Pickings from Puck's Vineyard

Hy Mayer arranges this double-page spread around a central conceit: dozens of faces clustered into a grape bunch, titled Pickings from Puck's Vineyard—the magazine harvesting its own cast of comic types. The surrounding vignettes are keyed to World War I's opening months: a composer agonizes over writing "a neutral war song that will enthuse everybody," and a two-panel strip mocks German soldiers unable to distinguish aircraft from Zeppelins. Domestic comedy fills the margins—an inspector-flooded shop, dinner-table utensil anxiety. The central bunch features exaggerated ethnic and racial caricatures standard to 1914 humor illustration. Mayer's fluid draftsmanship is evident throughout the page.