non-partisan Monday, we present the November 2nd, 1875 front page of the New York Daily Graphic — artist A.B. Frost’s The Intelligent American Voter. Enjoy, and Vote Often! Click on the below picture, to open a larger version. To find previously posted Election Cartoons, click here. Doug Wheeler ElectionCartoons NYDailyGraphic
Buying Congress
Thanks to “Citizens United”, a secretly funded group whose petition before our conservative activist Supreme Court, resulted a century’s worth of election reforms being thrown away, corporations have free reign to anonymously use all the money they wish to, to influence elections. Corporations do not spend money unless they believe it will profit them. They are [...]
Episode 10.5: C.J. Taylor’s 1881-82 William Vanderbilt Comic Strips: “The Public Be Damned!”, Part 2
From the October 18th, 1882 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic, artist Charles Jay Taylor takes a second poke at William Vanderbilt, for his “The public be damned” comment. (To see the first poke, click here.) Taylor shows Vanderbilt standing atop a pyramid of human beings, whose efforts support him. His trains are approaching from all directions, entering [...]
