JF Ptak Science Books Post 2581
Judge magazine (1881-1947) was a U.S. satirical weekly that for several decades published insightful/devastating political cartoons of the highest caliber. (Judge was a sort of knock-off of Puck magazine, started by writers and cartoonist/artists dissatisfied with that fine journal; Judge itself was done in in the same way after a fashion–Harold Ross, who served as editor of Judge for a few months in 1924 went off and started his own magazine, The New Yorker, which slowly and then rapidly cleaved away readership and talent from Judge until Judge was no more.)
It seems to me that when leafing through a volume for 1918 that Judge published more cartoons and sketches relating to World War I than cartoons for any war that I have seen in any magazine. I’m not that familiar with Judge relative to other magazines, and was very surprised to see that nearly every page has some sort of illustrated war content. In the issue for October 12, 1918–just four weeks before the end of the war–I found this image:
It is complex and at first looks to be very layered, but I think that it turns out to be not so, that it is flat, and uni-dimensional, and not very satirical–it is however very pointed, and barbed, and makes its case very quickly, in a sort of way that makes you begin to chuckle until you realize just what the content is. The work is by artist/illustrator/designer John (Johnny) Gruelle, who in the same year introduced the world to his creation of Raggedy Ann (patenting the design a few years earlier, in 1915, https://www.google.com/patents/USD47789.)
[The Judge was located at 225 5th Avenue, the Renaissance-style 13-story building converted into condos where the active selling price is about $2,670/sq foot1, or about 3.5 million/unit, somehow making this property worth a combined $600 million or so.]
The very next page comes this condemnation of the German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II, employing the very well worn “Ages of Man” scenario:
And just a few pages later, another interesting image, this one being another entry in this blog’s collection of images of the world used in advertising/cartoons:
There were many more war-related illustrations in these few dozen pages, with these three having the most appeal and greatest impact–pretty good stuff spread out over just two or so square yards of magazine pages.
Notes:
1. See http://streeteasy.com/building/the-grand-madison