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AMERICAS FIRST AND MOST

INFLUENTIAL MAGAZINE OF
COLOR POLITICAL CARTOONS
MICHAEL ALEXANDER KAHN
AND RICHARD SAMUEL WEST
FOREWORD BY BILL WATTERSON
THE STORY OF
PUCK
It is hard to overestimate the political infuence of PUCKduring the last two
decades of the 19th Century. It was greater than all newspapers combined.
Stephen Hess, Te Ungentlemanly Art
With nearly 300 color plates WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE: THE STORY OF PUCK
is the frst full-color monograph devoted to the most important political satire and cartoon
magazine in American history. Te weekly journals def caricatures and pointed commentary
made it a political force to be reckoned with. It is credited with single-handedly thwarting
the third-term ambitions of Ulysses S. Grant in 1880 and electing Grover Cleveland to
the presidency in 1884or at least, by its devastating Tattooed Man series, denying it to
James G. Blaine. And PUCK did it with artlavish color full-page and two-page centerspread
cartoons. Many of the issues that dominated PUCKs pages more than one hundred years ago
continue to infuence the political debate today.
Published from 1877 to 1918, PUCK was an
American originalthe countrys frst and most
successful humor magazine, the frst magazine to
publish color lithographs on a weekly basis, and for
nearly forty years, a training ground and showcase
for some of the countrys most talented cartoonists,
led by its co-founder, Joseph Keppler.
During its illustrious career PUCK published more
than two thousand numbered issues. When, afer
four decades, it ceased publication, Te Literary
Digest printed an appropriate epitaph: Puck had
no real rival in its best days. Fallen from its fne
estate, it has lef no successor.
In these early days of cartooning, the weekly humor
magazine gave cartoons real prominence, and cartoonists
immediately began pushing every limit of the art form.
from the Foreword by Bill Watterson
[PUCK] created a genre
and established a tradition.
David Sloane,
American Humor Magazine
and Comic Periodicals
THE STORY OF
PUCK
MAGAZI NE
Michael Alexander Kahn is the co-author of MAY IT
AMUSE THE COURT: EDITORIAL CARTOONS OF THE
SUPREME COURT AND THE CONSTITUTION and more than
a dozen scholarly articles on the Presidency and the
Supreme Court. He has assembled one of the countrys
leading collections of political cartoons, which has been
featured in numerous magazine articles and in an exhibit at
the Grolier Club in New York in 2007. He is a frequent
lecturer on the signifcance of political cartoon art and has
developed educational materials based on the art for
teaching on the university and high school levels and in
museum programs.
Richard Samuel West is the author of several books on
American political cartooning, the most recent being
ICONOCLAST IN INK: THE POLITICAL CARTOONS OF J. N.
"DING" DARLING (2012), and the editor of four collections
of political cartoons. He was the founder and editor of
TARGET: THE POLITICAL CARTOON QUARTERLY (1981-
1987), and the political cartoon editor of INKS, THE
MAGAZINE OF CARTOONING, published by Ohio State
University (1994-1997). He is the owner of Periodyssey,
located in Easthampton, Massachusetts, which buys and
sells signifcant and unusual American periodicals.
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What Fools
These Mortals Be!
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Also by Michael Alexander Kahn
May It Amuse the Court: Editorial Cartoons of the
Supreme Court and Constitution (with H. L. Pohlman)
Also by Richard Samuel West
Satire on Stone: Te Political Cartoons of Joseph Keppler
Te San Francisco Wasp: An Illustrated History
William Newman: A Victorian Cartoonist in London and New York
(with Jane E. Brown)
Iconoclast in Ink: Te Political Cartoons of Jay N. Ding Darling
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What
Fools
These
Mortals
Be!
MICHAEL ALEXANDER KAHN
AND RICHARD SAMUEL WEST
THE STORY OF PUCK
AMERICAS FIRST AND MOST
INFLUENTIAL MAGAZINE OF
COLOR POLITICAL CARTOONS
Puck text_328_Layout 1 7/7/14 6:23 PM Page 3
BOOK DESIGN BY
Lorraine Turner and Dean Mullaney
THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN COMICS
Dean Mullaney/Creative Director and Editor
Bruce Canwell/Associate Editor
Lorraine Turner/Art Director
Beau Smith/Marketing Director
ISBN: 978-1-63140-046-9
First Printing, October 2014
Distributed by Diamond Book Distributors
1-410-560-7100
Published by:
IDW Publishing
a Division of Idea and Design Works, LLC
5080 Santa Fe Street
San Diego, CA 92109
www.idwpublishing.com
Ted Adams, Chief Executive Officer/Publisher
Greg Goldstein, Chief Operating Officer/President
Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist
Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief
Matthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial Officer
Alan Payne, VP of Sales
Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing
Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services
Text 2014 Michael Alexander Kahn and Richard Samuel West.
Introduction 2014 Bill Watterson. All rights reserved. Artwork
restoration 2014 Library of American Comics LLC. The Library of
American Comics is a trademark of The Library of American Comics LLC.
With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents
of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of the publisher.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher. Printed in Korea.
This page: Standard illustration supplied by Keppler
and Schwarzmann to serve as a frontispiece for
issues of Puck gathered into bound volumes.
Dustjacket front: Elements from Pucks Review of
the Past Year (centerspread by Joseph Keppler,
December 31, 1884).
A NOTE ON SOURCE MATERIAL
The images reproduced in this book have been scanned from
printed editions of Puck. They are primarily from the private collections
of the authors, supplemented by images in the Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs collection. Scans were made of individual
issues and loose pages whenever possible; in some instances
the only available source was a bound volume and for these
images some bind-in may have occurred.
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In memory of Eleanor Ruth Pick Kahn (1924-2006). M.A.K.
In memory of Katherine Orton West (1921-2006)
and for Al, Dave, Mur, and Anne, with love. R.S.W.
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oreword
Today, as the mass media atomizes, newspapers struggle, and political cartoonists lose their jobs, its strange to look
at 19th Century publications like Puck, where a political cartoon could take up the entire cover or a two-page
centerspread inside. Te artistic possibilities and visual impact of that kind of space are revelations.
Even in its own day, the lithograph drawings of Joseph Keppler were a world away from the crosshatched wood
engravings of Tomas Nasts cartoons of just a few years earlier. Te new lithography technology permitted
sensuous lines, an immense range of halfones, andwhat must have been absolutely eye-popping in those days
full color. Te cartoonists of Puck were clearly excited by the opportunities and their cartoons are lavishly drawn.
Some are bold and graphic, some are exaggerated and cartoony, and others are richly illustrative. Te commentary
is equally varied, ranging from silly, to satiric, to outraged. In these early days of cartooning, the weekly humor
magazine gave cartoons real prominence, and cartoonists immediately began pushing every limit of the art form.
Decades later, comic strip cartoonists did the same thing in the daily newspapers. Cartoons are partly shaped by
their publishing environment, and the artistry of cartoons expands in those rare times when its given some
encouragement and open territory.
Te Internet seems to reduce everything to niche markets of dubious proftability, and it remains to be seen if
political cartoons will ever thrive again, but we are again at the threshold of a new publishing technology, and
cartoonists can now draw any kind of cartoon, in any kind of medium, in any style. Te open territory for artistic
expansion is here again. Perhaps the Puck cartoons reprinted in this beautiful book will remind us of the power,
scope, and artistic possibilities weve long neglected.
Bill Watterson
2014
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Foreword
The History of Puck Magazine
The Puck Building
Presidential Politics
Politics and Government
: Business and Labor
Foreign Relations
Race and Religion
Social Issues
Personalities
Just for Fun
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Puck was Americas frst successful humor magazine. It was
the most infuential American humor magazine ever published. It
was the frst American magazine to publish color lithographs on a
weekly basis. And, for nearly forty years, it was a training ground
and showcase for some of the countrys most talented cartoonists.
As David Sloane has said in American Humor Magazine and Comic
Periodicals, Puck created a genre and established a tradition,
spawning dozens of imitators. It also led the way for that great
American institution, the comics.
Stephen Hess, in his history of American political cartooning,
Te Ungentlemanly Art, said, It is hard to overestimate the political
infuence of Puckduring the last two decades of the 19th Century.
It was greater than all newspapers combined. Many believe the
magazine was single-handedly responsible for thwarting the third-
term ambitions of Ulysses Grant in 1880 and electing Grover
Cleveland to the presidency in 1884.
Te frst issue of Puck, which burst onto the scene on
March 14, 1877, featured a spirited cover cartoon of Puck,
the magazine's mascot, springing forth into a barnyard full of
perplexed journalist-chickens. Modeled afer the colorful political
cartoon weeklies of continental Europe, Puck was indeed
something of a surprise to American readers brought up on the
black-and-white woodcuts of Harpers Weekly and the various
inconsequential American humor magazines published in the
same format.
Pucks founders, cartoonist Joseph Keppler and printer
Adolph Schwarzmann, had high hopes for their ambitious efort.
Keppler, born in Vienna in 1838, had studied art as an adolescent
but turned to acting as a young adult. He developed a name for
himself in provincial Austria's theatrical world. When he immigrated
to the United States in 1867, he seems to have decided to give up
acting in favor of cartooning. He settled in St. Louis and with the
help of others established several short-lived humor magazines. In
1872 he moved with his young wife and infant son to New York
City, where for four years he worked at Frank Leslies Publishing
House. It was there that he met Adolph Schwarzmann, foreman of
the printing department for the German language edition of Frank
Leslies Illustrated Newspaper.
Schwarzmann, Kepplers contemporary, had emigrated
from his native Germany in 1858. Afer more than a decade
working under Frank Leslie, he established his own printing frm
in 1875. Te following year he convinced Keppler to join him in
publishing Puck Illustrirte Humoristiches Wochenblatt, a cartoon
weekly for German-speaking Americans, which frst appeared in
September of 1876. When it proved successful, they launched
Puck in English the following March.
istory of Puck Magazine
CHAPTER ONE
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RIGHT: The three men most responsible for
Puck's successJoseph Keppler, Adolph
Schwarzmann, and H. C. Bunner (seated)
discuss a cartoon rough during a staff meeting
in 1887 (detail from an illustration by Joseph
Keppler in Puck's Tenth Anniversary Illustrated
Supplement, March 2, 1887).
OPPOSITE: Illustrations (from the same
supplement) of activities involved in the
magazines production.
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Pucks frst editor was Sydney Rosenfeld, a young New York
playwright who had attracted Keppler and Schwarzmanns attention
because of his skillful translations of contemporary German plays.
He soon gave way to his associate, H. C. Bunner, a 21-year-old
New Yorker who would turn out to be the perfect editorcultured
but not efete, sentimental without being cloying, prolifc and clever.
He would guide Pucks black-and-white content for nearly twenty
years, until his untimely death in 1896.
Puck was the latest in a long line of political cartoon
magazines that had appeared in Europe and the United States
beginning in the 1820s. Te European magazines such as Le
Charivari (Paris), Punch (London), Kladderadasch (Berlin),
and Kikeriki (Vienna) thrived. Te American magazines, such as
Yankee Doodle, the New York Picayune, Te Lantern, Frank Leslies
Budget of Fun, and Vanity Fair (all of New York) did not. But Puck
was diferent. By innovating with color lithography, displaying an
irreverent and light-hearted touch in its cartoons, and operating
under the spritely editorial hand of H. C. Bunner, Puck managed
to survive its lean early years and then prosper.
Keppler had named the magazine afer the famous character in
Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dreamand used his frst daughter
as the model for the forest sprite. Puck took as its motto What fools
these mortals be to underscore its intent to expose folly and puncture
pretension. It soon became clear that Puck meant business.
For most of its run Puck was a journal of reform. It crusaded
against political corruption, the undue infuence of money in
politics, and monopolies in all their forms. It advocated for the
rights of labor, for fair immigration policies, for tarif reform.
During its more conservative middle years it supported the gold
standard and expansion. Many of the issues that dominated Pucks
pages more than one hundred years ago continue to dominate the
political debate today.
Pucks most distinctive feature was its sharp focus on
presidential politics and its stinging satirical portrayal of Americas
political leadership. Troughout the decades Puck was a supporter
of the Democratic Party and stood with it through every
presidential campaign, except when the nominee was William
Jennings Bryan, whom Puck could not stomach. From its earliest
days Puck brilliantly lampooned some of the most prominent
Republicans of the dayRoscoe Conkling, Ulysses Grant, James
G. Blaine, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Tomas Reed,
Teodore Roosevelt, William H. Taf, Joseph Cannon, and more.
Kepplers work dominated the pages of Puck from its
inception until 1894, the year of his death. Ten his son Udo
(who renamed himself Joseph Keppler Jr.) took over and produced
an equally impressive body of work before selling the magazine
twenty years later. Trough both eras Puck employed a legion
of talented cartoonists, including James A. Wales, Frederick Burr
Opper, Bernhard Gillam, Eugene Zim Zimmerman, C.J. Taylor,
W. A. Rogers, Harrison Fisher, Rose ONeill, J. S. Pughe,
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Art Young, Hy Mayer, Rube Goldberg, and Ralph Barton,
among many.
Te high-water mark of Pucks success was the 1884
presidential election campaign when it reached a peak circulation
of 125,000, a number attained by only a few weeklies of the
period. Pucks success prompted its owners to create a small but
highly proftable publishing empire that included such spin-of
titles as Pucks Annual (1880-1887), Puck on Wheels (1880-1884,
1886), Pickings fom Puck (1883-1916), and Pucks Library
(1887-1915); Puck Press, a publishing arm that reprinted stories
and drawings from Pucks pages in book form; as well as a few
original periodicals, such as Fiction (1881-1882) and Um Die
Welt (1882-1885).
As Pucks infuence increased the magazine became a
lightning rod for criticism. During the 1884 campaign the
Republican weekly Judge spent more time attacking Puck and
Harpers Weekly than it did advocating for its candidate, James G.
Blaine. Afer the election, Blaine, so incensed by Pucks devastating
Tattooed Man series, considered suing the magazine for libel
and was dissuaded from doing so only by the strong objections of
friends and advisors. In subsequent years Puck was frequently the
target of boycotts by interest groups and was banned from public
libraries, YMCA reading rooms, and by foreign governments.
In 1893, Puck went to the Worlds Fair in Chicago. Te
fair, also known as the Worlds Columbian Exposition to mark
the 400th anniversary of the voyages of Columbus, was the major
event of the year and Pucks presence there was a singular honor.
It had been invited to the fair to provide fair-goers with an object
lesson in the art of lithography. To accomplish this Keppler and
Schwarzmann erected their own building on the Midway and
designed it so that the millions of people who visited the fair
could witness frsthand the amazing chromolithographic printing
process employed to print Puck. For the duration of the fair, from
May 1 to October 30, Keppler and Schwarzmann published a
special on-site Worlds Fair Puck while simultaneously publishing
the regular Puck in New York.
Although political humor always played an important role
in Pucks pages, the magazine also devoted considerable space to
lampooning social and cultural trends of the day. Pucks pages are
flled with cartoons about the wealthy, the working class and the
poor, religion, matrimony, the new woman, servants and maids,
resorts and beaches, college sports, bicycling and golf, courtship,
pets, and just about everything on the minds of turn-of-the-
century Americans.
Kepplers death in 1894 and Bunners in 1896 ended
twenty years of stability in Pucks leadership. Adolph Schwarzmann
14
RIGHT: Illustrations from March 2, 1887
illustrated supplement that helped explain
the chromolithography process.
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consolidated control of the magazine in his own hands and tilted the
magazine rightward, espousing conservative economic and foreign
policy positions. Upon Schwarzmanns death in 1904 Keppler Jr.
and Schwarzmann Jr. took control of the publishing house. Tough
Puck had initially admired Teodore Roosevelt, it ended up
supporting the more conservative candidate in the presidential
campaign of 1904, Judge Alton Parker. Tis proved to be Pucks
last dalliance with the right. From 1905 on Puck returned to its
progressive roots, embracing socialist themes about economic
inequity and the evils of the trusts. But this didnt prompt Puck to
renew its support for Roosevelt. Te magazine had become tired of
what it viewed as his insatiable ego and dangerous militarist streak.
Puck few the Democratic banner proudly in 1912 in support of the
candidacy of Woodrow Wilson. In the campaign of 1916, the
magazine supported Wilson again, but by then politics played a
diminished role in Pucks weekly fare.
In January 1914 Keppler and Schwarzmann sold the
magazine to Nathan Straus Jr., the son of the department store
magnate. By then, Pucks circulation had sunk to 12,500, barely
enough to sustain the publication. Straus attempted to recreate
Puck in the image of the great French and German humor magazines,
LAssiette au Beurre and Simplicissimus. To this end he hired the
cosmopolitan cartoonist Hy Mayer as art director, introduced a
number of European artists to Pucks pages, and emphasized social
satire and coverage of the arts. He didnt have time to realize his
dream before the advent of the First World War crippled his plans.
In March 1917 Puck, which now described itself as Americas
cleverest weekly, celebrated its fortieth anniversary. Tere was in
fact little to celebrate: in an efort to save money at the beginning
of the year Straus had converted it to a bi-weekly. War shortages
had forced him to print the magazine on newsprint, a humiliating
comedown from his initial vision of the magazine. Though many
new talents were contributing to Puck, in truth, the magazine had
lost its spark. In June Straus sold out to William Randolph Hearst,
an ironic twist in the history of a magazine that had previously
vilifed Hearst and his brand of journalism. Under Hearst's
management the new Puck emphasized covers with patriotic
themes. Most notable during this period was a series of scathing anti-
German cartoons it published by the great Dutch cartoonist Louis
Raemaekers. Hearst converted Puck into a monthly in March 1918
and then killed it in September, transferring its good name to the
Sunday comic section of his many newspapers.
In its illustrious career Puck published 2,121 numbered issues
in 81 volumes. Te Literary Digest, on September 7, 1918, printed
an appropriate epitaph: Puck had no real rival in its best days. Fallen
from its fne estate, it has lef no successor.
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PUCKS FIRST DEBUT
Puck began as a German-language humor magazine
intended for German-Americans. It quickly attained a
circulation of about twenty thousand, a robust figure
for an American foreign language publication, and
maintained it for most of its run. It was published
for twenty-one years, until August 1897.
ARTIST: JOSEPH KEPPLER
German edition, September [27], 1876,
Vol. 1, No. 1, cover.
1
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A STIR IN THE ROOST
This stylish cartoon graced the cover of the first issue
of the English-language Puck. Notably, Thomas Nast,
the most famous cartoonist of the day, stands apart
and in front holding a copy of Harpers Weekly. Frank
Leslie, Keppler and Schwarzmann's former employer,
is the fat hen on the left, firmly in control of his brood.
ARTIST: JOSEPH KEPPLER
English edition, March 14, 1877,
Vol. 1, No. 1, cover.
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PUCK SENDS HIS COMPLIMENTS TO
MR. NAST ONCE MORE!
Puck enjoyed needling Thomas Nast. Wales perfectly
mimicked Nast's style in this back cover spoof that
skewered the famous Harper's Weekly cartoonist for
his labored drawing technique and painful use of puns.
ARTIST: JAMES A. WALES
June 4, 1879, Vol. 5, No. 117, back cover.
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A MID-SUMMER DAYS DREAM
While our artist sleeps, his favorite subjects are left to do justice to themselves, and to correct his conceptions.
In this self-portrait Joseph Keppler naps while his victims do justice to their own portraits. The humor is found in the
contrast between Keppler's caricatures and the inflated fantasies purportedly drawn by the subjects themselves.
ARTIST: JOSEPH KEPPLER
August 10, 1881, Vol. 9, No. 231, centerspread.
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PUCKS ANNUAL
Pucks Annual, an elaborate almanac for the year,
was published from 1880 to 1887.
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PUCK ON WHEELS
Puck on Wheels, a mid-summer entertainment intended
for the vacationing crowd, was published from 1880 to
1884 and once more in 1886 and was then replaced by an
expanded regular issue entitled "The Mid-Summer Puck."
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PICKINGS FROM PUCK
The success of Puck's Annual and Puck on Wheels
prompted Keppler and Schwarzmann in 1883 to
begin publishing handsome compilations of
cartoons and stories that had already appeared
in the magazine. Initially issued erratically,
Pickings from Puck became a quarterly in 1891
and continued to be published into the teens.
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PUCKS LIBRARY
The demand for Puck 's humor seemed unquenchable.
In July 1887 Keppler and Schwarzmann launched
Puck's Library, a monthly magazine free of political
references that reprinted cartoons and jokes around
specific themes, the first issue being devoted to
baseball humor. It became Puck's Monthly Magazine in
1905 and continued to be published for another decade.
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THE RETURN OF "THE PRODIGAL FATHER" TO THE PUCK OFFICE
Keppler announced his return from a six-month European vacation with this lively cartoon of his reception. Puck 's other
cartoonists, Opper, Gillam, and Graetz are on the viewer's left, while the editors are clustered on the right. Editor Bunner
comes in for the roughest treatment he is depicted as a goat rummaging through the trash for contributions.
ARTIST: JOSEPH KEPPLER
October 10, 1883, Vol. 14, No. 344, centerspread.
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PUCKS POLITICAL HUNTING-GROUND HOW HE HAS MADE GAME OF THE POLITICIANS
Pucks high-water mark was the election of 1884 when its influential cartoons were generally believed to have made the
difference between victory and defeat for both major candidates. Here Puck the hunter gloats about the game it has hunted
down and bagged, most notably presidential candidate James Blaine (as a fox) gripped in the jaws of satire.
ARTIST: JOSEPH KEPPLER
January 14, 1885, Vol. 16, No. 410, centerspread.
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