Happy Valentoons Day

Our Graphical History Tour has been wrapped up in scandal and death lately, so it's time to lighten up a little bit. Let's check out what love notes the cartoonists had in store for their readers on Valentine's Day 100 years ago, when my grandparents were newlyweds!

"St. Valentine's Day" by A.G. Racey in Montreal Gazette, Feb. 14, 1924

And fortunately for me, they all abstained from the jakeloo new divorce craze sweeping their generation.

"To Our Valentines" by Rube Goldberg for McNaught Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

I don't know what 1920's-ese is for "snark," but Rube Goldberg has plenty of it in his Valentine. It is, however, a wonderful study in fashion styles of the time.

I tried looking up the phrase "the alligator's vest," coming up mostly with advertisements for actual alligator-skin vests, and a zillion posts of the following Dad Joke:

Q. What do you call an alligator in a vest?
A. An investigator!

Let us now get back to the topic at hand. Quickly.

"A Few Valentines We'd Like to Deliver" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., Feb. 14, 1924

Good gosh, such violence! Smith's was not the only "Outbursts of Everett True" sort of Valentines Day cartoon I came across while gathering today's assortment. What on earth had these cartoonists so cranky? Was this really what Valentines Day was all about in the heart of the Roaring '20's?

"The Leap Year Valentine" by Charles H. Kuhn in Indianapolis News, Feb. 14, 1924

American editorial cartoonists must have used up their Sadie Hawkins ideas earlier in the year (see John McCutcheon's and Sam Armstrong's cartoons back in January); Chas. Kuhn's valentine for Mr. Voter from Miss Presidential Year Politics is the sole example I ran across published on February 14 that year.

"Those Coolidge Valentines" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1924

Carey Orr crams a front-page's worth of headline news into his Valentine's Day offering, from Teapot Dome and tax cuts and federal farm aid to dunning European nations in debt to the U.S.

"A Valentine" by Thomas E. Powers for Star Company, Feb. 14, 1924

But enough of politics! Valentine's Day is a day for l'amour (And a famous massacre, but not for a few years yet.)

"Somebody's Valentine" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, Feb. 14, 1924

Leaving politics, scandals, vamps, and divorces behind, many of the Valentines Day cartoons in 1924 celebrated the early pangs of love experienced by pre-teen lotharios. We lead off with the most straight-forward of the bunch, by Magnus Kettner, a well-established cartoonist who supplied his syndicate's mostly rural papers with a choice of political cartoons and homey, nostalgic stuff as this. 

By the way, how strange that Kettner didn't finish drawing the house in the background — only the overhang continues to the right of that tree!

"A St. Valentine's Day We'll Never Forget" by Bob Satterfield for Bonnet Brown Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Bob Satterfield's work used to appear regularly in these century retrospectives when he drew editorial cartoons; but 1924, he was focusing instead on gag cartoons and strips. The above cartoon was part of his "Days We'll Never Forget" series for Bonnet Brown Syndicate. Before long, he dropped the panel in favor of a strip, "The Family Next Door," which lasted less than two years. 

Bonnet Brown Syndicate would be a casualty of the Great Depression, going bankrupt and out of business in 1933.

"Life's Darkest Moment" by Harold T. Webster for New York Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

H.T. Webster was considerably more successful with (and dedicated to) his series of panel cartoons, which regularly cycled the themes "Life's Darkest Moment," "The Thrill That Comes Once in a Lifetime," "How to Torture Your Wife/Husband," and "The Timid Soul." For that last one, he created the character Caspar Milquetoast, who was spun off into a very early television series and whose surname entered the English vernacular.

"Gee Whiz Junior" by William Holman for New York Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Here's something that has been missing from the last several cartoons: the object of Gee Whiz Jr.'s affection actually has a name!

"Gee Whiz Junior" was one of Bill Holman's many short-lived attempts at creating a comic strip before he eventually hit the big time with Smokey Stover (1935-1972). You young whippersnappers may never have heard of Smokey Stover, but some of you might appreciate that he was the OG Foo Fighter.

I did want to make sure to include the woman's point of view today. Failing to find Valentines Day cartoons by Fay King or Juanita Hamel, here's a woman's point of view of a little boy's point of view:

"'Cap' Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for George Matthew Adams Service, Feb. 14, 1924

Sticking with the women but returning to the adults' table, Nell Brinkley ends up more interested in expressing some fella's viewpoint than a woman's:

"His Saint Valentine" by Nell Brinkley for International Feature Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

"Saint Valentine was a gentleman," Brinkley begins, "a venerable man, in those gone days when bright St. Valentine's Day used to be taken so seriously that men did battle under their loves' windows... But Bill's Saint of Valentine's Day is a girl. ...

"'I don't believe in men-angels, anyway,' says Bill, as he ties to his offering of dark, fragrant, purple violets, his name with his love and his hope. 'Angels are girls. I know my Saint Valentine is a girl — all girl.'"

"Pop" by Gaar Williams in Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1924

And just like that, we're back to the menfolk. Perhaps this anxious fellow in Gaar Williams's cartoon explains why some of the cartoonists at the top of today's post were in such a foul mood over the holiday.

"Gasoline Alley" by Frank King for Chicago Tribune Syndicate, Feb. 14, 1924

Finally, of special note to classic cartoon fans, Valentines Day 1921 was the day that infant Skeezix was left on Walt Wallet's doorstep, creating a family saga out of a strip that up to then had been entirely devoted to men and their jalopies. Over the years, Skeezix grew up, married, and had children and grandchildren of his own.

Because of the forced homogenization of newspaper comic pages by Gannett, McClatchy, Lee, and the other (aptly named) chains, you probably can't find "Gasoline Alley" in your local newspaper — even the Chicago Tribune doesn't run it any more — but 103-year-old Skeezix and 130-ish Walt are still out there on line.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Christmas break? I know not of this Christmas break. What is this Christmas break of which you speak?

By the way, Mike Peterson over at Daily Cartoonist linked to my Christmas 1923 post in today's Comic Strip of the Day of more recent Christmas comic strips, so here's a link back to him. Fun column today; go read it.

A propos his column, I can't speak for the Nib's reason for breaking up their multi-panel cartoons, but mine is partly to make my multi-panel cartoons more handheld-device-friendly... and primarily out of frustration at Facebook's habit of displaying everything but the top and bottom 5% of the cartoon when I link from there.

Bah, humbug, Facebook.

Merry Christmas to everybody else!

Since you've been so good this year, here's one more cartoon from Christmas, 1923.

"Christmas Greetings from All Our Little Boobs" by Rube Goldberg for McNaught Syndicate, Dec. 25, 1923

With apologies if you're reading this on a handheld device.

Independence Day, 1921

"When Dad Was a Boy and Today" by Goeta, July 4, 1921

It's Independence Eve, so while we anxiously await Thomas Jefferson's coming down our chimneys tonight to leave fireworks under our cherry tree, Sparklerback Saturday brings you the latest in 100-year-old cartoons celebrating the holiday.

"Just as the Youngsters Were Setting Off Their Big Firecracker" by Fontaine Fox in New York Evening Sun, July 1, 1921

Fontaine Fox's long-running cartoon feature included the very popular "Toonerville Trolley," which made the jump to animated shorts for the movie theatres. That might be before your time, so I'll add that one of its regular characters would be the inspiration for Looney Tunes's Yosemite Sam. And if you're too young to know who that is, I can't help you.

Fourth of July firecrackers blowing up unintended targets was a staple of Independence Day cartoons, as were admonitions to observe a "Safe and Sane Fourth." 

"The Safe and Sane Fourth" by Alfred G. "Zere" Ablitzere in New York Evening Post, July 2, 1921

Your great-grandparents were just as likely as you are to engage in unsafe and insane activities to celebrate our nation's birthday, although I don't think they ever managed to burn down everything west of the Rockies.

"Independence Day" by Harold T. Webster in New York Tribune, July 4, 1921

Prohibition showed up in a number of Independence Day cartoons in 1921. In case the print is too small to read on your iPhone, the book flying out of the cellar in H.T. Webster's cartoon is titled Recipes for Home Brew.

At the risk of stirring up some long-settled dirt: a year later, Fontaine Fox would use the same basic idea as Webster did for the holiday. Fox described his inspiration for the 1922 cartoon to Wesley Stout in a syndicated article that December:

“Cartoonists are supposed to work by inspiration. I do not, nor any I have known, We get our background from our own lives. In my case the particular idea almost invariably is the result of the impact of two disassociated ideas, produced after much thought and experiment. I first noticed the trick in the stories of O. Henry, who, like a cartoonist, first thought out his climax, then worked back. My last Fourth of July cartoon is an example. I thought over all the hackneyed subjects of the day; no idea there. I remembered a last-year’s cartoon contrasting the stealthy home-brewer with the title ‘Independence Day.’ That conception had been exhausted. Home-brewing and exploding firecrackers bear no relation to each other, but suddenly they came together and produced a cartoon.

"Neighborhood News" by Fontaine Fox, July 5, 1922

“Why not have the home-brewer’s still explode, but in the midst of the usual racket of the Fourth and thereby escape notice? There it was. It was original, it was laughable, and it was possible. That’s all there is to it.”

As Fox freely admitted, he had seen some cartoon linking home stills and fireworks, and it very well may not have been that of the widely syndicated Webster. It's quite possible that there is some other cartoon out there that Fox did see; Webster was not the only cartoonist in 1921 to contrast the ideals of the Founding Fathers with the ideals of the Parading Prohibitionists.

"When We Read History to the Children..." by Rube Goldberg, July 4, 1921

This Rube Goldberg cartoon just goes to show that there is absolutely nothing new in opinions about current events showing up on the comics page.

Since the print is so small, here is the text of the first panel:

Father: "'On July 4th, 1776, our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence and made us a free people."

Child: "But Daddy, I don't understand."

Picket sign: "Don't set off fireworks. Don't play cards. Don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't play pool. Don't laugh. Don't everything."

"Our National Birthright and Bulwark..." by Leo Bushnell for Central Press Assn., July 4, 1921

As always, there were enough politically neutral patriotic cartoons for newspapers in the Great American Middle to splash across Page One of the Fourth of July edition. 

"The Heart of the Nation" by Bill Satterfield for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by July 4, 1921

"Zip —Boom—Bang" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, by July 5, 1921

(Side note: Independence Day fell on a Monday that year, and many evening papers did not publish on the holiday.)

"Political Freedom, 1776..." by John Baer, by July 1, 1921

Striking a more confrontational tone, labor cartoonist and former Congressman John Baer penned this cartoon for labor newspapers touting a pronouncement from the American Federation of Labor. Under Republican presidents and congresses, and in spite of Baer's cartoon, organized labor in the 1920's saw a decline in union membership and political influence.

The orator in Baer's cartoon does not much resemble AFL President Samuel Gompers, his successor William Green, or Baer himself. If anyone can identify him, I'd be pleased to hear it.

"Those Americans Don't Know What Real Independence Is" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, July 4, 1921

Meanwhile, Clifford Berryman draws a contrast between the United States and the workers' paradise in Soviet Russia, depicting Lenin and Trotsky standing incongruously in a field of Greek ruins.

"Safe and Sane" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Colliers, July 9, 1921

Making a more pointed observation, "Ding" Darling notes that the U.S. was celebrating its independence from an imperial power on the other side of an ocean despite having become a transoceanic imperial power itself.

As it happened, neither Russia nor the Philippines were the Big News that Independence Day weekend. Jack Dempsey's victory over Frenchman Georges Carpentier to retain the title of World Boxing Champion made banner headlines — and EXTRA! editions — in many newspapers around the country.

Nobody was able to watch it live Cable+ Pay Per View in those days, you know.

Some papers, on the other hand, had local news to report — in this case with a startling level of cheering-on:

Ah, but you were not expecting to run into any Critical Race Theory today, so let us blithely return to holiday hijinks and gentle giggles. 

"Polly and Her Pals" by Cliff Sterrett, July 4, 1921

To end today's post on a lighter note, here are the July 4 episode of "Polly and Her Pals" and Gluyas Williams's "Guide to Fourth of July Oratory." To those of you reading on a hand-held device, I apologize for not replacing Mr. Williams's captions with larger print or cutting the cartoon up into nine separate image files.  To the rest of you, enjoy the cartoon as it was originally meant to be seen. 

On a desktop computer screen.

"A Complete Guide to Fourth of July Oratory" by Gluyas Williams in Life, July 7, 1921