These are cool cartoons in the primitive early 20th century style, with lame humor galore. Dicky Dont is especailly pointless--the entire joke is that Dickey doesn't do what he's been instructed to do, and, in the process, triumphs over his elder. Try not to fall over laughing. Then again, it's pop-culturally interesting, in that misbehaving young boys are hardly a new trend in comedy.
The American Boy ad (middle) is quite similar to the wide-pan magic lantern slides of the era. The technique is still used in comic strips--a single scene depicting action(s) in progress. As ever, click to enlarge images....
Lee, do you see at least a slight similarity between some of A. Eugene Jason's syle of caricature, and that of John Tenniel's in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass"?
ReplyDeleteGranted, Edwardian cartoonists didn't seem to go in for all the crosshatching their elder Victorian cousins had done - for instance, compare the cap-wearing, long-pantsed feller on the right corner of your second illustraion, with the Mad Hatter: https://dlpow.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/1book37.jpg.
Still... Or maybe I'm just getting old, Father William?
Kind regards,
A. Gene Childe
Yes, I absolutely see the stylistic resemblance! The large heads, the dull expressions....
ReplyDeleteA dark, cynical touch to an everyday scene--very MAD Magazine.