Tag: Comics

Tramp Jokes

Title: Tramp Jokes: Monologues and Recitations, No. 1 (Wehman Bros. 126 Park Row, New York City)
Artist: “NCL”
Year: 1907

From my small collection of Hobo lit.

Some sample jokes:

Mrs. Hardcash–Why don’t you work for a living?
Walker–I made a solemn vow, ma’am, fifteen long years ago, dat I never do anoder stroke’er work till women wuz paid de same wages as men.”

A tramp asked “the lady of the house” for something to eat. She gave him a steak. After considerable effort to make a dent in it, he handed it back to her, saying, “Madam, I did not ask for work.”

Customer Wall: Stephen R. Bissette

A few days ago I was excited to wake up a to a book order from a Stephen R. Bissette! A bit of cyber-stalking and a fanboyish email confirmed that this was the same Stephen R. Bissette who drew the classic Alan Moore run on Swamp Thing;

and published the ground-breaking horror anthology Taboo!

My favorite project of Bissette’s was Tyrant, which was conceived as the birth to death biography of a tyrannosaurus rex drawn in drippingly, gruesome Cretaceous-era detail.

Sadly Tyrant only ran for four regular issues but Bissette occasionally returns to the character and he offers an excellent print on his website which introduces his baby tyrannosaurus to Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland.

Pick one up for the dinosaur or comics fan on your Christmas list.

Dutch Treat

I just cataloged the hell out of this book because it’s beautiful and absolutely worth it.

Dutch Treat Club: Year Book 1941 “Total Offense”, 1941. First edition.

Privately printed yearbook for the “The Dutch Treat Club”, a society of illustrators, writers and performers established in the early 1900s and still going today.

(click on images for larger, NWS versions)

Wartime issue. 8″ X 5.25″. Paper-over-board, pictorial wraparound cover. Laminated/glossy. Photo EPs of nude women cavorting on a cannon. Unpaginated but approx 100 pages. Edition page jokingly states: “This edition is strictly limited to 12,500,00 copies (Berlin), 12.5 (London), of which every copy is number 1” (numeral “1” hand lettered).

Elaborately printed and illustrated. Filled with pin-up / girly art and cartoons from member illustrators including:

  • Rube Goldberg
  • Dean Cornwell
  • Carl Mueller
  • Arthur William Brown
  • Otto Soglow
  • Harry Beckhoff
  • John J. Floherty, Jr.
  • Frank Godwin (creator of the strip “Connie”)

Because this was a privately printed publication, the art is racier than other work from these artists and more explicit than comparable pin-ups of the time (i.e. pubic hair). Also includes a pop-up illustration by Tony Sarg.


Famous members of the Dutch Treat Club include:

  • Robert Benchley
  • Robert M. McBride
  • Isaac Asimov
  • William Morris
  • Ogden Nash

and more. Some of the club officers/members listed in this volume:

  • Clarence Budington Kelland (president)
  • Edward MacNamara (actor)
  • Harold Ross (founder of the New Yorker)
  • Whitney Darrow (cartoonist)
  • J. P. McEvoy (Dixie Dugan creator)
  • Westbrook Pegler (journalist)
  • Lowell Thomas (broadcaster)
  • Frank Crowninshield (editor Vanity Fair)
  • William Beebe (Naturalist/Author)
  • William De Beck (cartoonist “Barney Google”)
  • Cliff Sterrett
  • Rex Stout
  • Efrem Zimbalist

and more. Other features include: A list of club speakers and events, news/current event parodies, and a full list (with addresses and phone #s) of current members. Pencil inscription from previous owner “W. R. Steinway” dated “April 4, 1941”. Covers lightly rubbed/scuffed showing light tanning to spine. Bump with slight exposed board to lower front cover. Binding slightly shaken but solid. Very Good. Hardcover.

Apparently these yearbooks were well-known for their girly art but this is the first I’ve seen (though hopefully not the last). Listed for sale here but I’ll be sad to see it go.

And more Dutch Treat Annuals.

Watchmen Embroidery

Crafter Kittyzilla posted these fantastic Watchmen embroidery patterns on the Handmade Stuffs Blog. My two favorites are below with her explanation of the design process. I might have to learn how to embroider just to make a Rorschach.

I think Nite Owl II is my favorite of the bunch. I love the way the frame and background came out and he’s making that “I’m a paunchy nerd who fights crime” face. Plus his quote is stupid and makes me giggle.

I wanted these to sort of look like a cross between a portrait and a religious icon. The religious icon I like not only for the look, but also because there’s a certain mythological aspect to super heroes. Working with that, almost all of them have sort of the suggestion of a halo behind them. Also, I am one of those people who finds Rorschach absolutely adorable. I am properly ashamed of myself, don’t worry.

Link via Kimmchi

Mister Bookseller: Croatian Comic


Reader Mark Hurst (whose grand scheme I’m following by cleaning out my inbox right now) sent this link to an Eastern European comic strip about a magic bookseller (it must be the soul patch) who has every book in the world “except one”.

It’s well drawn and touching.

I’ve been responsible for a few of these magic book reunions in my time. It keeps the job interesting. Soul patch should have gouged him more on the price though

Tijuana Bibles: Fritzi Ritz of Nancy

I just received another nice lot of Tijuana Bibles. These ones found me because of my previous Betty Boop TJ scan so–to keep building the karma–I’m going to post another one.

My favorite of this lot stars Fritzi Ritz, the saucy flapper and parental figure in Ernie Bushmiller’s sublimely dumb, Nancy.

Click on the image to read (NWS).


Though Nancy doesn’t appear in this (thankfully), the technique of having two characters stare over a wall at off-stage action feels like a nod to Bushmiller’s minimalism.

More Tjs for sale from my ABE store here.

And while you’re at it, new 60s sleaze in the Pulp Fiction Cover Gallery.

Die Swart Luiperd


I found this digest-sized photo-novel (comic book format but B+W photos with word bubbles) featuring the cat-masked “Swart Luiperd” at the recent NYC Collectable Paperback & Pulp Fiction Expo (which was great BTW, but I was too busy digging through boxes and juggling want lists to blog it properly).

There was a huge stack of digests featuring this character going at least back into the 40s, and spanning a number of popular children’s genres (jungle adventure, western, mystery, etc).

Here’s a few page spreads:
Die Swart Luiperd 1
Die Swart Luiperd 2
Die Swart Luiperd 3

I can’t pinpoint the language and I can’t find anything about the character. Seems like he was in the Zorro, Phantom tradition (though he may have flirted with super-crime–like Diabolik and Kriminal–at low points in his career).

The publication data isn’t very legible but it seems to be South African in origin “Republikeinse Pers…Suidkuswegg 1322…Republikeinse Nousagenentskap, Empirewegverlenging S. Aucklandpark, Johannesburg”.

Anyone know more about the character?

Tijuana Bibles: Betty Boop

I just picked up a rare lot of 6 “Tijuana Bibles“. These were cheaply produced, 8-page stapled booklets from the 1930s-40s featuring the pornographic adventures of cartoon characters, politicians, mobsters and anyone vaguely sexy who stumbled into the public eye.

TBs were the Depression-era equivalent of the celebrity sex-tape, so turn your monitor towards the wall and enjoy “Betty Steps Out” (WARNING: Not even slightly worksafe…feeelthy in fact.)


This one is pretty well-drawn for the form. Since all of the characters (besides Betty) look line-for-line like their overground counterparts, I’m betting some tracing was involved. If your browser isn’t showing it large enough to–ahem–read use the magnify function or download to your desktop.

This one and five others (including: Harold Teen, Fred “Killer” Burke, Moon Mullins) are available from my store here.