The Judge, Vol. 6, No. 144

This satirical weekly's cover lampoons political corruption through caricature. A mustachioed figure hawking 'Tammany voters for sale or exchange' dominates the foreground, while suited men inspect signs advertising wholesale ballot-rigging and backaction repeaters. The Judge, a ten-cent humor magazine, descended directly from penny dreadfuls—cheap serialized weeklies that entertained working-class readers with exaggerated social commentary, melodrama, and grotesque imagery. The visual language—bold caricature, crowded panels, explicit labels—anticipated modern comics' narrative techniques.