Scanned by me from a bound Ballou's volume. The art runs the gamut from skillful ("A Thomas Cat on a Spree") to crude ("A Night with Mosquitos"), and various points in between. I was able to get about 2/3 of the humor--the rest had me going, "Huh?" I guess 144 years can take the edge off (or even the meaning out) of pop humor.
Click to enlarge....
Ballou's Monthly Magazine
January, 1870:
February, 1870:
March, 1870:
April, 1870:
May, 1870:
June, 1870:
July, 1870:
September, 1870:
October, 1870:
November, 1870:
December, 1870:
Lee, I agree that it is very much in the style of the later Mad - which proves there is nothing new under the sun!
ReplyDeleteI was informed that the mosquito gag in the last example was already a cliche in 1870! These Ballou's cartoons are straight out of Europe--i.e., directly derived from earlier European models going back to the 1830s. The big difference, far as I know, would be the now-familiar one-page panel line-ups, which give them much more of a MAD look and feel than, say, Rodolphe Topffer's much earlier comic-style efforts. These look uncannily modern, really. A major leap forward in comic strip presentation (and before strips are supposed to have existed!).
ReplyDelete