Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Our Animal ABC (Charles E. Graham & Co., circa 1900)

Another turn of the century ABC book which looks very much like a modern comic book.  Primers and spellers and the like don't get their proper due in the history of comics.

Terrific artwork, though the "X-mas" baby looks a little old for the part.  Interesting to see "X-mas" being used here, given the controversy associated nowadays with the abbreviation!













Lee

Monday, May 15, 2017

A dark reading of Jack and Jill (1878)!

From More Classics of Babyland (1878), one dark reading of the story of Jack and Jill!  We like to think of the middle-class folks of this era as genteel, but if this is any indication of their stance on corporal punishment, then... yikes.





Lee

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Illustrations for "Tale of a Comet" (1881)

Comic book-style illustrations (illustrator not credited) for J.T. Trowbridge's poem, "A Tale of a Comet," in the January, 1881 issue of Wide Awake magazine.


Thursday, April 27, 2017

More from Aesop's Fables (1884):

This is a follow-up to an earlier post.  Here's another chapter from this amazing 1884 children's volume, with superb (and mildly nightmarish!) art by Edmund H. Garrett.